BookatlasPiano Rabbit Hole: Improvisation Theory & Practice
8528 / 18210 · Workshop 69 — Chord-Melody Architecture: Four-Way Close, Drop-2, Block Chords, Melody on Top, Inner-Voice Logic, and Turning a Single Line into a Piano “Section”← prev⊞ allnext →

69.1Melody has absolute priority

Take a melody note:

G

over C major.

Your first responsibility is:

G must remain clearly audible as melody.

Everything underneath is subordinate.

So if you voice:

C-E-G

and strike E much louder than G,

the theoretical voicing may be correct—

but the arrangement has failed.