leading tone
- noun
- /ˈliːdɪŋ toʊn/
- Specialized
:
nota de conducción
- In the key of C major, B is the leading tone that strongly resolves to C.
Examples
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Soon, even in beginning ensembles, discussion may begin to take place regarding tuning the third of a triad or raising a leading tone.
Academic text (1998) -
We have the B, which is the leading tone, which wants to move up to C, OK.
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We said the yatum, the leading tone is important.
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And we're going to listen to minor melody with the leading tone thrown in that gives it this kind of exotic feel.
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The D goes back up to the E flat, which is the minor third G holds common tone and the leading tone B goes up to C the tonic there.
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Initially, patterns should contain the tonic note and strong key indicators, such as the leading tone and the seventh of the V chord.
Academic text (2006) -
That is the best way to help students use the tonic as a reference to identify the functions that constitute a key (e.g., dominant, leading tone, subdominant).
Academic text (2006) -
The leading tone creates tension in the melody, prompting the listener's ear to expect the tonic.
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During our music lesson, we studied how the leading tone leads to the tonic note in a scale.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound combines 'leading' (something that leads or directs) with 'tone' (a pitch), so a learner could reasonably infer it denotes a pitch that 'leads' into another note. However, the precise technical sense — the seventh diatonic note a semitone below the tonic and its specific resolving function in tonal music — is specialized and not fully predictable from the constituents, so learners would only have a vague idea without musical knowledge.
Etymology
Leading tone, from leading + tone, names the note that 'leads' into the 'main note'. It sits just below the 'main note', so it feels like it pulls toward that note and makes the music feel like it wants to move there.
