Characterizing the Number System | The Personality of Every Tone

Some things are so simple that they're said to not even need an explanation. You could say this about the number system in music. In any given key of music, there's a numeric sequence that starts on the 1st tone and ends on the 7th tone. That's a nutshell version of the number system. It's really that simple.

But that doesn't inspire a beginner to learn the number system. In fact, it doesn't really convey the number system as a useful tool in music at all. Every tone in a key of music has a personality. In this article, I want to share with you the character of the 7 different notes that a Major key of music consists of.

Why is this useful? Even though the number system is simple and important to learn for chord players at the piano, it's quite flavorless. In other words, they're just numbered tones. That's how most aspiring piano players (including myself when I was a beginner) view it.

By characterizing each tone in the number system, it gives you something to grab onto until you understand it well enough for it to become a very useful tool. So we'll be looking at these tones in the context of adding them to chords. Let's get to it.

We'll look primarily at the key of C Major but keep in mind that these characterizations apply to every Major key.

The 1st Also known as the tonic, the 1 tone is the first note in the key. The 1 chord is major and is built off of the tonic. This tone is home base of the key. This is also known as the resolution tone. Being named so because the end of a song will always go back to this note. It's the most stable tone in the key. Think of it as the leader in the family.

The 2ndThe 2nd is the root of the 2 chord which is minor. A 2nd is a color tone when you add it to a chord. You can add this tone to a Major chord and you have an add 2 chord. It transforms a plain Major triad or even an extended chord into a more interesting one.You can also suspend the 3rd for the 2nd and it creates a sus 2 chord. Think of the 2nd as that person in the family that has a colorful personality.

The 3rdThe 3rd is the root of the 3 chord which is minor. A third is a Major deal in a chord in that it signifies that the chord is Major. Without it you would just have a neutral chord. This gives the Major chord the happy sound they have.  Think of the 3rd as an important member of the family who's absence will be noticed if they don't show up.

The 4thThe 4th tone is the root of the 4 chord which is Major. It has an interesting character. To begin with, the 4th is never played in the same chord as the 3rd. They clash. They're in the same key and they're a half step apart. Think of them as two relatives in which you try not to put them in the same room together.

Because of this characteristic, the 3rd can be suspended to allow the 4th to take over in a chord. In this case, the chord will have an unresolved quality in which it wants to resolve back to the the 3rd.

If it doesn't it's resolved somewhere else to release this tension.  Think of the 4th as that member of the family that's good to come visit but not when certain others are around.

The 5thThe 5th tone is the root of the 5 chord which is Major. I would like to say it has an interesting character but it doesn't. The 5th is very consonant with the root (or 1 tone). In fact you can play them at the same time in the lowest registers of the keyboard and they don't clash with one another. It fills in the chord but doesn't add any color.

Think of the 5th as someone you may have worked with in the past. If they show up, you have another person on the job but they don't do very much. (sorry, no disrespect 5th)

The 6thThe 6th is the root of the 6 chord which is minor. It's a color tone just as the 2nd. It can be added with the 2nd to create a 6/9 chord (the 2nd can also be referred to as the 9th and is shown an octave higher).

It can also be added to the a Major triad to transform it into a 6 chord. It's very consonant with the 2nd (because they're a 5th interval apart). You can also think of the 6th as that family member with a colorful personality.

The 7thThe 7th is the root of the 7 chord which is diminished. Just like the 2nd and 6th, it's also a color tone. If you add it to the Major triad, you have a Major 7th chord. This really transforms the Major chord to a more sophisticated sounding one. The 7th also has a very important function as it's referred to as a leading tone.In other words, when you play it, it has an aural pull in which it's wants to move somewhere. That somewhere is back to the root (or 1 tone). It leads back to where the key of music starts. Think of the 7th tone as that good natured family member who always refers back to their spouse for support.