Music theory · 6 min read

What is a cadence?

A cadence is the chord pattern that ends a phrase, and it works like punctuation. Here are the four main types and how to hear and play each one.

2026-06-23

Why music needs punctuation

Speech has full stops, commas and question marks, and without them a paragraph becomes exhausting. Music has the same problem and solves it the same way. Phrases need ends, and the ends need to be graded: some final, some provisional, some ambiguous.

That grading is done by cadences, which are the last two chords of a phrase. Listeners recognise them without any training at all. Play the end of a hymn and stop one chord early in a room of non-musicians and watch the discomfort. The knowledge is already installed; theory just gives it names.

Those names use Roman numerals for the chords built on each degree of the scale. In C major, I is the chord on C, IV is the chord on F, V is the chord on G, and vi is A minor. Lower-case numerals conventionally mark minor chords. Two of these degrees have names worth knowing: the fifth degree is the dominant, and the fourth is the subdominant.

The perfect cadence, the full stop

V to I, dominant to tonic. In C major, G to C. This is the strongest ending in tonal music and roughly ninety per cent of everything you know finishes with one.

It works because the dominant chord contains the leading note, the seventh degree of the scale, which sits a semitone below the tonic and sounds unresolved until it steps up. In C major that note is B, and B leans on C with genuine physical insistence. Add a seventh to the dominant, making G, B, D, F, and you introduce a second unstable note: F wants to fall to E. Two voices pulling in opposite directions towards the same chord is why a dominant seventh to tonic is so conclusive.

The most final version of all puts the roots in the bass, G then C, and the tonic note at the top of the last chord. Weaken any of those conditions and the cadence softens without ceasing to function, which is how composers keep a piece moving through twenty phrase endings before the real one.

The other three

The imperfect cadence, also called a half cadence, ends on V instead of moving away from it. Any chord to G in C major. It sounds like a comma or a raised eyebrow: the phrase has paused, not finished, and something must follow. Question-and-answer phrase pairs in folk tunes and classical themes almost always use an imperfect cadence for the question and a perfect one for the answer.

The plagal cadence is IV to I, F to C in C major. This is the Amen at the end of hymns, and it is the reason the label stuck. It arrives without the leading note's semitone pull, so it settles rather than resolves. Warmer, more relaxed, less argued.

The interrupted cadence, sometimes called deceptive, sets up V and then goes somewhere other than I, usually vi. In C major, G to A minor. The ear has been promised C and receives A minor, which shares two notes with C but is minor and is not home. Composers use it to extend a phrase that seemed about to end, and to delay a final cadence for another sixteen bars. It is the musical equivalent of clearing your throat as someone reaches for the door.

Hearing cadences in real music

Listening for cadences is the fastest route from hearing music as a stream of notes to hearing it as a structure. Put on any Mozart minuet and count phrases: you will almost invariably find four-bar units, the first ending on a half cadence and the second on a perfect one.

In tango, the classical cadence still governs the endings even though the rhythm has drifted far from Vienna. Listen to Gardel and you will hear perfect cadences arriving with slightly theatrical delay, the harmony held back so the singer can take time. In blues, the twelve-bar form is essentially a long approach to a perfect cadence with an interrupted feel at bar nine.

A useful practice habit: play a phrase, stop on the second-to-last chord, and sing what should come next. If you are right, you have internalised the cadence. If you are surprised by what the composer actually wrote, you have found something worth studying.

Playing a cadence rather than arriving at one

Knowing which cadence you are playing should change what you do physically. A perfect cadence ending a whole movement wants weight and time; an imperfect cadence in the middle of a phrase wants almost none, because emphasising a comma makes the sentence sound broken.

For the accordionist this is bellows work. A final perfect cadence takes a small surge of bellows pressure into the dominant, then a controlled release into the tonic, and the bellows stop moving only after the chord has spoken. A half cadence takes the opposite treatment: lighten, and leave the bellows travelling so the silence after it still feels alive. In the left hand, the Stradella board puts the dominant and subdominant buttons directly on either side of the tonic, so V to I and IV to I are single-button moves. Learn to hear the difference between those two neighbours and you have learned the difference between a full stop and an Amen.

On the double bass, cadences are where the bass line carries the most information. Playing the root under both chords makes the cadence maximally final; playing the third of the dominant, B under a G chord in C major, and stepping up a semitone to C makes it smoother and less emphatic. That choice is the bassist's, and it is the kind of thing we spend whole lessons on at A&G Academy, because it is the difference between ending a phrase and merely stopping.

Frequently asked

What is the most common cadence in music?

The perfect cadence, dominant to tonic, written V to I. In C major that is a G chord followed by a C chord. It is the strongest available ending because the dominant contains the leading note a semitone below the tonic, which the ear hears as unresolved until it steps up. Most pieces in a key close this way.

What is the difference between a perfect and a plagal cadence?

A perfect cadence goes from the fifth degree to the first, G to C in C major, and contains the leading note's semitone pull, making it decisive. A plagal cadence goes from the fourth degree to the first, F to C, with no leading note. It settles gently rather than resolving forcefully, which is why hymns use it for Amen.

Why do some phrases end without sounding finished?

Because they end on a half cadence, stopping on the dominant chord rather than moving to the tonic. The dominant is unstable by nature, so the ear treats the pause as a comma and waits for a continuation. Composers pair these with perfect cadences to create question-and-answer phrases, which is the basic unit of tonal melody.


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