How do anticipations, escape tones, appoggiaturas and pedal points decorate the harmony?
Topic 6.3 Identifying Anticipations, Escape Tones, Appoggiaturas, and Pedal Points: recognize these embellishing tones by how they are approached and left.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 6.3, covering the anticipation (arrives early), the escape tone (step away then leap back), the appoggiatura (leap to an accented dissonance then step down), and the pedal point (sustained tone under changing harmony), each identified by its approach and departure, with a worked identification.
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What this topic is asking
The College Board (Topic 6.3) wants you to recognize four more embellishing tones, the anticipation, the escape tone, the appoggiatura and the pedal point, by how each is approached and left relative to the chord tones around it.
Anticipation and the leap-step pair
The escape tone and appoggiatura are mirror images: the escape tone steps in and leaps out, the appoggiatura leaps in and steps out. The appoggiatura is the more striking because it lands as an accented dissonance on the beat.
Pedal point
Unlike the other embellishing tones, a pedal point is not a quick decoration of a single line; it is a held anchor underneath shifting harmony, which is why it is identified by its sustained nature rather than by a leap or step.
Why approach and departure define the tone
The central idea is that every embellishing tone is classified by how it connects to the chord tones around it, not by which pitch it is. The same note could be a passing tone, an appoggiatura or an escape tone depending entirely on whether it is approached and left by step or by leap and on which beat it falls. This is why the course drills the approach-and-departure shapes: once you internalise step-in-leap-out (escape tone), leap-in-step-out (appoggiatura), early arrival (anticipation) and sustained anchor (pedal point), you can label any embellishment quickly in analysis and notate it correctly in dictation. It also guides composition: choosing an accented appoggiatura adds an expressive lean, while an anticipation adds forward momentum, and a pedal point creates large-scale tension. The decorations are a vocabulary of melodic gestures defined by motion.
Identifying these embellishments
To identify one of these tones, find the chord beneath it, confirm the note is a non-chord tone, then check how it is approached and how it is left. Leap-in and step-out on a strong beat is an appoggiatura; step-in and leap-out is an escape tone; an early arrival on the next chord tone is an anticipation; a sustained tone under changing chords is a pedal point.
Try this
Q1. How is an appoggiatura approached and left? [1 point]
- Cue. Approached by leap and left by step (usually down), landing as an accented dissonance on a strong beat.
Q2. What defines a pedal point, and on which scale degrees does it most often occur? [2 points]
- Cue. A single sustained tone held while the harmony above changes, most often on the tonic (degree 1) or the dominant (degree 5), usually in the bass.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2021 (style)1 marksSection I (multiple choice, written). A note is approached by leap and left by step down to a chord tone, and it falls on a strong beat as a dissonance. What is it? (A) anticipation (B) escape tone (C) appoggiatura (D) passing toneShow worked answer →
The correct answer is (C) appoggiatura.
An appoggiatura is approached by leap to an accented (strong-beat) dissonance and then resolved by step, usually downward, to a chord tone. The leap-in, step-out shape on a strong beat is its signature.
(A) an anticipation arrives early on the next chord tone and is usually on a weak beat. (B) an escape tone is approached by step and left by leap (the opposite of an appoggiatura). (D) a passing tone is approached and left by step in the same direction. The trap is confusing the appoggiatura and the escape tone; the appoggiatura leaps in and steps out, the escape tone steps in and leaps out.
AP 2023 (style)2 marksSection II (free response, harmonic analysis). A bass note is sustained on scale degree 5 while the upper voices move through V, I6/4 and back to V. Identify the sustained bass and explain its effect.Show worked answer →
A 2-point analysis question.
(1 point) The sustained bass on scale degree 5 is a dominant pedal point: a single tone held while the harmonies above it change.
(1 point) Its effect is to build tension and anchor the passage on the dominant, since the held bass keeps the dominant sounding even as the upper voices shift, often heightening expectation before a resolution to the tonic.
Markers reward identifying the held bass as a dominant pedal point and explaining that it sustains one pitch under changing harmony, creating tension and anchoring the dominant.
Related dot points
- Topic 6.1 Identifying Passing Tones and Neighbor Tones: locate passing and neighbor tones in a melody and distinguish them from chord tones.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 6.1, covering non-chord tones, the passing tone (stepwise between two different chord tones) and the neighbor tone (stepwise away from and back to one chord tone), accented versus unaccented placement, and telling them from chord tones, with a worked identification.
- Topic 6.2 Writing Passing Tones and Neighbor Tones: add passing and neighbor tones to a part-writing texture correctly and without creating parallels.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 6.2, covering how to add passing and neighbor tones to a four-voice texture, choosing where a third can be filled with a passing tone, decorating a static voice with a neighbor, and avoiding parallels caused by the embellishment, with a worked addition.
- Topic 6.4 Identifying and Writing Suspensions; Identifying Retardations: recognize and write suspensions by their three stages and number them (4-3, 7-6, 9-8, 2-3 bass), and identify retardations.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 6.4, covering the suspension and its three stages (preparation, suspension, resolution), the common figures (4-3, 7-6, 9-8, and the 2-3 bass suspension), how the dissonance resolves down by step, and the retardation (resolves up), with a worked suspension.
- Topic 5.7 Additional 6/4 Chords: identify and part-write the passing six-four and the pedal (neighbor) six-four as embellishing chords over a stationary or stepwise bass.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 5.7, covering the passing six-four (bass passes by step between two positions of a chord) and the pedal or neighbor six-four (over a held bass), how each is an embellishing rather than functional chord, the smooth voice leading they need, and contrasting them with the cadential six-four, with a worked example.
- Topic 4.2 SATB Voice Leading: apply the rules of range, spacing, doubling, smooth motion and tendency-tone resolution when writing four-part harmony.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 4.2, covering the four-voice ranges, the spacing rule (no more than an octave between adjacent upper voices), doubling guidelines, the ban on parallels and voice crossing, and resolving the leading tone and tendency tones, with a worked voicing.
Sources & how we know this
- AP Music Theory Course and Exam Description — College Board (2024)