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<\/a><\/p>\nAlmost all the music you hear — pop, rock, classical —\u00a0has 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<\/em> of Do Re Mi. When you call a scale “G Major,” or say that a song is in the key of G, the G is the tonic.<\/p>\n A single note means little by itself. But when it’s considered in relation to the tonic, it acquires meaning. The examples in yesterday’s post<\/a> show how a note changes character when played against different tonics.<\/p>\n The tonic establishes the framework for the rest of the notes in a piece. It’s the anvil on which the music is forged.<\/p>\n The tonic can be any note. When you tune your guitar by the campfire, without a tuner, just tuning it to itself, you’ve chosen a reference frame that will make perfect sense, regardless of whether it’s the same frame as a piano or orchestra back home. You can happily play great music in the key of G-and-a-half, if you’re playing solo.<\/p>\n Once you’ve established the tonic, the rest of the notes are tuned, and named, relative to that note. The tonic is the center, the Big Bang<\/a>\u00a0of that particular musical universe. The rest of the structure comes from the interplay between the tonic and small, whole numbers — mainly 2, 3, 5 and 7.<\/p>\n The tonic is Home. The lattice shows how music is a journey, away from home and back again, through different lands, each with its own scenery and feeling.<\/p>\n