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In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale (the first note of a scale) and the tonal center or final resolution tone [1] that is commonly used in the final cadence in tonal (musical key-based) classical music, popular music, and traditional music. In the movable do solfège system, the tonic note is sung as do.
Put another way, it is the key whose tonic is the dominant scale degree in the main key. [8] If, for example, a piece is written in the key of C major, then the tonic key is C major and the dominant key is G major since G is the dominant note in C major. [9] "Essentially, there are two harmonic directions: toward I and toward V.
The concept of harmonic function originates in theories about just intonation.It was realized that three perfect major triads, distant from each other by a perfect fifth, produced the seven degrees of the major scale in one of the possible forms of just intonation: for instance, the triads F–A–C, C–E–G and G–B–D (subdominant, tonic, and dominant respectively) produce the seven ...
by the English name for their function: tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, subtonic or leading note (leading tone in the United States), and tonic again. These names are derived from a scheme where the tonic note is the 'centre'.
In this final dominant-to-tonic progression, the leading tone normally ascends by semitone motion to the tonic scale degree. [14] A dominant seventh chord always consist of a major triad with an added minor seventh above the root. To achieve this in minor keys, the seventh scale degree must be raised to create a major triad on the dominant. [15]
A tonic chord has a dominant chord; in the key of C major, the tonic chord is C major and the dominant chord is G major or G dominant seventh. The dominant chord, especially if it is a dominant seventh, is heard by Western composers and listeners familiar with music as resolving (or "leading") to the tonic, due to the use of the leading note in ...
The key note, or tonic, of a piece of music is called note number one, the first step of (here), the ascending scale iii–IV–V. Chords built on several scale degrees are numbered likewise. Thus the chord progression E minor–F–G can be described as three–four–five, (or iii–IV–V). A chord may be built upon any note of a musical scale.
Thus, the twelve tones of the chromatic scale are identified in a two-part system of categorisation: each tone is a member of a four note axis (tonic, dominant, and subdominant); each tone is part of a branch within that axis that is either the principal or secondary branch of that axis; and each branch consists of a pole and counterpole. [3]