leading tone

[ lee-ding ]

/ ˈli dɪŋ /

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noun Music.

the seventh degree of a diatonic scale; subtonic.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

Also called leading note .

Origin of leading tone

First recorded in 1910–15

Without getting too technical, the mixolydian is a type of major scale in which the leading tone—used relentlessly in pop music to build tension and yearning—is replaced by a flat seven.
Why Lorde’s Solar Power Is a Pop Oddity|Andrew R. Chow|August 23, 2021|Time
In the last measure but one, both the supertonic and leading tone should appear.
A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons|Friedrich J. Lehmann
The embellishment is treated in the same way, but is most effective when the principal tone is the leading-tone, as at b.
A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons|Friedrich J. Lehmann
Here the leading-tone that is prepared skips to some other chord-tone, while the new leading-tone remains stationary.
A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons|Friedrich J. Lehmann

The resolution to the leading-tone (d) forms an important exception to this rule.
A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons|Friedrich J. Lehmann
Thus the color which was the leading tone of one room became the relieving tint of another.
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau|Honore de Balzac