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What Is a Leading Tone?

What Is a Leading Tone?

The leading tone is the seventh scale degree when it sits just one half step below the tonic. In C major, it's B. Play a C major scale and stop on the seventh note — the strain you feel is the leading tone doing its job: leading your ear up to C.

The engine inside the V chord

The leading tone is a big part of why the dominant chord pulls so hard: the V chord's third is the leading tone (in C major, the G chord contains B), so every V–I cadence rides that half-step resolution up to the tonic. Voice-leading-wise, it's the most predictable note in harmony: the leading tone wants to rise.

Why minor keys cheat

Natural minor has a flat seventh — a whole step below the tonic (G in A minor). That gentler note (the "subtonic") doesn't lean, which robs minor keys of a strong V–i pull. The fix is harmonic minor: raise the seventh back to a half step below the tonic (G♯ in A minor), manufacturing a leading tone and making the V chord major. That one alteration is the entire reason harmonic minor exists — full story in Harmonic Minor vs Melodic Minor.

For lead players, the leading tone is a classic chromatic approach note: land on the tonic (or any chord root) from a fret below and the resolution carries the phrase — the core move of target-note soloing.

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