I wrote a jazz melody with some chords. Is it important to add the correct voicings of the backup chords...?

Question

...relating to the lead melody or should everything be okay if I use the right chords in any voicing?

Answer 1

criminy - having the correct voicing can make a particular passage quite tasty. I personally wont be satisfied if the voicing is way too vanilla.

Answer 2

What exactly do you call voicing? It is important that the notes in the vocal melody are appearing in, or at least are compatible with the current chord; that is, if your base chord is E, and your vocal sings an Eb, then you have to adapt the chord to be Emaj7 so as to agree with the main note. Now, that doesn't apply to rapid lines wheere notes last under 1/8, so if you have a vocal line over Dm that quickly goes like f-e-d-c-Bb-a, you could stay in Dm all the while. You could - and Joe Pass played like that - change chords for every note, that is skill extraordinaire, if you can pull it off.