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You are here: Home / Questions / Chord tone VS passing and neighbour tones

Chord tone VS passing and neighbour tones

September 26, 2016 By

Forum › Chord tone VS passing and neighbour tones
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Antoine V asked 6 years ago

Hi Jon sorry if question be asked before an excuse me my english not so great.
Just want to make sure I understand correctly as I never before hear of neighbour tone.
So If I have only one chord for example in the bar and not two chords can I still use a neighbour tone? for example Lets say we are using a C chord, I will have a chord tone on the first accented beat so C, i then move to a D and then come back to C i have just used a neighbour tone right?
Or a neighbour tone can also be if you have two chords in the bar, one is a C chord and the other is an F chord, If I use a chord tone with the note C, then move to d but back to note C before I move on to the F chord does this still classify as neighbour tone? I know if I went straight to the F this will then be a passing tone yes?
I am getting a little confused when is it really a neighbour tone VS just a passing tone. I understand to be a neighbour tone you must go back to the note yes?
Thank you

1 Answers
0 Vote Up Vote Down
Jon Brantingham Staff answered 6 years ago

Antoine, you are correct in both situations. A neighbor tone is just a non-chord tone, that you move to by step, and then back to the original tone.

If C is a chord tone, for either 1 harmony in the measure or 2, then moving to D and back to C would make the D a neighbor tone.

If you were to move from C to D, and then E, D would be considered a passing tone.

Antoine V replied 6 years ago

Thank you Jon very much enjoying this site and will keep going

Sorry if missed this, but what is purpose of neighbour tone? is this from classical form? I never before hear of neighbor tone but i really like it makes for a very powerful melody, when you combine with passing and some chord tones 🙂

I like

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