8A ii ABRSM

About the test:
The test is designed for you to train your ear to be able to pick up different musical parts and expand your musical memory.
The music will be played twice for you. Try to use the second time to check your answer and work through the chord inversions.
Half marks are given for the correct chord so that's the most important part to focus on!
Try and focus on humming the keynote in your head to help you identify the last chord. If you find cadences tricky this is the easiest way to then mathematically eliminate cadences it isn't!

Identifying the Cadence

To identify the cadence at the end of a continuing phrase as perfect, imperfect, interrupted or plagal. The phrase will be in a major or minor key and will be played twice by the examiner. The chords forming the cadence will be limited to the tonic (root position, ﬁrst or second inversions), supertonic (root position or ﬁrst inversion), subdominant (root position), dominant (root position, ﬁrst or second inversions), dominant seventh (root position) or submediant (root position). Before the ﬁrst playing, the examiner will play the key-chord.

What is a cadence?

Example Test

"I am going to play a short phrase, twice. I would like you to identify the cadence at the end. Here is the key chord."

Preparing for the exam

Print out the PDF to help you work through these examples:

Answer sheet:
Only use this to check your answers at the end!
Try not to look while you are working out the examples.

Step 1

A really good way to practice cadences is to play them on your harp. These examples are also on the PDF to make them easier to read for you while you are playing. Try and play them on your harp so you can start to learn how they sound in different keys. This is also a really good sight-reading task and warm up for your practice.
Always play the key chord first before you play the cadence!

Step 1 practice examples

Perfect Cadences

C major
Chords V7 - 1 (Dominant to Tonic)
G - C

c minor
Chords V7 - 1 (Dominant to Tonic)
g - c

D major
Chords V7 - 1 (Dominant to Tonic)
A - D

Usually perfect cadences sound like they are falling. But I have popped a few ascending like this one in just in case! So you can get used to hearing the sound.
F major: Chords V - 1 (Dominant to Tonic): C - F

f minor (only playable on some lever harps - for Eb tuning just play in Eb as you do not use the D string. You could also transpose it to f# minor instead.)
Chords V - 1 (Dominant to Tonic)
c - f

Plagal Cadences

Bb major
Chords IV - I (Subdominant to Tonic)
Eb - Bb

A major
Chords IV - I (Subdominant to Tonic)
D - A

c minor
Chords IV - I (Subdominant to Tonic)
f - c

f# minor
Chords IV - I (Subdominant to Tonic)
d - F#

Gb major (Play this in G major on lever harp)
Chords IV - I (Subdominant to Tonic)
C - G

Interrupted Cadences

Ab major (only playable on some lever harps - for Eb tuning just play in Eb as you do not use the D string. You could also transpose it to f# minor instead.)
Chords V - VI (Dominant to Submediant)
Eb - f

D major
Chords V - VI (Dominant to Submediant)
A - b

d minor
Chords V - VI (Dominant to Mediant)
a - Bb

e minor
Chords V - VI (Dominant to Mediant)
b - C

Eb major
Chords V - VI (Dominant to Mediant)
Bb - c

Imperfect Cadence

Bb major
Chords I - V (Tonic - Dominant)
Bb - F

b minor
Chords I - V (Tonic - Dominant)
b - f#

C# major (if on lever harp play this in C major)
Chords I - V (Tonic - Dominant)
C# - G

Eb major
Chords I - V (Tonic - Dominant)
Eb - Bb

F major
Chords I - V (Tonic - Dominant)
F - C

Step 2

Telling the difference between cadences can be really tricky but the general rules are:
Strong finish - Perfect cadence
Softer finish or amen cadence - Plagal cadence
Feels wrong or abrupt - interrupted cadence
Feels like it fits with the music but still needs to go somewhere - imperfect cadence
The imperfect cadence can especially be tricky as without really knowing the sound of the key chord it could sound like a plagal cadence.

For example!
In F major this progression is Chords I - V (Tonic - Dominant) an imperfect cadence.
F - C

However, in C major (remember you are not playing any Bb's in this little bit of music so it uses all the notes of C major too).
These chords could create a C major plagal cadence!
Chords IV - I (Subdominant to Tonic)
F - C
So! How do you tell the difference?
Its all about the key chord! Change the key chord and they sound completely different.

Its all about being able to hear that key chord throughout the music! So lets practice that with stage 2 questions.

Step 2 practice examples

Listen to the following cadences and try and sing the tonic note throughout the entire example.
The key chord will play at the beginning
The cadence will then play
Las the key note / tonic note will play again
See if you can sing the tonic note throughout the cadence and check yourself by listening to your voice and the tonic note at the end.
Don't worry about trying to guess the cadence at this point. Just try and sing the tonic note. Take things one stage at a time! And this is the second stage once you know all about cadences. Taking things in stages makes them much less daunting!

The following information, step 3,4,5 and 6 all relates to the practice questions below. Use the table on the PDF to help you break down how to identify a cadence. Remember to just do one step at a time!

Step 3 - Interrupted Cadences

If a cadence sounds like the music has been cut short, you are in suspense or sounds like it shouldn't have stopped. This is an interrupted cadence. Listen to the practice cadences below and see if you can identify interrupted cadences. Remember in a major key the 1st chord will be major and the second is minor and the opposite if the phrase is in a minor key. This also helps to identify the cadence.
These are the easiest to identify so well done! You have already got the question correct or eliminated a possibility so you have a 3/4 chance of getting it right!
On the PDF there is a table that you can tick off the music examples that you think are interrupted cadences.

Step 4 - Perfect and Plagal Cadences

Identify which of the following examples end on a tonic chord.
For the perfect / plagal cadences you can double check by listening to the bass notes. In a plagal or perfect cadence the last chord will always be in root position. This means the bass note will be the tonic. If the note you are humming is the same as the end note, you have double checked yourself and confirmed you are correct. You are allowed to hum in the exam!!!!!
On the PDF there is a table that you can tick off the music examples that you think are perfect/plagal cadences.

Step 5 - Imperfect Cadences

Identify which of the examples sound like they are imperfect cadences - ending on the dominant chord.
These are tricky to identify as they sound "right" in the music but unfinished. They will always leave you wanting to hear more music. It always finishes on the dominant chord.
Which end on a chord that doesn't sound wrong but doesn't sound finished.
On the PDF there is a table that you can tick off the music examples that you think are imperfect cadences.

Step 6

For the perfect / plagal cadences you can double check by listening to the bass notes. In a plagal or perfect cadence the last chord will always be in root position. This means the bass note will be the tonic. This means you can sing up the scale and work out the interval between the last chords.
Another way to help you tell is that perfect cadences sound really strong, whereas plagal cadences sound softer.
On the PDF see if you can now work out which examples are plagal and which are perfect.

Perfect

Plagal

Step 3, 4, 5, & 6 - Practice Cadences

The following information, step 3,4,5 and 6 all relates to the practice questions below. Use the table on the PDF to help you break down how to identify a cadence. Remember to just do one step at a time!
The key chord will play.
Then the cadence.
In these questions the key note will also be played again at the end to help you.
Some people find this super helpful to start with and some don't. If you don't find this helpful, just stop the audio after the cadence has played.

Step 7

In the exam you will be asked to identify cadences after some music is played. Here are some practice examples that will be like the ones you hear in your exam. Remember although there is more music, the stages you should go through to work out the music stay the same.
After you feel more comfortable try and restrict yourself to just listening to each example twice like it will be in the exam.

On the first listen see if you can try and identify the cadence:
1. Does the cadence sound odd/weird/randomly finished. Does it end on a minor/major chord which is different to the rest of the music? - Interrupted cadence
2. Does it sound finished?
If it does, is it a strong finish - perfect? or soft - plagal?
3. Does it sound like it fits with the music but it doesn't sound quite finished? - imperfect.

On the second listen see if you can check yourself with the extra skills you have now learnt.
For the perfect / plagal cadences you can double check by listening to the bass notes. In a plagal or perfect cadence the last chord will always be in root position. This means the bass note will be the tonic. This means you can sing up the scale and work out the interval between the last chords.
(These practice questions are based on real music but have been adapted for these questions)