Guitar Noise

COMING ATTRACTIONS ALERT (part 2): (and I bet you thought I was kidding when I said we’d pick up “right where we left off…”) Due to an overwhelming demand, Paul and I are going to be revamping a few things in order to bring you a new and (hopefully) vastly improved Scales and Modes page. With a little luck, and a lot of work, it will up sometime later this summer. If you have any input for this project, please email me directly at dhodgeguitar@aol.com and I will be more than happy to take your advice into consideration. This page is going to be for you, after all.

Okay, on with the show. First, how about that disclaimer (you know, the one I remembered to mention but not to write last time!)?

These files are the author’s own work and represents his interpretation of the song. It is intended solely for private study, scholarship or research.

Much better.

Last time out we started with tonality and the use of the V to I cadence. Today we’re going to delve a little deeper into musical phrases and two other common types of cadences. To provide a little bit of definition, let’s turn to Walter Piston’s text, Harmony, once again:

A musical phrase can best be defined by analogy: the phrase in music is comparable to the line in rhymed verse. The phrase shows a certain regularity in its number of measures, which is usually four to eight. Most important, the phrase is perceived as a unit of musical thought like a sentence or clause, and it generally implies that another phrase is to follow unless it shows a certain amount of finality. The phrase is what measures the beginning and ending of a melodic unit, as well as the point of departure for the next.

The end of the phrase is called the cadence. The origin of this word (from the Latin cadere, “to fall”) suggests its significance, as a kind of metric punctuation mark, not a pause but something more like a breath. Like the final syllable of a line of metric verse, the cadence is metric in function; at the same time, to continue the analogy, the cadence is always marked by a certain conventional harmonic formula, just as metric verse is ordinarily marked by rhyme.

If you examine any song that you happen to think of, you will find this to almost always be the case. Yes, there will always be exceptions, but in the study of music theory, it is the norm, which most concerns us. Why? Think about it. Songs become popular and stay popular because of their familiarity. They are our dear friends. We know them well. And the two easiest things to remember about them (musically now, not lyrically) are their melodies (which we’ll look at next week) and their structure. The structure is based on phrases, which in turn are built with cadences.

For those of you who are into definitions, going from V to I is called the authentic cadence. Some music theorists expand the authentic cadence to include the II or the IV which often proceed the V.

A half cadence is any cadence that ends on the V. Remember what I told you last time about the use of the V chord as a way to end a line or phrase? That jives perfectly with Piston’s “generally implies that another phrase is to follow unless it shows a certain amount of finality.” Nothing says, “there’s more coming” better than ending a line with a V chord. Traditionally, a half cadence is used as the first of a pair of phrases, the second of which ending in an authentic cadence. This is the easiest example I can think of:

When I first arrived in college, one of my new roommates and I played every single song we could think of with that only consisted of a C to G and then G back to C phrasing. It took us the better part of an hour.

All Four One…

Obviously, not each and every song ends each phrase with the V or a I. Things would get incredibly boring that way. Luckily, there are other cadences. IV to I (called a plagal cadence) is probably the second most used cadence around. Look at structure of this traditional song, I Wish I Was In London, made up solely of a half cadence followed by a plagal cadence (in G major in this version):

Those of you who are familiar with a lot of folk music or traditional music can without a doubt recite a nearly endless list of song titles using this chord structure. Which brings us to probably the most important of today’s discussion. Some of you have clued in pretty quickly that knowing traditional cadences can really help you when you’re trying to figure out a song. And those of you who are into songwriting can also see the importance of knowing this kind of theory. But one of the best uses for this material is also perhaps the most underused: your knowledge of musical phrases and traditional cadences is probably the best tool at your disposal to help you memorize songs. Think about it (maybe that’s today’s catch phrase). If you’re trying to memorize a song like Jimmy Buffet’s Magaritaville, and you know that it’s in the key of D major, then you also know that the most likely chord changes you are going to encounter will involve the I, IV and V. That means D, G and A. And sure enough, here’s the first verse and chorus:

“Hey,” you’re probably saying (I hope!), “the verses are the same as down in the valley – I to V and back to I.” If you’re not saying that, please take another look. Yes, the time signature and the key are different but the phrase is the same. As you’re undoubtedly tired of hearing (from both A-J and myself), but there are only so many chord changes available to you. This is why, as a rule, people who know even the slightest bit of theory are fairly good at memorizing songs. They tend to think in terms of Roman numerals instead of chords and there are even fewer of those to pick from!

And speaking of Roman numerals, do you remember those chord progression charts I did up for you back in February (A Before E (Except After C)? Didn’t think so. But they’re a good thing to have around while we’re discussing musical phrases, if for no other reason than to see how so many songs follow these patterns. Here’s what I’m talking about:

Another use of the plagal cadence (which is not as prevalent these days as it used to be) is the transition from IV (minor) to I. In the key of A major, this would be a cadence from Dm to A. I think the reason I find this particular cadence enchanting is that, much like V7 to I, it takes advantage of two half step resolutions. Take a look at the actual guitar notes themselves:

Again, if nothing else I hope that this causes you to listen to the difference in the two resolutions. The minor plagal, as I’ve said, gives me more of a feeling of finality. Using them both in sequence (IV to IV (minor) to I) (I’ve called this a “plagal combo” but that sounds like something you’d order at a fast food restaurant) really accentuates this sense of closure. This is caused by the descending F# and F notes which ultimately resolve to the E. Having these notes played so prominently on the 1st string certainly helps.