Examples of leading tone in a Sentence
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Steel guitarist Justin Schipper slid a bundle of leading tones into the mix during overdubs that knit the production together.
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Tom Roland, Billboard, 7 Feb. 2024
And then leading them with all those leading tones force the singer to sing.
—Jordan A. Rothacker, SPIN, 20 Dec. 2023
There’s no leading tone of B.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2021
Without getting too technical, the mixolydian is a type of major scale in which the leading tone—used relentlessly in pop music to build tension and yearning—is replaced by a flat seven.
—Andrew R. Chow, Time, 23 Aug. 2021
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Tom Roland, Billboard, 7 Feb. 2024
And then leading them with all those leading tones force the singer to sing.
—Jordan A. Rothacker, SPIN, 20 Dec. 2023
There’s no leading tone of B.
—Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2021
Without getting too technical, the mixolydian is a type of major scale in which the leading tone—used relentlessly in pop music to build tension and yearning—is replaced by a flat seven.
—Andrew R. Chow, Time, 23 Aug. 2021
Cite this Entry
“Leading tone.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leading%20tone. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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