Harmony & Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives & Melodic Devices

What this unit covers

The topics below follow the published Music Theory course framework for Unit 6. Music Theory publishes no per-unit weighting, so there is no percentage to chase here.

Lessons in this unit

• Non-Chord Tones14 min · 3 objectivesDefine non-chord tones and relate them to the prevailing harmony · Identify passing tones, neighbor tones, and suspensions by approach and resolution · Distinguish appoggiaturas, escape tones, anticipations, and pedal points
• Motives & Melodic Devices13 min · 3 objectivesDefine a motive and explain how it generates melodic material · Identify sequence, imitation, and transposition · Recognize inversion, retrograde, augmentation, and diminution

Formulas in Unit 6

Every term in Unit 6

All 18 terms we publish for Harmony & Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives & Melodic Devices, with definitions. Reading them through is the fastest way to find the ones you cannot define — then drill those in cram mode until you can produce them without the prompt.

Passing tone

A non-chord tone approached and left by step in the same direction, filling a third. Unaccented normally; accented if it falls on the beat.

Neighbor tone

Approached and left by step in opposite directions, returning to the same pitch. Upper or lower depending on direction.

Suspension

Preparation, suspension, resolution down by step. Named by the intervals above the bass: 4–3, 7–6, 9–8, and 2–3 in the bass.

Retardation

A suspension that resolves UP by step rather than down. Most often 7–8 at a cadence.

Appoggiatura

Approached by leap and left by step, usually in the opposite direction, and typically accented. Its leap-in is what distinguishes it from a suspension.

Escape tone (échappée)

Approached by step and left by leap in the opposite direction. The mirror image of the appoggiatura.

Anticipation

A note that arrives before its harmony, unaccented, and is then absorbed by the chord. Very common in the soprano just before a cadence.

Pedal tone as embellishment

A held or repeated note through changing harmonies, dissonant against some of them. Distinguished from a pedal point only by register and duration.

Neighbor group (double neighbor)

Upper and lower neighbors used in succession before returning to the main note. Counts as one embellishment, not two.

Identifying non-chord tones in analysis

Determine the harmony first from the strong beats, then label everything left over by how it is approached and left. Labeling by ear alone produces phantom chord changes.

Motive

The smallest recognizable musical idea, rhythmic, melodic or both. Development of a motive is the usual subject of an analysis question.

Motivic transformation

Inversion turns intervals upside down; retrograde reverses order; augmentation lengthens; diminution shortens. Transposition moves the pitch level without changing intervals.

Fragmentation

Using only part of a motive, usually shortening as a passage approaches a cadence. Heard as acceleration and is a standard sentence-structure marker.

Ostinato

A short pattern repeated persistently, usually in the bass. Ground bass and basso ostinato name the same device in Baroque contexts.

Melodic embellishment in performance

Trills, mordents, turns and grace notes. The AP exam expects them to be recognized in a score and heard, not improvised.

Text painting

Music that depicts the meaning of the words — rising lines on "ascend", a dissonance on "pain". Standard in Renaissance and Baroque vocal writing.

Melodic minor in melody writing

Raise 6 and 7 when the line ascends toward the tonic; use natural minor when descending. Applying harmonic minor to a melody produces the augmented second the rule exists to avoid.

Composing a melody: what is scored

A clear tonic at start and end, a shape with one high point, mostly stepwise motion with leaps resolved by step in the opposite direction, and a rhythm that fits the meter.

What examiners penalize here

• When analyzing, first spell the underlying chord, then circle every melody note that is **not** in it. For each, mark the approach and departure. The classic 4–3 and 7–6 **suspensions** are frequent exam targets — look for a tie or repeated pitch that becomes dissonant and then falls a step.
• In fugue and imitative-texture questions, the **subject often reappears in augmentation, inversion, or both**. When you spot a familiar contour that is slower, upside down, or backward, name the specific transformation — that precise vocabulary is what earns the analysis point.

Practice Music Theory

Our practice bank is drawn from across the whole course rather than filtered to one unit, which is closer to how the exam asks anyway — it will not tell you which unit a question is testing.

Questions about this unit

All 8 units of AP Music Theory

1. Unit 1 · Music Fundamentals I: Pitch, Major Scales & Key Signatures, Rhythm, Meter
2. Unit 2 · Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales & Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre & Texture
3. Unit 3 · Music Fundamentals III: Triads & Seventh Chords
4. Unit 4 · Harmony & Voice Leading I: Chord Function, Cadence & Phrase
5. Unit 5 · Harmony & Voice Leading II: Chord Progressions & Predominant Function
6. Unit 6 · Harmony & Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives & Melodic Devices
7. Unit 7 · Harmony & Voice Leading IV: Secondary Function
8. Unit 8 · Modes and Form