Cadence in Music

Cadences.

A cadence is the bit of music that marks the end of a phrase, harmonically, rhythmically, or a combination of both. In this post we’ll look at the chords in the five basic harmonic cadences. These are Perfect, Imperfect, Plagal, Deceptive and Half Cadences.

Note: Remember that anything can function as a cadence – these are by no means the only cadences! They are simply the ones that have, for hundreds of years, been burned into the collective consciousness of western music. They’re the five that are the most recognizable, and when we hear them, they sound inevitable!

I’ll use the roman numerals for the chords and translate that to G major. At the end I’ll give you the examples in e minor. If you want to look at them in all keys, use this pdf!

The Perfect Cadence. Sometimes called Perfect Authentic Cadence

This is the cadence that’s most used. It is V – I or V⁷ – I. In G major that’s D – G or D⁷ – G. You might have a chord progression cooking along, G – am – C – bm – G – am – C – bm…. Then, out of nowhere comes G – am – D – G… and everything feels like it’s come to an end. That’s the cadence. Try it.

Imperfect Cadence.

The imperfect cadence is a lot like the perfect one. The chords are the same, or similar, but one or both are inverted and the V might be replaced with the vii^dim. It could look like V⁶ – I or vii^dim – I or V – I⁶ etc. In G: D/f# – G or f#^dim – G or D – G/b.

The Plagal Cadence.

This one is called the Amen Cadence by most choir singers. A lot of Christian music ends with this one. IV – I. In G it’s C – G. Usually, the rest of the music is similar to any other western music but at the very end we hear a big amen sung in the C and G. Try G – em – C – D – G – em – C – G. The last two chords are your amen!

The Deceptive Cadence.

This one is close to the Perfect except it ends on the relative minor. It looks like V – vi… That’s it. In G it’s D – em.

The deception is in the delivery. For instance, you might cycle through G – C – D – G a few times and at the end of the section play G – C – D – em. Try it!

The Half Cadence.

Again… This one is a lot like the perfect cadence, but it ends before we ever hear the I chord. Usually ending on V. An example is I – IV – ii – V. In G it’s G – C – am – D. Our western ears have been trained to hear a G following this. If you decide to end on the D and snub the 2^nd part we expect to hear, that’s a half cadence.

Here are the examples in e minor. The important chords are in bold. Notice that I use a B instead of bm. To build the V chord (in e minor, that’s the b) I’m using the harmonic minor scale.

Perfect Cadence. em – am – B – em.

Imperfect Cadence. em – am – d#^dim – em.

Plagal Cadence. em – C – am – E.

Yes… I end on an E major so I can hear the a note descend to the g#. Ending on the major while in a minor key is also called a picardy cadence.

Deceptive Cadence. em – am – B – C.​

Half Cadence. em – am – B.

Like I mentioned above, this isn’t the end of cadences. For example, if you run a cycle of  G – D – bm – G – D – bm – etc, we begin to expect the G to follow the bm making that a cadence. Use the above list as a guide in your own writing but definitely also use your ear. If it sounds good to you, use it!

 

If you want to show the world that you’re a music geek and proud of it, buy the cadence shirt from my redbubble store here!

Music Theory Is Your Prison

If you let it be.

There are some huge misunderstandings about music theory. The two that go hand in hand at the top of the list are 1) music theory is a set of rules that we need to follow and, as a result, 2) music theory kills creativity. If you ever believed either of these two ideas, thenyou need to radically change your relationship with music theory. The truth is that music theory can be one of your greatest tools as a musician, but first, you need to understand what it really is.

It’s called music theory. Not laws, not rules, but theory. The purpose of music theory has historically been to document what composers have done. This is why music theory is not necessarily solid and has changed dramatically over the years – as composers stretch beyond what has been done, the scope of music theory also grows, and many times, old ideas are discarded.

Music theory should serve you and not the other way around. As I mentioned above, theory could be one of the best tools a musician has – it can help us to understand what we’re paying more fully, and, as songwriters, help us to understand what’s been written before, what’s worked and not worked in the past to help us avoid continually reinventing the wheel!

Is music theory your prison? Try thinking of music theory as guidelines of ideas that have worked in the past. If the guidelines don’t fit what you have in mind, try something new and maybe someday someone will write a theory book about it!

Dissonance Makes It All Worthwhile

Dissonance is the most hated, least understood, and most important aspect of music. Simply put, dissonance gives music its purpose, much like the villain in a movie. There would be no movie without the villain – at least not a good movie. This is true for music too, though to varying degrees and depending on the purpose you have in mind. It also depends on your understanding of dissonance.

Let’s begin with the chord. One chord holds consonance and dissonance. A C major chord, for example is built within the frame of a perfect fifth, less consonant that an octave, but still considered a perfect consonance. The note nestled in between the C and G that make up the fifth is an E, which, in this context is still considered by many to be consonant, though the major third between the C and E, and the minor third between the E and G are less consonant that the fifth. For the sake of example, we will also consider the thirds consonant entities.

In the key of C, there are two other major chords – F and G. Let’s move now from the C to the G. The G chord is built with the same relationships as the C – its notes are G – B – D. Once the G chord sounds, it is the same kind of consonance as the C chord. However, in relationship to the C it causes dissonance! Though we can’t hear the C chord in the physical world, our minds hold it, creating an implied dissonance. It’s this tension which is mostly just in our heads that, in my opinion, gives music purpose.

If you played the two chords together, you would hear a nice clash between them, especially between the B and C notes, which is a minor second (or major seventh), the harshest of our tonal dissonances. Because it is only an implied dissonance when the two chords don’t sound together, it doesn’t hit someone who hates dissonance the wrong way. It does, however, create a musical longing to return to the C chord. Even more so if you add the seventh to the G chord.

It’s the dissonance that makes our ears return to that C chord throughout the course of a piece of music. In most of the popular forms of music today, the relationships are pretty simple. The song writer starts with a chord that they usually return to again and again. Good examples are the standard 4-chord songs we hear. in C the most popular is C – G – Am – F. Right away we hear implied dissonance between the C and G. Moving from G to Am adds even more dissonance, though the move to Am actually brings us closer to C because the two chords share two notes (C has C, E, and G and Am has A, C, and E). From the Am we move to F which, in relation to the C causes as much tension as the G but it shares two notes with the Am (F has F, A, and C). When we finally get to C you can feel the relief.

Try it yourself. Play the four chords in a row. First, stop on the F chord. Pay attention to what happens in your mind. Do you finish it in your head by thinking a C?

Next, play it again and this time, add a C chord after the F. How does this feel?

This is a simple exercise, though many people aren’t consciously aware of the pull dissonance has. The clearest example of tension and release is Bdim to C. Play the notes B and F together a few times followed by C and E. This will do it.

I’ve just scratched the surface – entire college courses could be taught about dissonance. The best way I know to deeply understand it’s power is to experiment and trust your ears. If you really trust them, they won’t lie to you.