Week 14 — Readings & Resources · Melody and Non-Chord Tones

Course: MUS 156 Music Theory I · Kenosis College
Instructor: Professor Hemsworth
Unit: Learning Unit 14 of 16 (Week 14) · two sessions per week
Your primary reading is the Week 14 chapter (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the way you'd open any link a friend sent you. Nothing to buy, download, or sign into.

The load is light on purpose: six links, grouped by the unit's three big ideas. One item per group is plenty; all six is thorough. If a link disagrees with the course on a convention, the course convention in the Week 14 chapter wins. One dialect note for the week: several sources say "nonharmonic tones" or "embellishing tones" where this course says non-chord tones — three names, one family. And some go past our six members into cousins we deliberately skip (retardations, pedal points, double neighbors) — interesting, beyond this course by design; skim past them guilt-free.

① The family — all six, named and diagrammed

Maps to the chapter's NCT sections and Session 1's Segments 3–5.

• Embellishing Tones — Open Music Theory — the clearest published walkthrough of the whole family, with a summary table of how each tone is approached and left — exactly the entrance/exit interview the chapter teaches. Covers a few cousins beyond our six; skim those. (reading, ~15 min)
• Nonharmonic Tones — musictheory.net — the same ground as an animated click-through lesson: short, visual, self-paced, one tone type at a time. Their "nonharmonic" is our "non-chord." (interactive lesson, ~6 min)

② The suspension — hold, lean, release, and the figures

Maps to the chapter's suspension section and Session 1's Segment 4.

• Embellishing Tones — Open Music Theory (classic edition) — the older, tighter OMT page, and the best free treatment of the suspension's three phases with the figures named the way this course names them: 9–8, 7–6, 4–3, resolving down by step. Read it after the chapter and the hyphen will feel inevitable. (reading, ~10 min)
• 7.3 Embellishing Tones: Tutorial — Comprehensive Musicianship (Iowa State) — a second full tour with notated examples for every type, ending with exactly this unit's studio exercise: find the NCTs in music you already play, and compare a piece with and without its embellishments. Includes cousins we skip (pedal tones, retardations) — enrichment only. (reading with examples, ~12 min)

③ Hear it — the fills in real melodies

Maps to session 1's ear-first opener and the studio's fill hunt.

• Dr. B Music Theory Lesson 24 (Non-Chord Tones) — YouTube — the family played and explained at the keyboard, one tone at a time, so you can hear each entrance and exit the chapter diagrams. Watch for the suspension demonstration — the hold-lean-release is audible before it's explainable. (video, ~15 min — turn captions on with the CC button)
• Celtic Woman — Danny Boy (official video) — YouTube — the studio's contour tune, sung. Listen once with your hand in the air tracing the shape: feel where the climax lands (once), and catch how many of the singer's most expressive notes are leans and early arrivals — the exact moves this unit names. (listening, ~4 min)

Pick-one quick path (≈15 min total)

Short on time this week? You've read the chapter — then do exactly these two:

1. Click through Nonharmonic Tones on musictheory.net in group ① — one pass, just to see each tone animated.
2. Play Danny Boy in group ③ with your hand tracing the contour, and count the leans.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move pages. If a link fails, tell Professor Hemsworth and lean on the chapter in the meantime — it covers everything the quiz covers.