How do you construct a Perfect cadence in G minor?

Question

Without using parallel 5ths or octaves.
I'm doing this for my homework and i understand the general idea but i find it extreamly hard to construct them without using parallel 5ths or octaves.
Pls help!

Answer 1

It would be more useful to have the whole of your phrase - it's very easy to just do the cadence without paralel fifths and octaves. Your perfect cadence is V I, in G minor that is D major to G minor. If you have four part harmony then you could have

Soprano F# G
Alto C D
Tenor A Bb
Bass D G

An easy way to avoid using paralel fifths and octaves is to keep one part static (using a note which is present in both chords, in this case D) whilst the other parts move. Sixths are also your friend - there's nothing against using paralel sixths, plus they sound good and lead to good voicings. Here the tenor and soprano parts are a sixth away and both move up a semitone. I also made it into a V7 chord, otherwise if I just used a plain chord V then there would be two Ds in chord V and two Gs in chord i.

It's hard to spot the paralel fifths and octaves sometimes (when I was taught it my teacher sometimes missed them) - but with practice you will learn to see them. 3rds 4ths and 6ths are always useful to avoid them - as is having two parts moving the same way a 3rd or 6th apart, or two parts moving in opposite ways.