The Plagal Landing
The four falling to the one: the amen at the end of a hymn. Nothing in it pushes. Every voice either falls by the smallest possible distance or stays put, which is why it settles instead of snapping shut.
- 2 chords
- no leading tone
- nothing rises
same family
The progression
IV - I
Why it works
In C: F is F, A, C and the tonic is C, E, G. They share exactly one note. The C holds. The F falls a half step to E. The A falls a whole step to G. Nothing rises and the bass does not leap. Compare that with G to C, where the B climbs into the tonic and the bass jumps a fifth. One has muscle in it; the other simply sinks into place. That falling fourth-to-third is the fingerprint of every plagal move.
Hear it in context
The reason it cannot push is that the F chord has no B in it. The leading tone, the note a half step under home, is simply absent, and so is the tritone. There is nothing to resolve, so nothing is being proved. Many theorists prefer to call this plagal motion rather than a cadence, because in eighteenth-century music it usually sits after a real cadence, extending the tonic, or at the start of a phrase.
Make it yours
- Add the minor iv
IV, iv, I turns a soft landing into a bittersweet one.
- Use it mid-phrase
A plagal move between two lines keeps a verse moving without ever fully stopping.
- Stack two of them
I, bVII, IV, I is the double plagal, and it is why so many rock outros can fade forever.
When to reach for it
For an ending that should feel like a breath rather than a full stop, and for a lyric about acceptance rather than resolution.
When to leave it alone
When the section has to end and mean it. On its own this is too gentle to close a last chorus.
Keep going
Everything in chord progressions
- The ii V I
- The Deceptive Cadence
- The Plagal Landing
- The Picardy Third
- The Gospel Sus