Question about voice leading

[dominic94]

Hello, I would like to ask you about voice leading. Right now I am analyzing a lot of songs and I noticed that so many songs are written without following voice leading guidelines. For example all voices move similar motion, there are tons of consecutive 5ths and 8ves etc. I know that music is flexible and you can do whatever sounds good to you. But while I was analyzing others people music I found out that there are more songs that doesn't follow those guidelines than those who follows it. As I said in so many songs I find that for example in piano part there aren't contrary motion on, so many consecutives etc. Maybe I do not know something ?

Also another question, for example when moving from 4 part harmony to 5 part harmony or so, how does the voice leading works then ? I mean if you will move from 4 voices to 5 or even 6 voices you will have at least one voice which will lead to nothing.

Thank you

 

[bandcoach]

if you use simple block voices then voice leading generally doesn't come into the equation

most voice leading rules are derived from a time where melodic lines ruled supreme, so voice leading was important to ensure that melodic lines remained clear and singable. The same is not true for a piano part

when moving from a smaller number of voices to a larger number of voices the new parts grow out of the existing melodic lines, creating their own paths based on the "rules". and when you do the opposite (large number to smaller number) they again follow the path that logically continues their melodic idea...