Which scale degrees are tendency tones

Tendency tones are notes with in the key that must resolve in a specific direction. These notes are the leading tones (7th scale degree), the seventh of the V7 (dominant seventh chord), and altered notes.

1. What is a tendency tone?
2. What scale degree is the strongest tendency tone in tonal music?
3. Is a leading tone a tendency tone?

What is a tendency tone?

noun. a tone that is harmonically or melodically unstable and tends naturally to resolve itself either upward or downward.

What scale degree is the strongest tendency tone in tonal music?

The subdominant almost always resolves down to scale degree 3. Aptly named, the leading tone is likely one of the strongest tendency tones in Western tonal music, as it naturally wants to resolve to the tonic pitch, scale degree 1.

Is a leading tone a tendency tone?

In diatonic harmony, tendency tones tend to be one of two things: The leading tone, which has a tendency to resolve up to tonic (especially when in an outer voice), and. Chordal sevenths, which have a tendency to resolve down by step (no matter what voice they're in).