Workshop 69 mini-test

1. What is the first priority of chord-melody voicing?

2. Why should melody notes such as 9 or 13 usually remain as extensions rather than be “corrected” into chord tones?

3. What is four-way close?

4. What is drop-2?

5. Why shouldn't every passing melody note automatically receive a new chord?

6. What is the difference between a chord change and a voicing change?

7. Why are 3rds and 7ths particularly useful underneath a melody?

8. When are block chords especially effective?

9. Why must block density be reduced when LH is already walking or playing stride?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 69?

Answers

1. The melody must remain unmistakably the top/foreground voice.
2. Because those notes often provide exactly the harmonic color that makes the voicing interesting; the accompaniment should support their function rather than remove it.
3. A four-voice texture with melody on top and three supporting voices packed relatively closely underneath, usually within about an octave.
4. Start with a four-note close-position voicing and move the second voice from the top down one octave, creating a more open spacing while preserving the chord and melody.
5. A passing melody note may be ornamental rather than a structural harmonic event; changing the actual harmony for every quick note can create excessive harmonic rhythm.
6. A chord change alters the harmonic/root/function relationship; a voicing change rearranges or recolors the same broader harmony.
7. They define chord quality and function efficiently, leaving the melody free to serve as root, chord tone, or extension.
8. At phrase endings, climaxes, shout-like passages, important repeated notes, and later choruses where increased melodic weight is desirable.
9. Walking/stride already contributes high rhythmic and textural density; continuous RH blocks can exceed the arrangement's complexity budget and obscure melody/groove.
10. Chord melody is fundamentally voice leading with a protected top voice—not the mechanical act of putting a full chord underneath every melody note.

The central lesson of Workshop 69 is:

When the melody becomes the top voice of a moving harmonic texture, you are no longer accompanying the tune—you are orchestrating it on the piano.