Yo, what's good my music-loving friends! Today I wanna hip y'all to one of the secret ingredients that makes music so dope: cadences.
Now cadences may sound like some dry music theory term, but they're lowkey what gives melodies that satisfying feel when a musical phrase comes to an end. It's like music's version of punctuation - cadences let you know when the musical "sentence" is over. Pretty cool right?
There's a few cadences that pop up all over the place in songs. First you got the OG perfect cadence. This one's all about keeping it traditional - the V chord leads to the I chord for that classic resolution. It's like the musical version of riding off into the sunset. Straight up happily ever after type vibes.
Then there's the soft-spoken plagal cadence. It keeps it chill with the IV chord smoothly flowing to the I chord. Makes me feel all warm and cozy inside every time - like a sweet lullaby gently putting me to sleep.
Don't sleep on the imperfect cadence though. It leaves you wanting more, ending on that V chord instead of leading to the I chord. The dominant seventh chord (V7) adds some extra sauce too. That's how you keep listeners coming back for more. Gotta love a little musical cliffhanger!
Last but not least, we got the sly, cunning interrupted cadence. This one acts like it's about to resolve perfectly, but then shocks you with a surprise IV or vi chord instead. Keeps everyone on their toes and shakes up expectations. A true rebel in the cadence game.
I'll leave y'all with some sweet cadence examples to check out:
The iconic final line of "Amazing Grace" rocking with that powerful perfect cadence
The patriotic fanfare of the plagal cadence holding it down in "The Star-Spangled Banner"
The innocent imperfection of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and its cute little cadence
And the cosmic adventure of the interrupted cadence in "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"
A'ight, I'm out! Hope this gives you a new appreciation for cadences and how they flavor our musical journeys. Holla with any questions. Peace!
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