By Corinne Bach
The Penultimate Mistake: People, Especially Musicians, Please Stop Doing This
“Penultimate” … 🤦🏻♀️
Wednesday WOW can sometimes be more like a “WOE is me.“
Am I the only one who cringes when someone uses this word to describe how something is even MORE ultimate than THE ULTIMATE…?
🚫 Second to last is NOT more ultimate than the ultimate!
Musicians use this word all. the. time.
To describe the second-to-last measure, leading tones, etc.
And it’s just a really awesome word… when used correctly!
Here’s a cool explanation of the use of the word in the context of music:
👉 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Dictionary_of_Music_and_Musicians/Ascending_Scale
🎯 The Big Takeaway (TL;DR)
“Penultimate” means second-to-last. Not more-than-ultimate.
Let’s keep our vocab sharp, singers. Especially when we’re talking theory, leading tones, and those juicy almost-final moments in music.
📎 Internal Links
- 💬 Watch more music theory rants on YouTube
- 🕊️ [Join the Singing Circle – click here]
📚 [Read another WOW blog post – click here]