Soloing isn’t just about playing over, or under, or anything in between, just as effective speech isn’t just about finding words that fit together. Soloing, like speech, is about saying something and speaking in ways that others who are receptive and prepared can understand. In music, images, ideas, and feeling are conveyed through sound. Sound can be organized into harmonies and melodies. Melodies are like musical sentences. In music, we call these sentences phrases and phrases, like linguistic sentences, have certain elements. The problem with playing over changes is that it often neglects elements like rhythm, phrases, and cadences.
Of these elements, one that is often overlooked is the cadence. A cadence is the punctuation that ends a musical sentence. In language there are periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, semi-colons, colons, en-dashes and em-dashes. Each type of punctuation conveys its own unique energy and degree of resolution or completion. For example, a period conveys a high sense of finality while a question mark asks for more—some kind of response. Exclamation points are dramatic. They suggest a high degree of finality, like the period, but finish with an authoritative bang!
Mirroring these linguistic punctuations are numerous musical punctuations—cadences—that are employed to complete musical sentences—phrases. Some of the more common kinds of cadences are the authentic, plagal, half, and deceptive cadences. Additionally, these cadences can be made perfect, imperfect, masculine and feminine.
The most final of all cadences is a masculine, authentic, perfect cadence. It is authentic when the phrase ends on the I chord and is preceded by the V chord. What makes it masculine is that it cadences on a strong beat. For example, in the Key of C Major, an authentic cadence would be a G chord (often G7) leading to (preceding) a C chord on the first beat of a measure. What makes the cadence perfect is that the I chord is in root position with the top note of the chord also being the root note of the chord. In this case a C chord in root position with a C note as the highest note of the chord.
Like the authentic cadence, the half cadence can be perfect or imperfect, masculine, or feminine, but what makes the half cadence unique is that it resolves on the V chord and hence suggests continuation rather than completeness. This is particularly useful when a composer wants to transition from one section of a work to another. The half cadence finishes a phrase on the V chord. It is most often preceded by some form of its own dominant chord, i.e., a V or V7 of V leading to the V. For example, in the key of C major, a phrase that ends on a G chord that is preceded by a D or D7 chord. This is an example of what is called secondary dominant harmony or, in this case, pre-dominant harmony.
Another important type of cadence is the deceptive or interrupted cadence. The deceptive cadence begins on the V chord but resolves to a chord other than the I or the V chord, i.e., the VI, or III, etc. The most common resolution being to the vi chord (minor) in a major key or the VI chord (major) in a minor key. As its name implies, the listener anticipates the I or the V, but hears something else.
The plagal cadence leads to a resolving chord from its IV chord. The most common application would be from the IV chord of a key to the I chord of that key. For example, in the key of C major, an F chord resolving to the I chord, or IV to I. Unlike an authentic cadence, however, the plagal cadence feels somewhat unresolved and seems to suggest the need for a further change, often to the dominant chord which leads to the tonic chord. An example might be I – IV – I – V – I.
One cannot think about cadences without thinking about phrases. Thinking about phrases helps one to break out of the box of run-on sentences that basically say nothing—a box created by thinking about what notes or scales work over or under chords and chord progressions. It leads one into the broader study of melody which is the essence of good soloing, good expression, and good writing.
The study of melody, however, is not a one-day course. It goes to the heart of what is called musical composition, be it in the form of songs or the wide range of classical composition, from sonatas, partitas, fugues, concertos, and symphonies. If this study sounds daunting, perhaps that is why musicians and students alike often tend to eschew the study altogether. But the student who is willing and able to put in the time and effort will be amply rewarded in his own music and his enjoyment of music in general. At least, that has been my experience.
Andre Segovia once said, “What the world does not need is another guitar player. What the world does need are artists and musicians who happen to play the guitar.” Why learn to speak in a language you don’t understand? What enjoyment is there in that? Those who do understand recognize those who don’t by the way they play. Short cuts are good when they do no harm, but if they are employed to bypass what needs to be learned, then they become a hindrance to real musical growth and real musical enjoyment.
In a book of my musical studies that I began long ago, I wrote this quote by the poet Rumi. “Come, come, come, whoever you are—wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving—the why makes no difference, ours is not a caravan of despair, Though you may have broken your vow a thousand times, come, come yet again, come!”
