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.