Cadences
What a cadence is
Music is full of phrases, little musical sentences, and like spoken sentences they need punctuation to show where they pause or stop. A cadence is that punctuation, a short group of chords at the end of a phrase that tells your ear whether the music has come to rest, paused for breath, or has just surprised you.
You already hear cadences without naming them. The "that's the end" feeling at the close of a song is a cadence, and so is the "keep going, there's more" feeling in the middle. The chords at those moments are doing the work of periods, commas, and question marks.
Sing a familiar tune and stop right where it feels finished. The chords at that resting point are making a cadence.
A cadence is a harmonic formula that ends a phrase, giving it a sense of pause or closure. Cadences come in a few standard types, each defined by the last chord or the last two chords of a phrase and each producing a different degree of finality, from a firm full stop to an unfinished, leaning pause. Identifying a cadence means looking at the last chords of a phrase and matching them to one of those types.
Read a cadence from its final chords, usually the last two. Those chords name the type, and chord position and the last note of the melody set how conclusive it sounds. Because the types are few and each has a recognizable ending, learning them lets you label the ending of almost any tonal phrase.
Cadences are the punctuation of tonal syntax, and they carry much of what makes music feel organized into sentences. A tonal phrase builds and releases tension, and the cadence is where that release is spelled out in a recognizable chord formula, so a listener can tell a firm ending from a mid-thought pause without any words.
The engine behind the strongest cadences is the pull from dominant to tonic. The dominant holds tension that wants to resolve home, and the standard closes differ in how much of that resolution they deliver; the plagal cadence leaves the dominant out altogether. Each type is one of the few ways a tonal phrase can end.
What a cadence is
What is a cadence?
The authentic cadence
The strongest, most final cadence is the authentic cadence, which moves from the V chord to the I chord, from the dominant home to the tonic. It is the sound of a firm ending, the musical equivalent of a period at the end of a sentence. The V builds tension and the I resolves it completely.
When this cadence is at its strongest, with both chords in their basic position and the melody landing on the home note, it sounds fully finished, and musicians call it a perfect authentic cadence. A slightly softer version, with the melody ending on a different note, still closes the phrase but a touch less firmly.
Play a V chord followed by a I chord. That firm landing on home is the authentic cadence, the strongest way to end.
The authentic cadence moves from V, or V7, to I, and it is the strongest close in tonal music. Its most conclusive form is the perfect authentic cadence: both chords in root position and the melody ending on the tonic note, which together give a complete sense of arrival. Falling short of those conditions usually makes it an imperfect authentic cadence, weaker but still a V-to-I close.
Check the two conditions to grade the cadence. If both chords are in root position and the top voice finishes on the tonic, it is perfect; if the melody ends on the third or fifth, it is imperfect; many books also call it imperfect when a chord is inverted, while others do not count an inverted V to I as a cadence at all. Composers often use a perfect authentic cadence for the firmest endings, while imperfect ones close smaller units without fully stopping the flow.
The dominant carries the leading tone and, in V7, the tritone as well. The leading tone rises a half step to the tonic while the chordal seventh falls by step to the third, the two closing in from opposite sides, so V to I discharges the sharpest pull the key has. Root motion down a fifth reinforces that arrival underneath the voice leading, which is why the authentic cadence closes so firmly.
The perfect-versus-imperfect distinction measures how completely that arrival is delivered. Placing both chords in root position and ending the melody on the tonic leaves nothing unresolved above or below, so the perfect authentic cadence functions as a full stop. An inversion, or a melody resting on the third, softens the finality into an imperfect one. Composers often place the perfect authentic cadence at the ends of sections, though it can close any phrase.
The authentic cadence
Which two chords, in order, make an authentic cadence?
The half cadence
Not every phrase ends with a full stop. A half cadence is a phrase ending that stops on the V chord, the dominant, instead of resolving home. Because the V is a chord of tension, ending on it feels unfinished, like a comma or a question mark, and makes you expect more music to come.
Half cadences are how music asks a question that a later phrase answers. The first half of a melody often ends on a half cadence, hanging in the air, and the second half then resolves it with a stronger cadence. That call-and-answer shape is everywhere in tunes you know.
Play a phrase that stops on the V chord and notice the unfinished feeling. That leaning, expectant pause is a half cadence.
A half cadence (British books call it an imperfect cadence, which is not the same as the imperfect authentic cadence) ends a phrase on the dominant, the V chord, without resolving to the tonic. Any chord may lead into that V; what defines the cadence is that the phrase pauses on the dominant, leaving its tension unresolved. The result sounds open and expectant, a musical comma rather than a period.
Use the half cadence to hear phrase structure. It typically closes the first phrase of a pair, posing a question that the answering phrase resolves with an authentic cadence, so spotting a half cadence tells you the passage is only half-finished. The phrase stops on the V, unfinished, and that stop is the half cadence.
Ending a phrase on the dominant leaves its leading tone and its pull unresolved. The phrase has clearly paused, yet the harmony still wants to move, so the ear hears a stopping point without a conclusion. The music has come to rest on an unstable chord.
This is what makes the half cadence the natural close for an opening, question-posing phrase. Because it sets up an expectation of resolution, it pairs with a following phrase that supplies the authentic cadence, and the two together form the antecedent-and-consequent shape behind a great deal of tonal melody. The answering phrase supplies the resolution.
The half cadence
A half cadence ends on which chord?
The plagal cadence
The plagal cadence moves from the IV chord to the I chord, from the subdominant home. You have almost certainly heard it: it is the "Amen" sung at the end of many hymns, which is why it is nicknamed the Amen cadence. It closes a phrase, but more gently than the authentic cadence.
The plagal cadence has a softer, calmer sound because it does not use the strong pull of the dominant. It often comes right after an authentic cadence, as a kind of gentle confirmation, adding a peaceful "and that's settled" after the main ending.
Sing "A-men" on two chords, IV then I. That familiar hymn ending is the plagal cadence.
The plagal cadence moves from IV to I, closing a phrase without the dominant. It is softer than the authentic cadence and is often called the Amen cadence for its use at the end of hymns. In a minor key the same cadence runs iv to i, keeping its gentle, subdominant character.
Recognize it as a subdominant-to-tonic close. Because it skips the leading-tone pull of a V chord, it confirms the tonic rather than driving hard to it, which is why it frequently appears as a tag after an authentic cadence has already done the main closing work. Seeing IV move to I at a phrase end, with no dominant between, marks a plagal cadence.
With no leading tone, the plagal cadence has a soft, settled sound all its own. Moving IV to I rests the subdominant against the tonic, a gentler approach than the dominant's sharp pull, so the cadence confirms the home chord without driving into it.
Its long association with the church "Amen" reflects this role. A plagal cadence most often follows an authentic cadence that has already closed the phrase, adding a subdominant afterword that rounds off the ending without reopening the dominant tension. It usually appears as a tag after the main cadence, not as the main cadence itself.
The plagal cadence
Which two chords make a plagal ("Amen") cadence?
The deceptive cadence
The last cadence is a trick. A deceptive cadence sets you up to hear a strong ending and then dodges it. The V chord builds all its usual tension, leading you to expect the I chord to follow, but instead the music goes to the vi chord, a surprise that leaves the phrase feeling unresolved.
Because it denies the ending your ear expected, the deceptive cadence keeps the music going where a full stop would have closed it. Composers use it to stretch a phrase out, delaying the real ending for another few bars and adding a moment of surprise before the music finally settles.
Play a V chord and then, instead of the expected I, play a vi chord. Feel the little jolt of surprise. That is the deceptive cadence.
A deceptive cadence, also called an interrupted cadence, moves from V to vi instead of the expected V to I. The dominant sets up a resolution to the tonic, but the music substitutes the sixth-degree chord, which shares two notes with the tonic and so partly satisfies the ear while denying a true close. In a minor key the same cadence runs V to VI.
Hear it as a thwarted authentic cadence. Everything points toward I, and the arrival on vi both surprises the listener and keeps the phrase open, since vi is not a resting point. Composers use the deceptive cadence to extend a passage or heighten a later, real cadence, so encountering V moving to vi at a would-be ending marks this type.
The deceptive cadence sets up the tonic and then withholds it. The dominant creates a strong pull home, and vi shares two of its three notes with the tonic chord, so moving to vi half-satisfies the voice leading while denying the real goal. The phrase arrives on an unstable chord and has to keep going.
Composers exploit that half-satisfied arrival. A deceptive cadence extends a phrase past the point where it seemed about to close, buying time for a broader approach to the real cadence, and it can heighten that final close by making the listener wait. The deceptive cadence only works where the listener expected V to I.
The deceptive cadence
A deceptive cadence moves from V to which chord?
Ready to play?
You know the four main cadences now. Practice naming chords in the game.