What is a "leading tone"
 

Not sure I can define it. Or fully understand what it is. just looking to clear up confusion, or maybe I'm making it too hard.

It's the seventh degree of a major scale.

It’s the note that makes you want to go ‘there’ rather than stay ‘here’ .

Or be "here" rather than stay "there"...;)

In my simple mind it's the notes one or two frets below the root note of the chord that will played next.

and harmonic minor. ;)

It's when you're wife or girlfriend wants you to do something, but they don't want to come right out and say it.


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Good wife joke, I can relate. ;)

In order to be a leading tone by the textbook definition, it has to be one fret (a half step) below the other note. A note that is two frets (a whole step down) is technically called a sub-tonic.

Those darn textbooks make a liar out of me every time. :-)

So would a sub-tonic to a leading tone be a walk up? I'm just funnin it's just music.

There is an old story (I'm sure that it isn't true) that when Mozart was a very young child, his father would come into his bedroom early in the morning and approach his harpsichord across the room. He would then play, "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti" and then leave the room.

Agitated, Mozart would finally have to get out of bed to finish the scale, "Do!" That was his alarm clock. Ti is the leading tone. ;-)

Whereas his brother Groucho would get up, go to the piano, play "Sol La Sol Ta" and go back to bed.

A little off topic... but since you brought up solfege (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, etc) it might be interesting to note that American and Europeans use the solfege syllables differently. In America "Do" is always I (the numeral), what we call a moveable Do as it will always be the tonic in every key. In Europe "Do" is always C, Re=D, Mi=E, etc. It does not move regardless of the key.

It can be quite confusing at first when you are brought up on one and are trying to communicate with people that only know the other.

BTW - Ireland and the UK as well as other English speaking countries use movable 'Do', the rest of Europe and much of the world do indeed use a fixed 'Do'.