Passing Tones and Neighbor Tones

The units so far have dealt almost entirely with chords themselves — what notes are stacked, how they are arranged, how they connect.

Check the melody of an actual piece against its harmony note by note, though, and a surprising number of notes turn out not to belong to the chord at all. Those are not mistakes. They are what makes a melody a melody rather than a sequence of chord tones.

Listen first

A melody of chord tones, and one with the gaps filled

▶Chord tones only▶Gaps filled

Check: The chord underneath is C (C–E–G) in both. The first leaps between chord tones only and sounds angular, like an exercise. The second fills in each gap with one note and moves smoothly, over the same unchanging chord. Every note that was added lies outside the chord.

C – E – G – E – C, all chord members

1. The idea of a non-chord tone

A melodic note that is not a member of the chord sounding at that moment is a non-chord tone, also called a nonharmonic tone.

The essential point is that a non-chord tone does not contradict the chord. A D sounding over a C chord leaves the chord as C. The D is treated as a note in transit and settles onto a chord tone in the next moment.

There are seven types in all, classified by three considerations.

Consideration	What to look at
Approach	did it arrive by step, by leap, or as a held-over note
Departure	does it leave by step or by leap
Metrical position	strong or weak beat (this decides intensity of effect rather than the classification)

This unit begins with the two whose approach and departure are both stepwise: the passing tone and the neighbor tone. Between them they account for roughly half of all non-chord tones in practice.

2. Passing tones — a stair between two notes

A non-chord tone approached by step and left by step in the same direction is a passing tone.

To get from C to E over a C chord without leaping, you pass through D. That D is a passing tone.

The figure contains two passing tones — D between C and E, and F between E and G. Passing tones can occur consecutively like this. Because a single note fills a third, the bare skeleton of chord tones acquires flesh.

Direction is free; ascending and descending both qualify. The only condition is that the approach and departure are both by step and the direction does not change.

Check

Over I in C major, a melody moves G4 to F4 to E4. What is F4?

appoggiaturaescape toneneighbor tonepassing tone

Check answer

3. Neighbor tones — step away, then come back

A non-chord tone that steps away and returns by step to the note it left is a neighbor tone, also called an auxiliary tone.

It differs from a passing tone on exactly one point: whether it comes back. Continue through and it is a passing tone; go and return and it is a neighbor tone.

A detour above is an upper neighbor, one below a lower neighbor.

Neighbor tones earn their keep when a single chord lasts a while. They let you decorate a melody while holding onto its axis note, in exactly the situation where the harmony is not moving.

Passing tones beside neighbor tones

▶Moving, with passing tones▶Staying, with neighbor tones

Check: Both sit over a C chord. The first climbs from C to G by stair steps and feels like it is traveling toward something. The second circles around E and feels like it is staying put. Same category of note — outside the chord — and opposite functions, moving versus remaining.

passing through, so it advances

Check

A melody moves C5 to B4 to C5 while the harmony holds F (F A C) throughout. What is B4?

neighbor tonechord tonepassing toneanticipation

Check answer

4. Where in the measure it falls

The classification depends only on approach and departure, but how strongly you hear it depends on metrical position.

A passing tone on a weak beat is nothing more than a waypoint between two chord tones. The ear passes over it almost without registering it.

Put one on a strong beat and the situation changes. A note foreign to the chord sounds at the head of the beat, exposing the dissonance plainly. That is an accented passing tone, and it can momentarily sound as though the harmony has changed.

A passing tone on a weak beat, then on a strong beat

▶Unaccented passing tone▶Accented passing tone

Check: The notes are identical; only their placement is swapped. In the first, chord tones start each beat and everything sounds settled. In the second, the passing tone starts the beat and the harmony clouds over for that instant. The same note, sounded at a different moment, carries a different amount of tension.

each beat begins on a chord tone

5. Across a change of chord

Non-chord tones also appear at the moment the harmony changes. What decides the classification is the chord sounding at the instant the note is played.

Take a move from I to V where the melody goes E4, F4, G4. The F4 sounds while I is still in force, so it is checked against C-E-G and found to be a non-chord tone. The following G4 sounds over V and is a member of G-B-D.

Identifying a non-chord tone therefore requires both the melody and the harmony. Neither on its own yields an answer. That is why the tool for this unit displays the two side by side.

▶ Check passing and neighbor tones in the labeling tool Load the passing tone and neighbor tone examples, then move a single melody note and watch the label change Nonchord Tone Lab →

Passing and neighbor tones are the mild non-chord tones, both approached and left by step. The next lesson takes up a different kind of approach: carrying a note over from the previous chord. A note held across a chord change stays under tension until it resolves, so it sticks in the ear far more than either of these two.