• Must start with a perfect interval (PP, P5, P8)
• In the middle of phrases imperfect consonances prevail (3,6)
• Must end with a perfect interval
• No augmented or diminished intervals
• No parallel octaves or fifths
• Octaves are approached only by contrary or oblique motion (usually stepwise)
• No direct fifths
  • Top voice must step into a perfect fifth when using parallel motion
  • Fifths can be approached by contrary motion
  • 5-6 technique is good fifth usage
• Clausula vera must appear at cadences (6-8, 3-1, 10-8)

• White-Note Rules
  • Dissonance is always handled by step
  • The only allowed dissonant white note values are minums
• White-Note Dissonances
  1. Suspensions
     • The dissonance must occur on a strong beat (1 or 3)
     • The dissonance is always approached by common tone (oblique motion)
     • The note becomes dissonant against another (moving) voice by suspending it into the strong beat
     • Suspensions always resolve downward by step
     • Suspensions are usually "tied" into the strong beat, but occasionally the suspension is a repeated note
     • 7-6 and 2-3(bass) suspensions are common, try avoiding 4-3 suspensions in two-voice textures, 9-8 is never used in two voices
  2. Passing tones
     • The dissonance must occur on a weak beat (2 or 4)
     • The dissonance is always approached by step
     • The motion into the dissonance must occur against a stable voice (semibreve)
     • Passing tones always resolve by step in the same direction they were approached
     • The other voice can move during the resolution (but not the dissonance)
     • Downward passing tones are much more common than upward passing tones

• Semiminum Rules
  • Dissonance is always resolved by step (except for the cambiata)
  • Semiminum dissonance is almost always on the weak half of a beat
• Semiminum Idioms
  1. Passing tones
     • Unaccented PTs can occur on the weak half of any beat
     • Same guidelines as for minims (see above)
  2. Accented passing tones
     • Accented passing tones are less common than unaccented passing tones
     • Accented passing tones appear only on weak beats (2 or 4)
     • Accented passing tones always resolve down (by step), never up
  3. Neighbor Tones
     • Neighbor figures can occur on the weak half of any beat.
     • The dissonance is always approached by step and resolved by step in the opposite direction (returning to the original note)
     • An upper neigbor figure can never be dissonant (5-6-5 is allowable)
  4. The Portamento (the Anticipation)
     • Anticipations occur only on the weak halves of the strong beats (1 and 3)
     • The dissonance is always approached by step and resolved by repeated common tone
     • Always uses descending motion, never ascending motion
  5. The Nota Cambiata
     • The cambiata can occur on the weak half of any beat
     • The dissonance is always approached by descending step, and left by the descending leap of a third
     • The leap is always balanced, almost always by upward step
     • This is the only figure in 16th-century style where a voice leaps from a dissonance

• Fusa Rules
  • Fusas always appear in pairs
  • Fusas always appear on the weak half of the beat.
  • If the first fusa is dissonant, it must resolve down
  • If the second fusa is dissonant, it can go either up (if it is a neighbor tone) or down (if it is a passing tone)
• Fusa Idioms
  1. Neighbor Tones (common after suspensions and syncopations)
  2. Passing Tones (not as common)

Other general rules: