The last review question of section 5.3 (Hooktheory I) mentions that the bass line ascends stepwise all the way from initial I6 to the cadence on V. Can someone kindly elaborate on the ‘ascends stepwise’ concept here? What is a ‘step’ here?
@Hachi , let me take a stab at this
‘Ascending stepwise’ refers to the major scale, ascending in order.
In the review question, the first chord of the song, I6, is in relative notation.
In the key of C, for example, this chord would be first inversion: C/E, C with E in the bass.
The bass of each chord that follows ascends from there i.e: E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G; past the root C, all the way to the cadential G. That’s a lot of ascending, which makes this a good example.
Note, the above refers only to the bass notes, the correct chords can be found in the Hooktheory book.
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Thanks for your explanation, smitchmor@. It really helped.