The Lattice

In 1739, the great mathematician Leonhard Euler published something he called a Tonnetz, German for “tone network.” It looked like this: Euler’s Tonnetz organizes the notes into a matrix, instead of a scale. Moving down and to the left represents motion by an interval of a fifth (V) in musical space. Down and to the right…

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The Tonic

The heart of the lattice is the note called 1. This note is the tonic. Almost all the music you hear — pop, rock, classical — has one note that is at the center, a master note against which all other notes are measured. That note is the tonic. It’s the Do of Do Re Mi….