voicing
theoryVOY-sing
The specific arrangement of notes within a chord, including their octave placement and spacing.
Voicing describes how the notes of a chord are distributed — which note is in the bass, how the remaining notes are spaced, and in what octave each note sits. The same chord (say, C major: C-E-G) can sound radically different depending on its voicing.
A close voicing keeps all notes within an octave. An open voicing spreads them across two or more octaves. A drop-2 voicing (common in jazz guitar) takes the second-highest note and drops it down an octave. Pianists, guitarists, and arrangers spend years developing their vocabulary of voicings, as the choice of voicing determines whether a chord sounds thick or thin, warm or bright, stable or tense.
Bill Evans revolutionised jazz piano voicings in the 1950s by using rootless voicings — chords without the root note, which the bassist provides. This freed the pianist's hands for more colourful harmonies.