Weeks 11-12 · harmony · non-tonic consonance
Sing a note that fits the drone — but isn’t the drone.
The rule
pass: land a triad tone (±60¢) on 7 of 10
The thick grey line is the held tonic drone. Above it, emerald ±60¢ bands mark the safe triad tones — the 3rd and the 5th. Each dot is one trial; emerald lands inside a band, grey misses. Unison with the drone doesn’t count — the whole exercise is about producing a different pitch that consonates. The failure mode here is tonic-pull: your voice slides toward the drone instead of holding its harmony.
Hear it first
Drone alone, then drone + sung 3rd, then drone + sung 5th. Notice the “sweet ring” — beats lock up when you’re in tune with the drone. That ring is what your ear should chase.
What’s happening.Singing a note that’s notthe one you’re hearing is one of the hardest motor-coordination tasks in the curriculum. The auditory system wants to mirror — that’s what unison-with-guide rewards. Here we’re reversing that drive. Trained harmony singers can hold a 3rd or 5th against a sustained drone within 20¢ for 5+ seconds; untrained singers drift toward unison within 1–2 seconds.
Why triad tones, not any pitch. Major-triad tones — root, 3rd, 5th — share strong harmonics with the tonic. They lock intothe drone’s overtone series; you can hear when you’re in tune because the beats disappear. Any other pitch class would create dissonance, and the test would become “tolerate the beating” rather than “find the consonance.” ±60¢ is wider than degrees-against-drone (35¢) because we’re grading category (did you land a triad tone) more than tuning precision.
Why this is the bridge. Choral harmony, vocal duets, recording your own backing parts — all require sustained non-unison singing. This is the first lesson that demands it. Without this skill, song-from-memory in a group setting collapses into unison-with-others, and a-cappella-resolve-tonic has no harmonic vocabulary to work from.
Session ahead
10 trials · drone holds the tonic · sing any triad tone (root, 3rd, or 5th) in any octave · hold 2.0s within ±60¢ · 7/10 promotes.