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tonic

The home chord or note, where the music feels at rest.

Home. In any key, one note and the chord built on it feel like rest, the place a phrase can end and sound finished rather than left hanging. Every other note is heard in relation to it: leave the tonic and there is tension, return and there is resolution. In roman numeral terms it is I, the note the key is named after.

Learn it: Keys · Roman numerals

The one-sentence definition at the top is the same one the Theory Aide extension shows as a tooltip inside Ableton Live. Hover any dotted term for its own.