Crossed Voices Error

A Crossed Voice error occurs when two parts cross.

Description

When part-writing, two individual parts should never cross each other. For example, at no point should the soprano line drop below the alto line. Doing so creates confusion over which part is which and damages the independence of the musical lines.

Example

In the image above the alto and tenor have crossed, resulting in a crossed voices error.

Additional Notes

Due to the nature of notation software, it is actually very difficult to create these errors. As a result, the software only finds these errors when the alto and tenor cross. Fortunately, when done on paper, these errors are very easy to spot.