listening

[pianobabe67]

i am at college studing music a level and i find it exciting however i find my listning lessons very hard to comprehend i dont know how to remember cadences and V-I and stuff i am doing extra tutiotion however any tips on remember cadences and chords and how to identify them will be much appriecated thanks

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

I am studing harmony as well. I can just say that there is pretty much one thing one can do: practice. If I need to understand something theoretical further or just clear up some things or just to simply memorise the sounds of certain theoretical aspects of music, I study with myself infront of the piano and really dwelve into the information or problems.

[le_poete_mourant]

The two major cadences are V-I and IV-I.  As time goes by, you'll probably find them more easily distinguishable.  The way I think of it is that IV-I is called the "Amen Cadence," because you can just hear the church organ and the choir singing "amen." 

V-I to me is hard to explain.  It's like a snappy ending.  A ragtime thing, a grand finale.  It has this very satisfying feel to it. 

Sometimes listening to the bass helps too.  If you can hear the intervals it is playing, it makes it easier. 

[rc]

I've always had an easy time with cadences and chords, it's intervals that give me troubles.

For cadences, what I listen for is whether there are notes going up in pitch or down. If it's a perfect cadence, there will be one note that stays the same and two notes that rise.  For a plagal cadence there's one note that stays the same and two that drop.

Plagal cadence seems to drop in pitch, authentic rises.

For the chords it's an association of meaning.  Major is the brighter sounding, minor is darker.  dominant 7th has a 'bluesy' feel to it, and a thicker texture.  Diminished has that discordant, chaotic feel to it.

I think the key is to memorize the feel of the different chords and cadences.