Inversion (music) - Pitch Axis

This article is about the central pitch of an inverted melody. For the most important pitch of certain types of chord progressions, see pitch axis theory.

In jazz theory, a pitch axis is the center about which a melody is inverted.

The "pitch axis" works in the context of the compound operation transpositional inversion, where transposition is carried out after inversion, however unlike musical set theory the transposition may be chromatic or diatonic transposition. Thus if D-A-G (P5 up, M2 down) is inverted to D-G-A (P5 down, M2 up) the "pitch axis" was or will be D. However, if it is inverted to C-F-G the pitch axis is G while if the pitch axis is A, the melody will invert to E-A-B.

Note that the notation of octave position may determine how many lines and spaces appears to share the axis. The pitch axis of D-A-G and its inversion A-D-E will either appear to be between C/B♮ or the single pitch F.