Tendency Tones

The note DO is called the tonic, or home-pitch. Songs usually end on DO in the melody, with harmony to support it on pitches DO MI SOL.

In training to sight-sing, begin by training to hear and sing how each tendency note pulls or leans toward its corresponding arrival note.

The note TI often resolves to DO and the note FA often resolves down to MI. We call this scale degree tendencies- TI tends to go to DO and FA tends to go to MI. This is the result of several harmonic and melodic circumstances that will be explained much later.

To feel this, simply sing the scale ascending and try to stop on TI. You will notice that it feels like the top DO is needed to complete the idea. If you play piano, try stopping before the last note/chord of the piece and walk away. Anyone listing will object, and ask you to please play the last DO of the melody.

Practice the melodic fragment prompts provided on each exercise. Some of these prompts have piano harmony to help bring out the tendency tones. Feel how TI pulls towards DO. Think of it as ‘pulling’ or ‘leaning into’. Feel the same ‘pull’ or ‘lean’ as you sing FA going to MI, particularly with the provided harmony.*

As you do the exercises, sing the fragments between every example, and use it to determine if you are on that note that is ‘pulling’ or ‘leaning’, or if you are on the note of resolution- the resting place where you arrive after moving off the pull/lean.

Practice with these buttons now, but be sure to also do them repeatedly during your exercise work.

You can both feel FA MI and establish the whole scale by singing the fragment FA → MI, RE, DO.

* TI can almost always be felt as having tendency (pull) towards DO, even in contexts in which it doesn’t go there. While FA often feels tendency towards MI, there are some circumstances in which it does not. However, for the purpose of developing your sight-reading skills, practicing the tendency and developing your skill with it is a critical step.

Re‘pulls’, ‘leans’, and has tendency to resolve to DO most strongly, but can also move to MI. While learning to hear RE’s place in the scale, begin by focusing on its tendency to move to DO.

Similarly, begin to hear LA by feeling its pull towards SOL.

Practice singing RE→DO and LA→SOL now, and be sure to also sing it whenever it is presented as a prompt in your exercise work.