Tonessuch

Tonessuch is a coined term used in some discussions of auditory perception and music cognition to describe a hypothesized tendency to seek tonal information or tonal coherence in auditory input. In practice, it is used to discuss two related phenomena: a perceptual drive to detect tonal centers and harmonic relationships in music, and a cognitive bias toward predictability in prosody and sound design.

The term is a neologism introduced in speculative discussions of music cognition. In some explanations its form is taken as a blend of "tone" and a word implying craving or search, signaling a tendency to pursue tonal structure in perception.

Applications and examples include analysis of why listeners prefer songs with a clear tonal center, how film scores use tonal guidance to shape emotion, and how audio designers aim for predictable pitch contours in interfaces.

Critics note that tonessuch is not widely recognized in formal research and lacks a standardized definition. It risks conflating perceptual organization, reward learning, and cultural familiarity, making it difficult to test robustly.

See also: music cognition, tonal harmony, consonance and dissonance, auditory scene analysis, prosody.