Putting Chords into Practice - How Chord Can Help Your Learning of Piano Music

I’ve done several blogs in the past covering chords and how important it is to know them and their inversions, but there is so much more benefit to them than you may initially realise.

Whilst it’s true to say that a lot of contemporary music does indeed have chords written above the melody line, you’d be forgiven for assuming you didn’t need or couldn’t benefit from the knowledge of chords and their positions in other types of music - such as classical.

But - as demonstrated in my last couple of blog posts, including my introduction to chords I, IV and V last week - the structure of much music, such as classical, is based around chords to the point that not knowing them can cause certain limitations to your learning. At the very least, they can slow your progress when learning to play or even read a particular piece of music.

Let’s explore some cases in point!

The Basic Chords: Deluxe Edition

The basic chords are just triad chords: C major, G major etc.

And when we start to learn these chords, we do so by learning three notes. Usually starting with the root and then a third above that and a third above that e.g. C major is C - E - G.

This is a great start.

Then we may start to learn about inversions, which is also great as it introduces us to the fact that there are a few more ways to play this chord across the keyboard:

E - G - C is first inversion,

G - C - E is second inversion.

If you need a refresher in finding chords, read this blog. For more details on inversions, read here!

Now that we have identified what makes a chord, we can start to think of the ‘deluxe’ approach! This is not a technical term, but it certainly is more interesting than just playing a simple triad like those demonstrated above.

When we learn about inversions we learn that there are a fair few ways of playing the chords across the keyboard, however when we know the three notes that make up a chord we learn that the possibilities of how to play them across the keyboard are, in fact, unlimited!

Why?

• Some or all notes may be doubled up.

• Notes don’t always have to go in ascending order.

• Both hands can be used.

So even if I were to take my humble C major chord and continue playing, say, C - E - G in the right hand, I can variate that one of several ways by different approaches in the left hand:

C - E

C - G

C - E - G

C - G

E - G

G - E

G - C - E

etc. - there are loads!

The important thing to remember is that these chords will always be these chords regardless of what order the notes appear and no matter how many times one of the notes appears.

So just imagine that you have an incredible stretch and allow me to introduce you to this:

C - G - E Left Hand

G - C - G Right Hand

See...it's a C major chord (get it?)

Still a C major chord, but definitely a ‘deluxe edition’.

You may be wondering;

“But Jack, this is all very exciting and all…but when will I actually need this very specific layout of chord and how does it help me overall in my musical learning journey?”…

…or words to that effect.

Well, learning about chords isn’t just as important as learning how to find and play a single chord.

It’s about being able to move your hand from one chord to the next as well as being able to develop your ear so that it can perhaps a little better hear progressions.

Even if we don’t focus on the ear, we need to be able to move between different chords. It’s a basic necessity of playing piano. This goes for both hands too - don’t get sucked into the thinking that chords are just for the left hand as they are for the accompaniment alone!

To demonstrate how valuable an asset chords are to our musical knowledge, here are some cases in point!

Cases in Point

Canon in D

One of the most famous openings of any classical piece ever (Baroque, in fact) is that of Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’. A Canon is a piece of music that repeats the same idea over and over again but adds to or variates on it each time. In many piano transcriptions of ‘Canon in D’, this actually means that the first 4 bars in the left hand are often repeated several times throughout the piece, with only the right hand doing any work!

Anyway, I digress.

We know that Canon is in D. This means D major (remember it’s always major if it doesn’t specify otherwise!).

If we chordi-fy the D major scale, which is made up of the notes:

D - E - F♯ - G - A - B - C♯

We create the triads

D major - E minor - F♯ minor - G major - A major - B minor (relative minor) - C♯ dim.

So unless the score suggests any accidentals (one off sharps or flats in the bar) - which it doesn’t - then these are the chords that we are playing with in Canon.

Take a look at the first passage below and see if you can work out the chordal structure:

Just from the root notes (the notes in the bassline) alone, but using the intervals in the right hand to confirm, you should be able to work out that the chords are:

D - A - B minor - F♯ minor - G - D - G - A

Now let’s have a look at a couple of bars a little later on in the piece:

Can you confirm that the chords are the same?

If so, how can our learning of that chord sequence help us to learn the bars above?

Again, consider the notes that make up a chord and where the chords change.

This is especially powerful if you want to start committing the music to memory rather than just relying on muscle memory (on its own a hugely unreliable thing), but can also benefit the speed at which you learn if you’re happy keeping the score safely in front of you as well: talk yourself through and learn the piece through intervals:

The first bar in this snippet - which starts where our D major chord would be - starts with the note D, rising up to F♯ (logical, as this note is also in the D chord), then when the left hand moves to A, this is identical to the note the right hand has moved to. The next bar starts with the B minor chord and for us we are playing a fifth interval (although not one directly above the other - this is called a compound interval, where the interval is still recognised by the notes but is separated by an octave). This goes down to D, which again is logical as it fits within the realm of the B minor chord that is represented by the left hand root. When we reach where our F♯ minor falls, we are just duplicating the root note of F# in the right hand.

It may seem convoluted, but the more familiar you already are with how chords and intervals work the more powerful this approach to learning music will be.

Prelude in C

Bach’s introduction to ‘The Well Tempered Clavier’ is one of his best loved keyboard works, but despite sounding rather straightforward it is a deceptively difficult one to play well; keeping a regimented rhythm going throughout all those semiquavers can be a nightmare! But regardless of that, the exciting thing about this piece is that it is entirely based around chords!

Once you have mastered the basic setup of the pattern in bar one you have cracked the principle on which the rest of the piece is based, but obviously the notes change in each bar. But where do they change to?

They change to other chords!

Can you identify the chord in the first bar:

This is indeed a C major. Across both hands it is a C major because the left hand gives us C - E and the right hand gives us G - C - E. Altogether that creates a root position, but if you take the right hand alone then the notes it plays is a broken C major second inversion (note only the stems pointing up in the right hand are played in the right hand).

Taking the right hand separately is a really good thing to do with this piece because the left hand doesn’t necessarily correspond to the chord that is in the right, so let’s see if you can identify the chords in the right hand of the first four bars, inversions and all (clue: the first one is C major second inversion - we’ve just done that!):

ANSWERS:

Bar 1: C major second inversion

Bar 2: D minor second inversion (A - D - F)

Bar 3: G7 root* (G - D - F)

Bar 4: C major second inversion

*as I have said what seems like one million times in the past, a seventh chord is typically a four note chord because it is your triad with an extra note on the top. G7 would therefore be G - B - D - F however it is common in music theory (and considered better practice) to drop one of the middle notes. Thus G - B - F and - as in this case - G - D - F - are both viable G7 chords. This is considered better music practice on the basis that it keeps the harmonic voicing consistent with a typical triad chord. Four notes (voices) to three sounds less even than three to three for the simple reason that the latter has the same number of notes progressing / modulating / resolving to…the same number of notes!

Just imagine for one second that you didn’t have quite the genius understanding of chords as you do and imagine trying to navigate your way around this piece:

C - E - G - C - E - G - C - E

C - D - A - D - F - A - D - F

B - D - G - D - F - G - D - F

It just looks like random letters and would very much play the same: random notes.

But because you know how chords are put together, hopefully that can help you to better understand the logic in which notes follow which and even which chords follow on from each other.

Sarabande in D Minor

This piece of classic Baroque music by Handel is almost too perfect to demonstrate chords because it’s opening theme is virtually a masterclass of how chords, chords and chords can make the entire piece!

Take a look at the opening bars below and see if you can work out the first right hand chord of the first four bars (complete with inversions):

ANSWERS:

Bar 1: D minor second inversion

Bar 2: A major root

Bar 3: F major second inversion

Bar 4: C major root

When you know these chords, learning and playing these opening bars becomes a dream! But even if we jump to the first variation, we can use our knowledge of these chords on which the variation is based to work some information out:

The first three notes of the first bar is just the D minor second inversion but played in a specific order (top - bottom - middle: F - A - D), whereas the minims in the second bar are E and C♯ which are - you guessed it - the top two notes of our A major root position. These two principles translate respectively across the next two bars for the F major second inversion and the C major root position.

Eagle eyed readers will, of course, have spotted that that isn’t the be all and end all of these bars, however. The first bar, for example, features those three crotchets at the end: A - G - F. They’re not chord-ified.

Perhaps not, but whilst it’s worth remembering that not every single individual note can be assumed to be from the triad, we can also consider the journey that it is taking. How many notes are we working down?

Three in this case.

And then the first note at the beginning of bar 2 is E.

So the run is A - G - F - E. In essence, we are starting from the top note of a D minor (root position) and then just working down the scale in time to resolve to the E - the top note of our new A major triad.

Similarly, the B in the right hand of the second bar is seemingly unrelated to the A major chord, but when we consider the A just below it in the left hand, it’s actually the note between that and the C♯ that it resolves to in the right hand. This again creates a partial scale of A.

Fun fact: I recorded myself playing this for educational purposes. And because this blog is of an educational persuasion, here is is. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos of me showing off!

Wrapping Up Chords in Piano Music

In conclusion, having a working knowledge of chords is an incredibly powerful thing to have and to develop and whilst it’s fair to say that knowing them can really help you to develop your learning of a piece of music, it’s also important to say that if you’re less confident it’s worth making a point of trying to identify them within pieces of music so that you feel more confident with them!

As part of your practise, explore different chords and find different progressions (a fancy word for different orders of chords) and try playing them with different inversions, different rhythms and even try creating a more melodic approach such as broken chords in one hands vs. vamping triads in the other. The speed and effectiveness with which you can change between chords is as important to all of the above as the playing itself!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

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#musictheory #piano #pianolesson #pianochords #learnpiano #pianoteacher

Making Music with Chords I, IV and V

Firstly, a lesson in Roman Numerals:

I = 1

II = 2

III = 3

So far, so good!

But then:

V = 5, therefore:

IV = 4 (the I for 1 is before the V for 5, so it’s like 5 - 1 - see?)

And we can work the other way in a similar way too:

VI = 6

VII = 7

And just in case we need it,

VIII = 8.

If you’ve been cross referencing with the title of this very post, you will have realised that I am referring to chords 1, 4 and 5.

But what are they? Why are they important? How do we find them?

So…many…questions!

Let’s break it down and start with…

The C Major Scale

C major is just going to be our example scale here because it’s easy and it’s the one that most everyone can relate to because it’s where we all start learning.

The notes of C major are:

C - D - E - F - G - A - B, then of course, it resumes back to C and continues on an indefinite loop of musical trauma.

The note C of a C major scale is…the root note! Simple, really. The root note is just the note after which the scale is named. And more inkeeping with this, the root note is I (one).

It doesn’t take a long time to be able to work out the numerical values of the rest of the notes. In fact, we cover it several times - for example, when learning intervals.

But, just to recap, here they are:

C = 1 (I)

D = 2 (II)

E = 3 (III)

F = 4 (IV)

G = 5 (V)

A = 6 (VI)

B = 7 (VII)

C Major Scale

So, if we extract numbers 1, 4 and 5 from here, we would be referring to C, F and G respectively.

When we are referring to 1, 4 and 5 of a major scale, all of these chords are major. So, to clarify, C major, F major and G major are chords I, IV and V of C major. However, as you may have already learned, major chords don’t need clarifying; we can just say C, F and G.

To find a simple chord of three notes (a triad), we just need to find the root note of each chord. For C, this would be C, for F it would be F and for G it would be G. These are the root notes of each chord. We then need to stack to third intervals above it, but always being mindful of the scale we are in.

This is nice and easy with the C major scale because it’s purely white note based, but basically we want to leave a note between the first two notes and a note between the second two notes of each chord:

C - D - E - F - G = C major

C Major Triad

F - G - A - B - C = F major

F Major Triad

G - A - B - C - D = G major

G Major Triad

And there you have it - chords I, IV and V of C major.

Play these chords one after the other - or, better still, listen to how they sound in different orders. Don’t feel you always have to rise up to the next chord. Maybe go from your C major up to F major and then down to G major. It’s a less easy jump, of course, but it will give you an idea of how the movement can affect the sound you’re creating.

If you know your scales, try and find chords I, IV and V for other major scales that you know.

Let’s do one more together:

A major is:

A - B - C♯ - D - E - F♯ - G♯

A = 1 (I)

B = 2 (II)

C♯ = 3 (III)

D = 4 (IV)

E = 5 (V)

F♯ = 6 (VI)

G♯ = 7 (VII)

A Major Scale

So chords I, IV and V would be A, D and E, all major.

To find the chords, use the respective chord names as the root notes and then leave a note between the first two and the second two notes:

A - B - C♯ - D - E = A major

A Major Triad

D - E - F♯ - G - A = D major

D Major Triad

E - F♯ - G♯ - A - B = E major

E Major Triad

And there you have it!

Making Music with Chords I, IV and V

You may or may not be surprised and excited to learn that a tremendous amount of music bases itself around a I, IV, V structure. This isn’t to say that the chords appear in this specific order, but you may find songs that use I, V, IV, I, I, V, IV, I. Or perhaps they start with V then move to I, then IV and back to I.

As with the individual notes on a piano, there are unlimited possibilities when it comes to chordal structure - even when we only limit ourselves to just three!

Let’s assume that everything we are playing is in the key of C major.

Play the chord of C major, then rise up to F major, then to G major.

Does this sound familiar?

Perhaps if we put a melody over the top:

Or perhaps a different melody:

Or…

Maybe at the end instead of holding onto that G major, we’ll fall back down to F major: thus our structure is C - F - G - F (I, IV, V, IV).

A simple melody over this could be:

In fact, on my cadences blog last week I also demonstrated ‘Crash’ by the Primitives as an interrupted cadence. This is exactly the same chord structure.

Changing the Rhythm

Chords don’t have to be as regimented as one per bar!

Using the exact same idea, we will use chords I, IV and V across two bars. That’s one bar for I - C major, - and then one bar for IV and V - F and G - one minim each!;

If I were to have asked you about the similarities between Denis, La Bamba, Twist and Shout, Wild Thing, Crash and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds then you may be forgiven for not having realised there was one. Because they’re all completely different pieces of music!

But they all stem from that same chord structure, and this points so well to the unlimited possibility of music. If you can use three chords to create this much versatility, imagine if we started to bring in all seven! And that’s just all seven of the scale!

That, however, is not for now!

Chords I, IV and V in Classical Music

What I have demonstrated above is largely rock and roll, which thrived on I, IV and V thanks to the accessibility of playing them and them sounding full and ‘chunky’ at the one time brand new electric guitar!

Whilst it seems that this music is right on the other side of the musical spectrum to classical music, it isn’t. In fact, western classical music theory bases itself very heavily on using chords I, IV and V.

However, there is one slight difference to chord V in the classical context.

I introduced this last week in my cadences blog, but please welcome back - by popular demand:

The Dominant Seventh

Unlike last week where I got carried away, I’m only going to introduce you to the one technical term in this blog: The Dominant.

Every note in the scale has a fancy name as well as a numerical degree and a letter name. And root, if that note happens to be the root.

The Dominant is the fifth degree.

So, in C major:

C = 1, D = 2, E = 3, F = 4, G = 5!

The dominant seventh refers to the chord of the fifth degree but as a seventh chord.

So, in classical music, I, IV and V would be written as I, IV and V7. Specifically - in C major - those chords would be C, F and G7.

So how do we find a G7?

We find our simple major triad (G - B - D, as we discovered earlier in the blog) and we add a seventh interval - keeping in mind the key we are in* (C major)

G = 1

A = 2

B = 3

C = 4

D = 5

E = 6

F = 7

G7 Chord

So, our G7 would be G - B - D - F. As discussed briefly in last week’s cadence blog (seriously, you’ve got to read this blog. It’s a page turner), it’s standard music theory practise to keep chords consistently ‘voiced’ i.e. same number of notes per chord, and because we use triads of C major and F major, it’s very common to see a note dropped from that G7 chord. You may see a G7 as G - B - F or G - D - F or one of their inversions, but it’s still the chord.

*because if we assume we’re using a G major scale we would stick an F# on the top and that’s a different type of seventh chord 🤦  oh so many rules! If you want the academic way to approach a standard seventh chord, it’s a major triad with the minor seventh interval over the top. Maybe one day I’ll blog about the other types of seventh chord, but for now that’s the only one you’ll need!

Conclusively, in classical music, you would see chord V instead as V7 - the dominant seventh - more often than not:

Mozart's Piano Sonata in C Major - Simplified

Try It Yourself

The basis of an awful lot of songwriting comes from using this chord structure in some capacity, so why not try writing your own short melody over the top of those chords in whichever order you like the sound of. If you want a more classical sounding melody, remember the dominant seventh!

Learning to hear these chords is a really strong tool you can have at your disposal, so watch my short YouTube series to learn more about how to develop your musical ear to this end:

In fact, subscribe to my YouTube channel so you never, ever, ever miss a video like this!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

---

#pianoteacher #pianist #chords #learnmusic #musictheory #songwriting

Finishing Your Music - the Four Cadences

In music, it’s important to start well.

It’s also important to finish well.

In music, we use a little thing called a cadence to guarantee a satisfying ending to our piece, and most any piece of music (with the exception of atonal music) can have one of the following cadences applied.

So, what exactly is a cadence?

A cadence is, simply put, a chordal motif that resolves - either fully or partially - a phrase, melody or piece of music.

Luckily there are only four basic types to learn, however they are all so wonderfully different that we’ll cover them all:

• Perfect

• Plagal

• Imperfect

• Interrupted

In order to best understand your cadences, it’s important to understand intervals within a key signature as I shall be referring to these. Luckily, I very recently posted a blog about that too - so read up on them here!

The Perfect Cadence

The Perfect Cadence is arguably the one that we default to most often as musicians. This is a very simple chordal arrangement of chord five to one (V - I).

When we are referring to the key that a piece of music is in, one (I) refers to the root note and five (V) - unsurprisingly - refers to the note that is a fifth interval above it; to put it another way, the fifth degree of the respective scale.

Using C major as our trusty old example, one / I / the root note would be C and we would then count up to five:

II - D

III = E

IV = F

V = G

So in the key of C major, a perfect cadence would be a resolve of chord five to chord one: G to C.

Simple.

All degrees of the scale have a technical name as well as their numerical place. If you wish to learn more about them, by all means read towards the end of this post from a few months ago, however the two that I shall share on this post are:

I = tonic

V = dominant

When we refer to a dominant seventh chord, we’re just referring to the seventh chord of the fifth degree of the key signature that we are in. Sheesh, that’s a lot of words!

Let’s break it down further:

In the key of C major, our fifth chord is G as we have established.

Now we will make this a G7 chord. This is a G major triad (G - B - D) with a minor seventh interval plonked on top (G - B - D - F). Don’t question why it is a minor seventh - it’s one of those things in music we just have to accept: a seventh chord such as G7 is the standard major triad with a minor seventh on top. These notes can be played in any order and you can even lose the D, hence why other inversions may be learned (some of my pupils know the Roald Dahl friendly BFG version of the G7 chord).

So the dominant seventh of C major is G7.

“But why is this relevant to cadences, Jack?”

Sorry, yes, I got sidetracked.

Chord five in a perfect cadence can just be a standard major chord, but it can also be the dominant seventh. Therefore, G - C is a perfect cadence. G7 - C is also a perfect cadence.

Actual examples of perfect cadences being, quite frankly, perfect

Perfect Cadence in the Minor Key

Ah yes, let us not forget about tonality here! How does changing the tone to minor affect our cadence?

In order to create a true perfect cadence, we need a leading note (oh, go on, I’ll throw you this extra one in at no extra cost!).

A leading note is the name of the seventh degree of the major scale and is a semitone below the tonic, therefore. So, in C major the leading note is B.

This resolution between semitones is what creates a perfect cadence, however anybody who read my previous post on the different types of minor scales will know that it isn’t quite that straightforward because there are not 1, not 2, not 57 but THREE types of minor scales.

Due to the gross inconsistency of the melodic minor, let’s throw that one out with the dishwater and focus on the C natural minor and harmonic minor scales:

Natural Minor: C - D - E♭ - F - G - A♭ - B♭ - C

Harmonic Minor: C - D - E♭ - F - G - A♭ - B (♮) - C

As you can see, the natural minor features a B♭, and so our fifth chord of G could only be a G minor: G - B♭ - D. This resolving to C minor sadly does not constitute a perfect cadence as the would be “leading note” is, in fact, a flat, leaving two semitones (a whole tone) between the leading note and the tonic.

On the other hand, the harmonic minor has a B♮, which brings us back to having our leading note and meaning that we have all the notes in the scale to not only find the fifth: G - B - D, but also a dominant seventh: G - B - D - F. Therefore, this is a perfect cadence.

In a nutshell, major dominant chord to minor tonic chord will get a perfect cadence in the minor key!

Sheer perfect...ion 😉

Plagal Cadence

Our plagal cadence also resolves to the tonic, but it comes from a slightly different place:

Degree four of the scale / IV.

Remember degree four of the C major scale? If not:

C = I

D = II

E = III

F = IV

Therefore, a plagal cadence in C major is F to C.

Plagal Cadence

Play a perfect cadence and then play a plagal cadence and listen to the differences between the two.

One of the most common descriptions of the plagal cadence is that is it the ‘amen’ cadence: imagine a choir singing that very word across the two chords of your plagal cadence and you’ll see what I mean!

Plagal Cadence in the Minor Key

For plagal cadences, the natural and harmonic minor scales are technically the same thing for a IV - I transition (although if we are talking cadences we should really be referring the harmonic minor because - western classical theory!).

Our F chord in the minor scale could not be F major but would have to be F minor: F - A♭ - C; resulting in our minor plagal cadence being:

F minor to C minor (a rather sinister ‘amen’).

Another Minor Plagal Cadence

Thanks to the wonders of music theory, there is actually another slight variation on this in that you can just ‘minor’ (if you will permit the word ‘minor’ to be used as a verb) the fourth and have a major tonic. Such as F minor to C:

Two examples of minor plagal cadence

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have come from the key of C major, ‘nor C minor. However - speaking independently and assuming that we are, indeed, in the key of C something or other (to make sure our numbers still add up!) then this cadence is indeed a plagal cadence - and a minor plagal cadence at that.

Imperfect Cadence

I can’t stress enough the importance of revising and cementing in your minds what you have already learned before moving on to the final two cadences as these two are great examples of music rulebooks being thrown out of the window yet again. However, if you are ready to move on - let’s do so!…

The imperfect cadence is also known as the half cadence which - whilst not as poetic - is something that may help you remember better what I am about to show you:

Rather than finishing on our tonic (C), we have to finish on our dominant (G).

And we don’t have to travel from the tonic to G to get there.

An imperfect cadence can be one of several other chords in the key - most commonly I, II or IV - resolving back to the dominant.

So, in C you could go:

C - G

Dm - G

F - G

Imperfect Cadences

You may observe that the first example is like a reverse perfect cadence, so that may also help you remember: an example of an imperfect cadence is a perfect cadence flipped around!

The whole point of imperfect or half cadences is that they sound incomplete and like you want them to resolve. They’re creating a sense of need for completion.

Imperfect Cadence in the Minor Key

Unsurprisingly, you can get imperfect cadences in the minor key as well!

Again, we would strive to use the ‘leading note’ principles as in perfect cadence if we were to term our cadence as imperfect, which would allow us - in the key of C minor - the following cadences:

Cm - G

D dim* - G

F minor - G

Imperfect Cadences in the Minor Key

• don’t worry if you’ve never come across a diminished chord before. If you take a minor triad, the top note is just lowered (diminished) by one semitone. So, a D minor triad - D - F - A - would have the A lowered by one semitone to create a D diminished - D - F - A♭.

Interrupted Cadence

Now we know what perfect cadence sounds like, imagine you’re listening to a piece of music and it goes down to the dominant or dominant seventh and you think to yourself that classic line:

“Ah - must surely be going to resolve to the tonic now”

as I have on many exciting nights.

But then - shock, horror! It doesn’t. It ‘resolves’ to some completely different chord!

That, fellow listeners, is the interrupted cadence doing its usual rude trick of interrupting your expectations (this is also called a deceptive cadence because…this!).

Whenever your dominant or dominant seventh appears to make a move to resolve but then goes anywhere but the tonic / I, you have an interrupted cadence!:

G - Dm

G - Em

G - F

G - Am

…all interrupted...

Interrupted Cadences

...and because it’s not worth a separate subheading for interrupted cadences in the minor key, again using the harmonic minor scale:

G - Ddim

G - E♭ aug*

G - Fm

G - A♭ dim

Interrupted minor cadences

• Oh dear, dear, it’s not a good day if you're a chord novice! An augmented chord is a standard major triad with its top note raised up (augmented) by one semitone. Thus your usual triad of E♭: E♭ - G - B♭ - would have the top note of B♭ raised up by one semitone making it a B natural. Therefore an E♭ augmented chord is E♭ - G - B♮

How We Use Cadences

Of course, almost every piece of western classical and modern popular music can - believe it or not - have a cadence applied to the very end.

So, the end of a piece is the obvious answer here.

However, we can use cadences wherever we like providing we make a point of them:

The whole idea of a cadence is that it creates an air of finality and resolve so, whilst they don’t have to come at the end of the piece, you want the phrase they are applied to to feel like a full stop and taking a breath.

The opening chords of Pachelbel’s Canon are D - A. Considering that this in D major, we wouldn’t go calling the opening bar of Canon an imperfect cadence because - even though this is precisely its definition (chord one to five), it isn’t in a place that stops and leaves you hanging. It flows through.

Speaking of imperfect cadences, both this and the interrupted cadences don’t find themselves at the end of pieces. Speaking strictly for Baroque, Classical and Romantic era composers, it would be extremely bad practise for them to employ this kind of suspense of unsatisfying ending at the end of a piece. Perfect and plagal would always find its way at the end!

We also need to take into account the written key vs. the audible key of a piece. Movements in a sonata form tend to be written in one key throughout, however they develop through to repeat themes but in a different key, using instead a littering of accidentals rather than a change of key signature. Cadences will always apply to the key you are playing in, which may be different to the one that is written in the key signature.

As a final word on cadences, strictly speaking all notes need to be considered as resolved, whether that be staying the same or moving up or down to create a new chord. In other words, a fully fledged G7 (G - B - D - F) to a C major triad (C - E - G) would be considered bad practice because we’ve lost a note! In all examples I’ve given above and below I’ve followed this rule however as anybody who studies music - even that by the greats as Beethoven etc. - this rule is so frequently not followed. Especially in piano music where sometimes it feels more logical to drop notes in certain chords.

There are other such rulings - my suggestion below about inversions may be deemed controversial as - speaking as a purist - the tonic chord should be in root position. There are many other rules that have been disputed amongst music theorists and musicians: the tonic should always be at the top, the tonic root should be played twice in the structure of the chord, however…make of that what you will and just remember the numbers and the structures!

Examples of Cadences in Music

Whilst I did indeed use ‘Over the Rainbow’ a couple of weeks ago to demonstrate an octave jump and how that sounds, I shall use it again as its verse (or chorus, depending on how you consider the song structured) features both a plagal and a perfect cadence. And it’s not even Christmas yet! :

'Over the Rainbow'

'Way up high' is a plagal cadence because in my arrangement, ‘up’ is an F and ‘high’ is a C (and we’re in the key of C major!).

Yet on ‘lullaby’, we hang around the dominant seventh - G7 - for ‘lul-la' and resolve to the C - the tonic - on ‘by’ - creating a perfect cadence.

For simplicity, I have used root position chords although inversions of chords - such as the ones actually used in this song - would not actually affect the cadence.

To take an extremely simplified rendition of that Beethoven classic ‘Für Elise’ - which is in the key of A minor* - note how this middle section finishes on an E major chord. This is the dominant of A minor, and despite being the end of the phrase its sounding incomplete is typical of an imperfect cadence.

'Für Elise' Score

• Disclaimer: technically this piece at this point has in fact modulated to the key of C major, and whilst its tonality has audibly changed, the inclusion of a E major chord within the passage is enough for me to continue with this example assuming it were still in A minor.

Interrupted cadences are becoming more and more popular in…popular music! Whereas a more classical approach would be to use a perfect cadence to resolve from the dominant / IV such as I - IV - V - I, or a plagal: I - V - IV - I, popular music has many examples of songs that deviate from this and go somewhere else to complete the phrase. Such as I - IV - V - back down to IV. In the key of C major, this would be C - F - G - F. That decision to go back to F rather than C separates it as being an interrupted cadence rather than a perfect cadence.

Here’s ‘Crash’ by the Primitives adapted to C major. As a phrase alone it sounds unfinished, hence why the music carries on:

'Crash' Score

Because verses and choruses feature these unresolved types of cadences so frequently in modern music, this explains why many bands and artists opt for a fade out of a recording; suddenly giving a perfect or plagal cadence would sound odd and finishing on an interrupted or imperfect would leave the listener hanging...forever!

In Conclusion

In conclusion…play around! Regardless of cadences, it’s as well to familiarise yourself with how chords sound when modulating from one to the next anyway. You don’t have to identify the specific chords as this would suggest perfect pitch, but just being able to pick out the structure in a song or piece of music is a really powerful tool to have at your musical disposal!

Knowing where cadences fall and how they are used can really help you to punctuate them in a piece of music when you play them and, of course, if you are composing, knowing how to employ them with a little more theory behind you opens up natural potential to your writing that will make your music seem more logical and flow better.

I haven't yet recorded a slightly more sophisticated video on the subject, but thanks to YouTube shorts you can see at least a couple of videos of me wittering on about cadences. Here's the first. Make sure you subscribe to make sure you don't miss any future ones!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

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