A deceptive cadence temporarily “fools” the listener by pulling the chords in an unexpected direction.
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In music, a cadence is the end of a phrase. It’s easy to identify when a cadence happens in a song: you’ll hear the singer hold a note, or stop singing. It usually happens every 4 or 8 bars. If you think of The Beatles’ song, “All My Loving“, it’s easy to see that there are different kinds of cadences. Some are temporary in nature, as you hear with “Remember I’ll always be true..”. Others have a more “final” sound, as you hear with “And I’ll send all my loving to you.” The temporary ones are called half cadences, while the more final-sounding cadences are known as authentic cadences.
The terminology doesn’t much matter in this discussion. What I want to tell you about is another interesting type of cadence called the deceptive cadence.
A deceptive cadence simply means that the phrase ended on a chord that the listener likely wasn’t expecting. In Classical music, the situation arises when the second-to-the-last chord of a phrase is a V-chord, and the listener is expecting it to finish with a tonic chord (I-chord). In pop music, the term is a little less specific. It simply means that the progression ends up on a chord that wasn’t expected.
A good example can be found in another Beatles song, “P. S. I Love You“, a song written in the key of D major. The line that ends the “P. S. I love you” lyric sits on an A7, and you expect the next chord to be D. However, the next chord is Bb – the flat-Vi chord. In this case, the deceptive cadence elongates the musical phrase, and allows time for the vocal line to move up an octave.
In that sense, the deceptive cadence helps generate energy. Any time a listener expects the tonic chord, and something is put in its place, you create forward motion and energy. That’s because the listener is subconsciously seeking out the tonic chord, and energy builds during the wait.
You can use deceptive cadences in your songs by looking for moments where the tonic chord appears, often directly after a dominant (V) chord. In the place of the tonic chord, try using one of the following common deceptive chords: vi, IV or bVI.
Here are some examples for you to try:
A D E F#m
A F#m D C#m D E D/F#
A Bm E C#m F#m Esus4 E F G A
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