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The way individual voices move from one chord to the next — the horizontal (melodic) aspect of harmonic progression.
Good voice leading means each voice moves smoothly and logically from chord to chord. Rules: keep common tones, move by step where possible, avoid parallel fifths and octaves, resolve leading tones upward and seventh-of-the-chord downward. Bad voice leading makes correct harmonies sound awkward.
Bach's chorales are the definitive study of voice leading — four voices moving smoothly through rich harmonic progressions with minimal leaps.
Voice leading is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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