Tonic
The first degree of a scale and the note or chord that acts as the home centre of a key.
The tonic is where music feels at rest, and almost everything else in a key is understood as a movement away from it and back. A piece usually begins and ends on its tonic chord, and the strongest resolution in tonal music is the dominant falling to it. For an improviser the tonic is the reference point for everything else, which is why players practise finding it quickly in every position on the neck rather than only in open position.
Example: A song in the key of A that keeps resolving to the A major chord is tonicising A, the tonic of the key.
See also
Related
- PageScale degree
- PageDominant
- PageCadence
- PageAugmented chord
- PageBlue note
- PageBlues scale
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley