<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Problems playing this file? See media help . </Td> </Tr> <P> In music theory, a leading - note (also subsemitone, and called the leading - tone in the US) is a note or pitch which resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading - tone, respectively . </P> <P> More narrowly, the leading tone is the seventh scale degree of the major scale, with a strong affinity for and leading melodically to the tonic (Benward and Saker 2003, 203). It is sung as ti in movable - do solfège . For example, in the C major scale (white keys on a piano, starting on C), the leading note is the note B; and the leading note chord uses the notes B, D, and F: a diminished triad . In music theory, the leading note triad is symbolized by the Roman numeral vii °, while the leading - tone seventh chord may be vii 7 or vii 7 . </P> <P> By contrast, an upper leading - tone (Berger 1987, 148; Coker 1991, 50), which leads down, may be found as the seventh of the dominant seventh chord (scale degree four), which leads to the third (degree three) of the tonic chord (in C: F of a G7 chord leads to E of a CM chord). The upper leading - tone may also be found above the tonic, on D ♭ in C . </P>

The leading tone in the scale of ab major is