Leading Notes and 7ths
Voice Leading Leading Notes The behaviour of the leading note is crucial to writing good harmony, and good compositions. The 7th degree of the scale is called the “leading note” …
Augmented and Diminished Intervals
Aug/Dim Melodic Intervals If the interval between one note and the next in a tune is an augmented or diminished interval, the interval is dissonant and needs to be treated …
Conjunct and Disjunct Motion
Conjunct Motion Stepwise movement is called “conjunct” movement and is the most common type of movement found in all styles of music. Conjunct movement is the easiest to sing, and …
Voice Leading
What is Voice Leading? The term “voice-leading” refers to the way a line of music moves up and down. (It is also sometimes called “part-writing”.) Voice-leading helps us to answer …
Writing Out Ornaments (ABRSM Grade 6)
The symbols for ornaments were introduced at grade 4. You should already be familiar with the trill, mordent, acciaccatura, turn, appoggiatura and grace notes. The task of “writing out ornaments …
Chromatic Decoration
Chromatic Passing Notes Chromatic passing notes are passing notes which do not belong to the current key. They normally occur between two notes which are a tone apart, filling in …
Pedals
A “pedal” is a note which is repeated or held for some time, while the chords around it change. Pedals are normally found on either the tonic or dominant notes. …
Changing Notes
The term “changing note” is used to describe a variety of non-chord note patterns. What they have in common is that the non-chord note is unaccented, and the figure employs …
Anticipations
An anticipation is an unaccented non-chord note which is an early sounding of the following chord note, which is then repeated within its own chord. For example, the soprano chord …
Appoggiaturas
Appoggiaturas are accented non-chord notes which move by step (up or down) to a chord note to resolve. In this example, the chord is C major. The note D is …