Question

Dare to Help A lost Child in Music?? :) Really Need Help!! Will Give Medal and Fan You!!

In the key of C, the D minor chord is the:
a. tonic
b. subdominant
c. mediant
d. supertonic

Answer 1

What instrument is it specifically for?

Answer 2

Its just for music class, any instrument I guess? And sorry, no one in music will help me :(

Answer 3

You might want to make sure you're in the music section next time you post a question like this. If not enough people see the question there, feel free to post a link to it in the chat windows. Thanks!

Answer 4

Well, if anyone here understands it, then its no big deal :) Please help if you can :)

Answer 5

Well, music isn't my forte (har har), but after a some wikipedia research, I think I can help on this one.

But first, can you describe to be what you've been taught about what tonic/subdominant/mediant/supertonic chords are? Perhaps you'll be able to think through the problem on your own.

Answer 6

Honestly the whole subject confuses me :( @KingGeorge

Answer 7

Alright, let's start with the tonic. From the way I see it, this is more or less the basis of the key. So in the key of *blank* the tonic would be the note *blank*. So clearly the D minor chord (since it is a chord, and not C) is not the tonic in this case.

Answer 8

Ok that makes sense..

Answer 9

The subdominant, the way I see it, is basically just the basic chord (C-E-G) just shifted so that the top note is C. So the subdominant would be F-A-C.

I'm a little more unsure of the correctness of using the term "shifting," but I think it works.

Answer 10

So, do you understand the question, given that one is to be shifted?

Answer 11

The mediant is what I'm least comfortable with. Quoting from wikipedia I get "The mediant is the third scale degree of the diatonic scale, being the note halfway between the tonic and the dominant."

In the key of C, the basic chord is C-E-G, so the tonic is C, and the dominant is G. Thus the mediant is E.

I understand the question well enough to know that subdominant cannot be correct. Moreover, this tells you that it can't be the mediant either. So we can conclude that the answer must be the supertonic.

Answer 12

Additionally, when we look at supertonic on wikipedia, it describes that the supertonic is the tonic, just shifted one step up. And one step up from C is D, which is exactly what we wanted. So we have verified that it must be supertonic.

Answer 13

Thank you so much!! Wow, you are are smart :)

Answer 14

Based on what you now know, what do you think this would be?

The __ triad is built on the second scale degree
a. mediant
b. submediant
c. supertonic
d. leading-tone

Answer 15

I thought it was supertonic, but now you have me guessing ahha

Answer 16

See how supertonic is the second on the scale?

Answer 17

I think it would be supertonic as well since the supertonic is a single note up from the tonic.

Answer 18

Good :) Thank you for all your help!!

Answer 19

You're welcome.

Answer 20

Yes! It was all correct :)