What Common Tones Are | How to Sound Great Using Them

If there's anything we can say about music, it's that it has a flow to it. The melody flows from one note to another. The harmony flows from one chord to another. Without this characteristic, a piece of music can sound very un-musical. One such element in music that has this property is common tones.

So what exactly is a common tone? A common tone is defined as a note that is shared by two or more chords. These chords are often in the same chord progression. It's an easy concept to understand.

The next question is what exactly are common tones used for?

The answer is that it provides a very smooth transition between chords. The opposite of which is an abrupt change in harmony that calls attention to itself. As I mentioned earlier, this can sound very un-musical.

So where do we begin with common tones? The best place to start is with diatonic harmony. In case you're not familiar, diatonic simply means within the key. So chords (or harmony) within a given key is the best place to start because common tones are found within them.

The key of C Major as an example consists of the these 7 different chords.Now for the chords that share common tones.

C is a common tone of C Major and F MajorD is a common tone of D minor, G major and B diminishedE is a common tone of C Major and E minor

F is a common tone of F Major and B diminished

G is a common tone of C Major and G Major

A is a common tone of F Major, D minor and A minorB is a common tone of G Major and B diminished

You'll find that the harmony of chord progressions contain these common tones for the purpose of progressing smoothly from one chord to another. So chord voicings (the arrangement of notes) are inclusive to common tones. You can also refer to voicings as chord inversions.

Let's say you have the following I IV ii V chord progression as the chords would appear simply in root position.

By trying to play this chord progression, you can see how abrupt the transition from each chord to the next would be. This isn't a good example of voice leading even though the common tones do exist. Playing chords in root position causes large movements in your right hand that creates a choppy sound.

Let's take this same chord progression and apply a better chord voicing that makes better use of common tones.  We'll also add bass tones for a more realistic and musical sound.

Moving to the key of G Major, let's look at one more chord progression with diatonic chords that contain extended tones in them. This is a more contemporary sound to showcase our common tones.