Leading-tone

$\new PianoStaff << \new Staff << \new Voice \relative c'' { \stemUp \clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4 \override NoteHead.color = #red b1 c } \new Voice \relative c'' { \stemDown g1 g } >> \new Staff << \new Voice \relative c' { \stemUp \clef bass \key c \major \time 4/4 d1 e } \new Voice \relative c' { \stemDown g1 c, \bar "||" } >> >>$

In this example, the leading tone of C major (B) resolves to the tonic (C) in a perfect authentic cadence.

In music theory, a leading-tone (also called a subsemitone, and a leading-note in the UK) is a note or pitch which resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively. Typically, the leading tone refers to the seventh scale degree of a major scale (), a major seventh above the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the leading-tone is sung as ti.

A leading-tone triad is a triad built on the seventh scale degree in a major key (vii^o in Roman numeral analysis), while a leading-tone seventh chord is a seventh chord built on the seventh scale degree (vii^ø⁷). Walter Piston considers and notates vii^o as V⁰
₇, an incomplete dominant seventh chord.^[1] (For the Roman numeral notation of these chords, see Roman numeral analysis.)

^ Goldman 1965, 17.

[FOOTNOTEGoldman196517-1] Goldman 1965, 17.

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