So, yall are saying that you don't keep the melody note on top when you're accompanying a singer/choir? For example, in the Key of C, if the melody note = E, you would play an inversion of a C major chord as C/CEG instead of C/GCE? Because I was always taught to keep the melody note on top, not for every chord of course, but at least for the majority of them. Most tutorials I watch have the melody note on top.
my teacher always told me, "Why?" And as i played more, i understood, as well as him explaining. A lot of time, the melody note is there to help the singer find the note, or have the note when there is no singer. But if you have a good singer, they know where to be without u playing that. My teacher plays with bands so he always had a band concept to playing. If you had a guitar or sax playing the melody, would you
still have to put the melody note on top? NOPE! So HOW is that any different than a singer? People often treat singers as different than instruments, when really, voice is just a different KIND of instrument.
I found out playing bass that i can do things such as
imply chords that arent really being played. For example if a straight major 7th chord is played, i can imply a major 9 by playing that 9 as the chord is being played or somewhere afterwards. Because you just hear the notes, you determine the chords by the combination of notes, not the instruments (kind of like a rootless voicing playing with a bass player). So switch up the roles, and i can play chords that DONT contain the melody note, and let the singer imply the chord by including that note. Although this is kinda hard for a less than average singer or one who DEPENDS on the melody note because they'll get lost. But this helps you throw variety in your playing. But then again, my playing is not as a tradition keyboardist, because i always have a bass and big band perspective and approach to music.
This is partially why you'll hear some folks sound different playing the same song in different keys: because they dont use the same inversions.