The te'amim, everywhere in the Hebrew Bible, provide continuity among verses as well as separation of verses. There are cross-verse connections that the accents create. This is not at all obvious if you are without the music, but it is quite obvious if you have the music. The rule is: if the first note is not the tonic, then the verse is continuing a thought or a story from what has been before it.
There are 36 psalms where the first note is not the tonic. All the others begin on an 'e'. In the score, it is easy to find these. Just search for the word 'psalms' and you will go from chapter to chapter and can observe the psalms where the first note is something else. These are the 36 - and they all ask the question - what came before this musical phrase that the psalm is continuing.
What are possible explanations? How is it that the whole Psalter begins on 'f'? Why is 9 saying something about 8? or 22 about 21? And so on. What do you think?
| Psalm | First Note |
| 1 | f |
| 2 | g |
| 9 | g |
| 22 | g |
| 40 | f |
| 48 | f |
| 60 | g |
| 66 | g |
| 70 | f |
| 83 | g |
| 88 | f |
| 89 | f |
| 91 | g |
| 95 | g |
| 96 | B |
| 102 | g |
| 108 | g |
| 109 | g |
| 111 | f |
| 112 | f |
| 113 | f |
| 115 | C |
| 116 | g |
| 122 | f |
| 124 | f |
| 127 | f |
| 130 | f |
| 131 | f |
| 133 | f |
| 135 | f |
| 137 | f |
| 139 | g |
| 147 | f |
| 148 | f |
| 149 | f |
| 150 | f |
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