How to Listen for and Find the Tonic

Most of the time, every note in a Tonic Sense melodic phrase will be one of the notes in the major scale. You need to hear that scale in your mind, well enough that you can sing it. Therefore you need to identify the tonic -- Do, the first note of the scale -- so you can sing Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.

Sometimes the tonic is right there in the melody, but sometimes it's not -- you're just hearing a fragment that could be hanging out anywhere in the scale.

Here are some tricks that work. Try them in order, or try the ones that seem most relevant to what you're hearing.

Does the last note feel like home?

This is the first thing to check. Listen to the melody and pay attention to the last note. Does it feel finished? Like the song ended where it should? Then that's probably the tonic. Your ear knows what resolution sounds like even if you don't know the theory yet.

Here are some melodic phrases that end on the tonic:

And here are some that do not:

If the last note doesn't feel like home, move on to the next trick.

Do you know the song?

Sometimes you're listening to a phrase and you realize you know this tune. If you know the song, think it through to the actual end. That final resting note is almost certainly the tonic.

Listen for Sol up to Do (5-1), Sometimes (5-6-1)

A lot of songs start with Sol jumping up to Do. That's the 5-1 interval, and it's a very stable, "here we go" kind of opening. If you hear a fifth leap at the start of the melody, try assuming the higher note is the tonic and see if everything else makes sense from there.

Mi Re Do is everywhere (3-2-1)

Three descending notes that sound like they're settling down at the end -- that's probably Mi Re Do. Three Blind Mice does this. The phrase "three blind mice, three blind mice" is 3-2-1, 3-2-1.

If you hear three notes stepping down, even if the rhythm is wrong for three blind mice, check whether calling the third note Do makes the rest of the melody work out.

Mi Re Do is also very common at the end of songs, and helps confirm the last note is indeed the tonic.

Sol Fa Mi happens a lot too (5-4-3)

"See how they run" -- that's Sol Fa-Fa Mi. Those show up in melodies all the time. If you hear three notes stepping down but they don't feel like they ended on the tonic, maybe it's 5-4-3 instead.

Try both. Does the melody make more sense if you call the last note Do, or if you call it Mi? One of those will probably feel right.

La Ti Do has that leading tone (7-1)

If you hear two notes close together and one of them is a half step below the other, and the higher note sounds like home, that's probably Ti resolving to Do. The Ti-Do relationship is distinctive because of that half step. It sounds like it's pulling toward resolution.

Listen for the half step. That tight interval is your clue that you might be hearing the leading tone heading home.

A melody that has all those patterns, for you to memorize

I think of it as laying this tune over the melody I'm analyzing, and sliding it forward and backward to see if any of the patterns mesh up.

In a Tonic Sense lesson you can also click the links to play the major scale or tonic arpeggio, to give yourself extra clues.

Make up an ending

Here's one that works when nothing else does. Listen to the melody and the last note, then mentally try adding a few more notes to finish it off. Try going up from the last note, try going down. See what feels like it would make a good ending.

Whatever note feels like the right place to stop -- that's probably the tonic. Your ear knows where home is even when your brain doesn't.