Hearing a cadence
A cadence is how a phrase punctuates — a full stop, a comma, a question mark, a surprise.
Stage 4's what-a-cadence-is and the-other-three-cadences taught the four kinds on paper.
Hearing which one just went past is a gate skill — it's on the Intermediate check — because
it proves you're following the harmony, not just the tune.
The four endings
| Cadence | Chords | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect (authentic) | V → I | a firm full stop. Done. The phrase has landed and settled. |
| Plagal | IV → I | the "a-men" ending. Also a stop, but softer, rounder, less driven. |
| Half | anything → V | a comma, or a raised eyebrow. It stops on tension — the phrase is unfinished, expecting an answer. |
| Deceptive | V → vi | the swerve. You brace for I and get vi instead — a minor chord where home should be. A surprise, a "not yet." |
Two of them end resolved (perfect, plagal); two end unresolved (half — on the dominant; deceptive — on the wrong resting chord). That's the first split to hear.
Try it
Try
In G, play these pairs slowly as broken chords (one note at a time) and label each by ear: D–F♯–A then G–B–D (perfect); C–E–G then G–B–D (plagal); G–B–D then D–F♯–A (half). Then close your eyes, play one at random, and name it. The perfect/plagal pair both resolve — tell them apart by how hard they land. The half one just doesn't finish.
The usual mistake
Only listening to the last chord. A cadence is a move — two chords — and the same destination chord means different things depending on where it came from (V→I is perfect, IV→I is plagal). Hear the pair. The other mistake: missing a deceptive cadence because you "heard a resolution" — you heard a landing, but on vi, not I. If home suddenly went minor, you were deceived.