When I played high school band my band director would ask drummers to play a cadence also.
I believe it has a different definition when applied to drumming.
Music theory has a different definition. I was trained to be an instrumental band teacher at Indiana University. However I wound up teaching vocal music to elementary aged children, because that is what the school system needed at the time.
I am qualified to teach instrumental as well as vocal music to children K-12.
I did teach for over twenty years and am retiring at this time because jobs seem to be at a premium at this time.
I played Jazz and other types of live music on the side while teaching for several decades. I plan to substitute teach while drawing my retirement now, while living in Michigan. Let me share this information with you regarding cadence. I believe this explanation will really clear up any confusion you have on harmonic cadence.
If you have the money and resources, please buy The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. This book was written by George Russell. It was written in 1953 by a bastard son of a white man who was a professor of music at Oberlin University. His mother was black. George describes a profound thought in this treatise about Jazz Music, which can be applied to Gospel Music as well. The book describes a "River Trip" explanation of Jazz Improvisational Styles. I am going to use his idea, and mix it with mine to explain harmonic cadence. I believe that the idea of cadence will be easily understood after this explanation. If not please write to me for further explanation.
Let's take a large river, like the Mississippi for example, and call it a tune. Now suppose the small towns along its shores are chords, and the larger towns are not only chords, but tonic stations as well. (Tonic stations are points in any chord-built composition to which two or more chords tend to resolve. This is where you have a cadence. The big over all tonic station would be the key in which the music is written.)
The Mississippi river is the key of Aflat. (See George's book pp. xviii-xix). We start in a big city like St. Louis on F minor for a measure of four beats, then we flow to some small towns for a measure of Bflat minor7th for four beats and E flat 7th for four beats, before we land at another big city called Memphis on A flat Major for a measure of four beats. Memphis is a Tonic Station. The Eflat 7th to Aflat Major is an Authentic Cadence. Now we flow on to Dflat Major for four beats then F Major for four beats, to New Orleans on a CMajor for four beats. This is a Plagal Cadence of F to C. New Orleans is another Tonic Station. The tune continues to more progressions. Some chords are going to small towns, others stop at big cities. Cadences come only at big cities.
The stopping points are cadence points. They are necessary to identify the tune. The other chords are necessary, but do not identify the tune. Finally the tune comes to a final cadence in A flat where the flow of the tune is finished.
This is the easiest explanation I can think of for explaning cadence without drawing you a picture.
His book is not expensive for a musician who really has a desire to learn. I copied it from a friend for free back in the early 1980's. It cost maybe $30.00 then. It might cost $50-$100 now. However that is cheap for the information that it contains.
This information is a mixture of my mind and his in explanation of cadence. He was trying to explain horizontal and vertical melodies as composed by several of the leading jazz saxophonists of the 40's and 50's. I am using it to explain chord progression in Gospel Music of the 1990's to the present.
I had the pleasure of studying with one of Russell's leading disciples, Dr. David N. Baker at Indiana University, during the 1970's.
I am not a disciple or a fan of Dave Baker's music however. I find it far too abstract for my tastes. I include these names not to impress, but only for the sake of letting you know that these are not my thoughts only, but are based upon the thoughts of other men of learned expertise in music as well as my own. I am not delusional. I thank God for my own sound mind and thoughts which are garnered from other profound thinkers. I merely add my own two cents.
humbly submitted,
brother scott
