4-part Writing

Tessitura

Alto

Tenor

Soprano

Bass

C4 - A5

G3 - C5

C3 - A4

E3 - C4

Wind instruments and voice
need to worry about high or low
tessituras while keyboards and
pitched percussion do not

Spacing and Doubling

Alto and Tenor need to be
within an octave of each other

There is no spacing rules for between Tenor and Bass

Soprano and Alto need to be
within an octave of each other

Double the root of the chord

Structure

Closed Structure

Open Structure

Upper three parts are written as close together as possible

One chordal tone is left unused between Soprano and Alto, and Alto and Tenor.

Bass has nothing to do with structure

Stems and Clef

Alto is written with down stems in treble clef

Tenor is written with up stems in bass clef

Soprano is written with up stems in treble clef

Bass is written with down stems in bass clef

Always Avoid...

Parallel perfect fifths and perfect octaves

Doubling the leading tone

Writing out of a voice's range

Melodic augmented seconds and augmented fourths

Try to Avoid...

Crossing voices

Exceeding an octave between Soprano and Alto, Alto and Tenor

Overlapping two adjacent voices more than a whole step

Move in the same direction to perfect intervals