April 25, 2025 • 23 mins
🎶 Welcome to "Key Changes and Modulation Part 2" – a deep dive into one of music theory’s most expressive tools! In this episode, we explore advanced concepts behind key changes and modulation, building on the foundational principles from Part 1. Perfect for music theorists, music students, educators, everyday musicians, and professional performers, this episode breaks down how composers and songwriters use modulation to create emotional shifts, tension, and dynamic storytelling in music.
We’ll cover common modulation types like pivot chord modulation, direct modulation, modal interchange, and tonicization. Discover how modulation plays a key role in classical music, jazz, pop, and film scores, and how understanding these shifts can dramatically improve your composition, arranging, and music analysis skills.
Whether you’re a music theory teacher looking for new ways to engage your students, or a musician seeking to elevate your harmonic vocabulary, this podcast is your go-to guide for mastering modulation.
🔍 Optimize your understanding of key changes, tonal centers, chord progressions, and harmonic movement – all essential components of advanced music theory.
Subscribe for more episodes designed to make complex theory clear and actionable!
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UNKNOWN (00:00):
piano plays softly
SPEAKER_00 (00:43):
Welcome home to my fellow music theory lovers and
enthusiasts alike.
Welcome back to my podcast, TheHarmonious Blacksmith, a music
theory exploration.
Today's episode is part two of atwo-part series about key
(01:03):
changes in modulation.
And I am your humble host, KevinPatrick Fleming.
Applause Yay! Yay! Yay! I loveall my peeps out there.
Thank you so much for listening.
Thank you so much for yoursupport.
(01:26):
And so we begin Season 2,Episode 16.
I do need to remind all of mylisteners out there that this is
a linear and cumulative podcast,meaning that Concept A leads to
Concept B, and Concepts A plus Blead to Concept C, and so on.
(01:49):
So you definitely want to beaware that there is a
construction going on here.
And so to all of my newlylisteners out there first of all
welcome welcome welcome we areso happy you're here and hope
you enjoy the experience but ifyou are a beginner in music
theory you may feel a littlelost jumping into this episode
first I do suggest going back tomy very first episode which is
(02:13):
called the beginnings of musictheory start from there go
through the series and catchback up to here and you will
probably feel a lot morecomfortable learning what we're
learning today and lastly if youlook in the description of this
show you will see a support theshow link and starting at just
three dollars and up you canreally help the show go and your
(02:38):
name or handle will beattributed to it unless you want
to remain anonymous which wouldalso be fine and again i do
appreciate the support y'all itgoes a long way thank you so
much so based on episode 15 whatis a key.
(02:58):
A key is a set of diatonicpitches created from a formula
that work together to makemelodies, harmonies, chords, and
chord progressions.
And keys always have a tonic ortonal center that we call home.
And that feels like home.
For those of y'all that havebeen listening, we know about
(03:19):
musical tension from chordprogressions.
And that tension is created bythe tonic or home base of the
key that everything centersaround.
Remember my analogy of a solarsystem where the sun is the
tonal center and everything thatrevolves around it are all the
other sounds.
They could be the pitches, thechords, or everything that
(03:41):
revolves around the tonal centerof the key.
So if that's what a key is, thenwhat is a key change?
A key change is when you simplygo from that original set of
pitches and you travel to a newset of pitches that again work
(04:02):
together to create melodies,harmonies, chords, and chord
progressions in an agreeablefashion to our ears.
Okay, well if that's what a keyis and that's what a key change
is, then what is modulation?
Modulation involves thetechniques we use in order to
(04:24):
make a key change or a change inthe set of pitches.
So to sum those three things up,a key is a set of diatonic
pitches that work together tomake the sounds that we hear in
music that are agreeable ingeneral.
A key change is when we movethat to a different set of
pitches that does the samething.
And modulation involves thetechniques we use to Got it?
(04:50):
The most basic form ofmodulation that can get us to
another key is called directmodulation, also known as phrase
modulation.
Direct or phrase modulation iswhen a key is changed by going
from one key and literally justraising it or lowering it
(05:16):
without any other smoothconnection.
or technique used to get youthere.
It is really what I call thelaziest form of modulation.
You hear it a lot in major popsongs, for example.
A good example would be I Wantto Dance with Somebody by
Whitney Houston.
It stays in one key and at thevery end of the song, it just
(05:39):
raises up and it reallyenergizes and brightens the
song.
But to give you a generic audioexample so that I'm not
infringing on any copyright Idid music.
I'm going to start with a 1, 4,5, and G with a basic melody,
and then you're going to hear meraise it up to A using a direct
or phrase modulation.
(06:00):
Then after we get to A, I'mgoing to perform that direct
modulation again, and we'regoing to take it up to B.
So it's going to start like thisin the key of G.
1, 4, 5, 1.
Now we'll raise that up.
1, One more time.
(06:24):
One, four, five, one.
So I just sang those three notesover the one, four, five chords.
And you can tell the first timeit was on the level of G.
The second time it was a littlehigher on the level of A, a
whole step up to be exact.
(06:45):
And then we went up anotherwhole step to B at the end.
But I sang the same pitchesfunctionally each time.
As you can tell, I sang the samemelody.
So really all we're doing iswe're taking the tune and we're
just raising it up.
And that's direct modulation ina nutshell.
Let's go to modulation techniquenumber two, which is called...
(07:11):
parallel modulation.
Parallel modulation is aninteresting one because it
involves the same tonic or rootnote in both keys.
An example of this would be thefamous Spanish Romanza, which
starts in E minor, sounds likethis...
(07:37):
et cetera, et cetera, based onan E minor chord.
And then when the second sectioncomes out, it sounds like this.
Which is based on an E majorchord.
And then eventually it returnsback to the A section and goes
(07:59):
back to an E minor chord again.
So as you can tell, it has thesame tonic or root note, which
is E, but one section of thepiece is in minor, the other's
in major, which yields acompletely different set of
pitches and a completelydifferent key.
So again, E major would be, your1-4-5 would be E, A major, B
(08:23):
major, and then back to E.
And if we're in E minor, itwould be E minor, A minor, B
minor and back to E minor.
And that's an example of aparallel modulation.
Our next example of a modulationtechnique is called relative key
(08:48):
modulation.
Relative key modulation is whenthe original key modulates to
the relative minor or major,depending on what you're
starting on.
So if you start in a minor key,you're modulating to the
relative major.
And if you start in a major key,you're modulating to the
relative minor.
A first example of this would bethe epic song Wish You Were Here
(09:13):
by Pink Floyd.
It's a song that starts mainlyin E minor and has all of its
chord progressions surrounding Eminor in the beginning.
And then once it hits the versewhere the vocals come in,
everything mainly revolvesaround G.
And so what happens is when itgoes into the verse, it starts
(09:34):
on a four-chord C And then itgoes to a five chord D and it
also goes to a two chord in G onA minor.
It eventually ends up on Gmajor.
And so the verses are gearedaround G major and they resolve
in G major.
But every time it goes back intothe instrumental break in
(09:56):
between the verses and at theend of the song, it's all
revolves around E minor.
And again, as a friendlyreminder, remember relative keys
share the same exact pitches.
So what's the difference?
We're moving the tonal center.
So one has a tonal center in E.
(10:17):
And the other one has a tonalcenter in G.
And consequently, they soundextremely different.
So a second example of this thatyou can go listen to is I Want
to Hold Your Hand by TheBeatles.
(10:37):
It's mainly in G, but the chorusstarts to hover around E minor.
So I urge you to go think of afew examples of that one.
They're not too difficult, andyou can have fun going down a
rabbit hole.
And just to give you a genericexample of how this modulation
can happen, let's go ahead andstart in E minor.
(10:58):
And I could play something likea I chord in E minor.
And then a IV chord in E minor,which is A minor.
And then the V7 chord, which isB7.
We would, of course, be inharmonic minor at this point.
I'm not going to go there rightnow, but just know that that's
(11:19):
the V of E minor.
And then we can resolve back toE minor.
And we're clearly centering ourtonal center around E minor.
But what if I take that one,four, five, one, and then I go
to a C chord, which is also an Eminor, and then D, and then G,
(11:41):
D, C, D, G.
Wow.
And so we easily got to G major.
Now you can tell that the ear isable to rest on the level of G
major instead of E minor.
And that sums up a relative keymodulation.
Next on deck, we have what iscalled...
(12:02):
chromatic modulation.
A chromatic modulation is one inwhich you alter one or more
pitches within a chordprogression or a melody in order
to travel from one key to thenext in a stealthy and subtle
kind of way.
Now, when I say chromaticism, Imean we're altering a pitch or
(12:26):
pitches by just one half step.
Recall what a chromatic scaleis.
Generally speaking, that's justall the half step.
It's covering all the sounds inthe system.
The root word chroma ofchromatic means color.
And so think of chromatic as allthe colors in the spectrum of
our music system.
(12:46):
So a chromatic scale wouldinclude all the half steps that
we have in our system.
So we're altering a note by ahalf step specifically in order
to create the necessary tensionyou need in order to create a
tension and resonance The mostcommon form of this chromatic
(13:17):
modulation that you hear in popand rock music is called a
secondary dominant.
A secondary dominant is achromatically altered chord that
is used to set up a five, onerelationship in the new key so
that again, our ear gets pulledin that direction.
(13:40):
The most common example of asecondary dominant is what we
call a five of five chord.
So let's say we're in the key ofG major.
1 is G, 4 is C, 5, 7 is D7, andthen we're back to G.
(14:00):
So we're really familiar at thispoint with the dominant
relationship of D7, which givesthat tension, tension, tension
that resolves to G.
So then what is a 5 of 5?
Now, don't let me lose you here,and you can always back up if
needed, but basically what we'redoing is we're creating that 5-1
(14:22):
relationship, but to the 5 chordin the key.
So again, if my 1-4-5 in G isG-C in D, my 5 chord is D,
obviously, right?
So essentially, you're justcreating, you're just saying,
what is the dominant 7 chord ofthat 5 chord?
So if my five chord's D in thekey of G, what is the dominant
(14:45):
seven chord for D?
And the answer is it would beA7.
Because again, if I'm in the keyof D, D would be one, G would be
four, and A7 would be five.
And then we're back to D.
And you can hear how thatsounds.
So now how do we do that inmodulation, though?
So I'm going to go back to G,and G is one.
UNKNOWN (15:09):
G.
SPEAKER_00 (15:10):
C is four, D is five, and back to one.
I'm clearly in G, but now I'mgonna go G, and then a four
chord C.
Now I'm gonna use the secondarydominant, the five of five,
which would be A7, and then toD.
(15:32):
which it's a chromaticallyaltered chord because in the key
of G, when we have an A chord,it is minor.
The two chord in G is A minor.
So essentially the chromaticalteration we're doing here is
we're just sharpening the thirdof the A minor and we're making
it, A minor is spelled A-C-E.
(15:54):
So what we're doing is we'resharpening the C to a C sharp,
which gives you an A major.
That's one pitch changed by onehalf step.
That's it for this entiremechanic to work.
So this may be easier tounderstand.
Back to G on a I chord.
(16:15):
Then C is the IV chord.
Now I'm going to go to a minorII chord.
And then a V chord.
And then I'm soundly in G,right?
But if I go through thatprogression again and I used a
chromatically altered secondarydominant, it would sound like
this.
One chord G, four chord C, andthen now it's the five of five,
(16:43):
which is an A7 that then goes toD.
And I can use that to travel toD now.
So in other words, I can go G isone, C is four, five of five, D.
(17:03):
I am solidly in D now.
Four, five, one.
Now, could you tell the momentat which I traveled from G major
to D major, from one key toanother?
That is the reason I use theterms stealthy and subtle,
(17:24):
because this mechanic uses onepitch, one pitch that is altered
by one half step, and it createsthe necessary tension in order
to create a relationship to gofrom one key to the next.
Okay, I know that was a reallylong explanation for all that,
but that is a wordy subject, noquestion.
(17:47):
And there are many otherexamples of chromatic
alterations and secondarydominance where you can connect
one key to another in a verysubtle and stealthy kind of way.
And honestly, I'll probablydedicate an entire episode to
that in the future.
But for now, we must trudge on.
(18:07):
The next form of modulation thatwe're going to discuss is called
pivot chord or common chordmodulation.
Pivot chord or common chordmodulation is is a modulation
technique in which you use achord or multiple chords that
are shared between the key we'restarting from and the key we're
(18:29):
ending up in.
So let's say I'm in the key of Cnow.
And I'm gonna play a progressionwhere I start with C.
And then I go to a four chord F.
And then a 6 chord A minor.
And then a G, which is a 5.
So I'll do that one more time.
(18:51):
1 is C.
F is 4.
A minor is 6.
G is 5.
Now I'm going to use G, this 5chord, as a pivot chord.
Now I'm going to treat it likeit's a 4 chord in D.
(19:17):
five, one.
Now I'm solidly in D.
So just to give you an example,let's undo that and go back to
C.
So now if my one, four, five isD, G is four, A is five.
Again, my pivot chord or mycommon chord is G, which is the
(19:39):
four of D.
So D chord progression one, G isfour, And then I can go right
back to a C if I want to.
(20:04):
we landed on C again.
So basically what I'm doing isI'm using that G chord, that
pivot chord that exists as afive chord in C, but also a four
chord in D.
I'm using it to lead the earfrom one key to the other and
also back again.
A pretty simple but powerfultechnique.
A couple of famous examples ofthis would be Whitney Houston's
(20:27):
version of I Will Always LoveYou.
I actually don't know about theoriginal Dolly Parton version,
but you can always go down thatrabbit hole for study.
And also I Walk the Line byJohnny Cash.
And I'll just show you thatchord one really quick.
It's actually really simple.
He starts in the key of A major.
So you get A is one, D is four,E is five.
(20:50):
And when he arrives on that fivechord in E, he actually uses
that as a pivot chord to be aone in E now.
So what was a five in A, he'snow using all of a sudden as a
one in E.
So what he does is he sits on itand then he goes to a V chord in
E, which is B7, and then back toE again.
(21:13):
So you can hear it's just a 1-5relationship in E now.
So again, A is 1, D is 4, E is5, and then once he sits on the
5...
creates another fiverelationship, now your ear goes
to E.
Again, that's really simple, butit's also effective.
(21:33):
So all of these examples in thisepisode and the previous are
some of the most common forms ofkey changes in modulation, but
they're not necessarily all ofthem.
And I will always encourage youto go down the rabbit hole of
this and see what you can findout there.
See what different types ofmodulation there are that I
(21:55):
haven't already discussed.
I just wanted to discuss themost common ones, and I hope
that you were able to graspthem, and I hope that you
enjoyed it.
But now it's time for breakdown.
Today we wrapped up a two-partseries on keys, key changes, and
(22:21):
modulation.
We talked about direct or phrasemodulation in which a song or a
melody raises up or lowers downinstantly.
We talked about parallelmodulation where the first key
and the second key both have thesame root or tonic but they have
(22:45):
a different set of pitches inbetween.
We talked about relative keymodulation where you remember
where relative keys are theequal and opposite major and
minor keys that share the samepitches.
(23:05):
We talked about chromaticmodulation, where you can alter
a pitch or multiple pitches justby a half step and create this
powerful mechanic to changekeys.
Remember, secondary dominantswere included in that.
And finally, we talked aboutcommon chord or pivot chord
(23:26):
modulation, where the two keysshare chords that can be used to
smoothly connect key A to key B.
So on to the next episode whereI can't wait to continue this
music theory exploration withall of you.
Have a great week, folks.
piano plays softly
SPEAKER_00 (00:43):
Welcome home to my fellow music theory lovers and
enthusiasts alike.
Welcome back to my podcast, TheHarmonious Blacksmith, a music
theory exploration.
Today's episode is part two of atwo-part series about key
(01:03):
changes in modulation.
And I am your humble host, KevinPatrick Fleming.
Applause Yay! Yay! Yay! I loveall my peeps out there.
Thank you so much for listening.
Thank you so much for yoursupport.
(01:26):
And so we begin Season 2,Episode 16.
I do need to remind all of mylisteners out there that this is
a linear and cumulative podcast,meaning that Concept A leads to
Concept B, and Concepts A plus Blead to Concept C, and so on.
(01:49):
So you definitely want to beaware that there is a
construction going on here.
And so to all of my newlylisteners out there first of all
welcome welcome welcome we areso happy you're here and hope
you enjoy the experience but ifyou are a beginner in music
theory you may feel a littlelost jumping into this episode
first I do suggest going back tomy very first episode which is
(02:13):
called the beginnings of musictheory start from there go
through the series and catchback up to here and you will
probably feel a lot morecomfortable learning what we're
learning today and lastly if youlook in the description of this
show you will see a support theshow link and starting at just
three dollars and up you canreally help the show go and your
(02:38):
name or handle will beattributed to it unless you want
to remain anonymous which wouldalso be fine and again i do
appreciate the support y'all itgoes a long way thank you so
much so based on episode 15 whatis a key.
(02:58):
A key is a set of diatonicpitches created from a formula
that work together to makemelodies, harmonies, chords, and
chord progressions.
And keys always have a tonic ortonal center that we call home.
And that feels like home.
For those of y'all that havebeen listening, we know about
(03:19):
musical tension from chordprogressions.
And that tension is created bythe tonic or home base of the
key that everything centersaround.
Remember my analogy of a solarsystem where the sun is the
tonal center and everything thatrevolves around it are all the
other sounds.
They could be the pitches, thechords, or everything that
(03:41):
revolves around the tonal centerof the key.
So if that's what a key is, thenwhat is a key change?
A key change is when you simplygo from that original set of
pitches and you travel to a newset of pitches that again work
(04:02):
together to create melodies,harmonies, chords, and chord
progressions in an agreeablefashion to our ears.
Okay, well if that's what a keyis and that's what a key change
is, then what is modulation?
Modulation involves thetechniques we use in order to
(04:24):
make a key change or a change inthe set of pitches.
So to sum those three things up,a key is a set of diatonic
pitches that work together tomake the sounds that we hear in
music that are agreeable ingeneral.
A key change is when we movethat to a different set of
pitches that does the samething.
And modulation involves thetechniques we use to Got it?
(04:50):
The most basic form ofmodulation that can get us to
another key is called directmodulation, also known as phrase
modulation.
Direct or phrase modulation iswhen a key is changed by going
from one key and literally justraising it or lowering it
(05:16):
without any other smoothconnection.
or technique used to get youthere.
It is really what I call thelaziest form of modulation.
You hear it a lot in major popsongs, for example.
A good example would be I Wantto Dance with Somebody by
Whitney Houston.
It stays in one key and at thevery end of the song, it just
(05:39):
raises up and it reallyenergizes and brightens the
song.
But to give you a generic audioexample so that I'm not
infringing on any copyright Idid music.
I'm going to start with a 1, 4,5, and G with a basic melody,
and then you're going to hear meraise it up to A using a direct
or phrase modulation.
(06:00):
Then after we get to A, I'mgoing to perform that direct
modulation again, and we'regoing to take it up to B.
So it's going to start like thisin the key of G.
1, 4, 5, 1.
Now we'll raise that up.
1, One more time.
(06:24):
One, four, five, one.
So I just sang those three notesover the one, four, five chords.
And you can tell the first timeit was on the level of G.
The second time it was a littlehigher on the level of A, a
whole step up to be exact.
(06:45):
And then we went up anotherwhole step to B at the end.
But I sang the same pitchesfunctionally each time.
As you can tell, I sang the samemelody.
So really all we're doing iswe're taking the tune and we're
just raising it up.
And that's direct modulation ina nutshell.
Let's go to modulation techniquenumber two, which is called...
(07:11):
parallel modulation.
Parallel modulation is aninteresting one because it
involves the same tonic or rootnote in both keys.
An example of this would be thefamous Spanish Romanza, which
starts in E minor, sounds likethis...
(07:37):
et cetera, et cetera, based onan E minor chord.
And then when the second sectioncomes out, it sounds like this.
Which is based on an E majorchord.
And then eventually it returnsback to the A section and goes
(07:59):
back to an E minor chord again.
So as you can tell, it has thesame tonic or root note, which
is E, but one section of thepiece is in minor, the other's
in major, which yields acompletely different set of
pitches and a completelydifferent key.
So again, E major would be, your1-4-5 would be E, A major, B
(08:23):
major, and then back to E.
And if we're in E minor, itwould be E minor, A minor, B
minor and back to E minor.
And that's an example of aparallel modulation.
Our next example of a modulationtechnique is called relative key
(08:48):
modulation.
Relative key modulation is whenthe original key modulates to
the relative minor or major,depending on what you're
starting on.
So if you start in a minor key,you're modulating to the
relative major.
And if you start in a major key,you're modulating to the
relative minor.
A first example of this would bethe epic song Wish You Were Here
(09:13):
by Pink Floyd.
It's a song that starts mainlyin E minor and has all of its
chord progressions surrounding Eminor in the beginning.
And then once it hits the versewhere the vocals come in,
everything mainly revolvesaround G.
And so what happens is when itgoes into the verse, it starts
(09:34):
on a four-chord C And then itgoes to a five chord D and it
also goes to a two chord in G onA minor.
It eventually ends up on Gmajor.
And so the verses are gearedaround G major and they resolve
in G major.
But every time it goes back intothe instrumental break in
(09:56):
between the verses and at theend of the song, it's all
revolves around E minor.
And again, as a friendlyreminder, remember relative keys
share the same exact pitches.
So what's the difference?
We're moving the tonal center.
So one has a tonal center in E.
(10:17):
And the other one has a tonalcenter in G.
And consequently, they soundextremely different.
So a second example of this thatyou can go listen to is I Want
to Hold Your Hand by TheBeatles.
(10:37):
It's mainly in G, but the chorusstarts to hover around E minor.
So I urge you to go think of afew examples of that one.
They're not too difficult, andyou can have fun going down a
rabbit hole.
And just to give you a genericexample of how this modulation
can happen, let's go ahead andstart in E minor.
(10:58):
And I could play something likea I chord in E minor.
And then a IV chord in E minor,which is A minor.
And then the V7 chord, which isB7.
We would, of course, be inharmonic minor at this point.
I'm not going to go there rightnow, but just know that that's
(11:19):
the V of E minor.
And then we can resolve back toE minor.
And we're clearly centering ourtonal center around E minor.
But what if I take that one,four, five, one, and then I go
to a C chord, which is also an Eminor, and then D, and then G,
(11:41):
D, C, D, G.
Wow.
And so we easily got to G major.
Now you can tell that the ear isable to rest on the level of G
major instead of E minor.
And that sums up a relative keymodulation.
Next on deck, we have what iscalled...
(12:02):
chromatic modulation.
A chromatic modulation is one inwhich you alter one or more
pitches within a chordprogression or a melody in order
to travel from one key to thenext in a stealthy and subtle
kind of way.
Now, when I say chromaticism, Imean we're altering a pitch or
(12:26):
pitches by just one half step.
Recall what a chromatic scaleis.
Generally speaking, that's justall the half step.
It's covering all the sounds inthe system.
The root word chroma ofchromatic means color.
And so think of chromatic as allthe colors in the spectrum of
our music system.
(12:46):
So a chromatic scale wouldinclude all the half steps that
we have in our system.
So we're altering a note by ahalf step specifically in order
to create the necessary tensionyou need in order to create a
tension and resonance The mostcommon form of this chromatic
(13:17):
modulation that you hear in popand rock music is called a
secondary dominant.
A secondary dominant is achromatically altered chord that
is used to set up a five, onerelationship in the new key so
that again, our ear gets pulledin that direction.
(13:40):
The most common example of asecondary dominant is what we
call a five of five chord.
So let's say we're in the key ofG major.
1 is G, 4 is C, 5, 7 is D7, andthen we're back to G.
(14:00):
So we're really familiar at thispoint with the dominant
relationship of D7, which givesthat tension, tension, tension
that resolves to G.
So then what is a 5 of 5?
Now, don't let me lose you here,and you can always back up if
needed, but basically what we'redoing is we're creating that 5-1
(14:22):
relationship, but to the 5 chordin the key.
So again, if my 1-4-5 in G isG-C in D, my 5 chord is D,
obviously, right?
So essentially, you're justcreating, you're just saying,
what is the dominant 7 chord ofthat 5 chord?
So if my five chord's D in thekey of G, what is the dominant
(14:45):
seven chord for D?
And the answer is it would beA7.
Because again, if I'm in the keyof D, D would be one, G would be
four, and A7 would be five.
And then we're back to D.
And you can hear how thatsounds.
So now how do we do that inmodulation, though?
So I'm going to go back to G,and G is one.
UNKNOWN (15:09):
G.
SPEAKER_00 (15:10):
C is four, D is five, and back to one.
I'm clearly in G, but now I'mgonna go G, and then a four
chord C.
Now I'm gonna use the secondarydominant, the five of five,
which would be A7, and then toD.
(15:32):
which it's a chromaticallyaltered chord because in the key
of G, when we have an A chord,it is minor.
The two chord in G is A minor.
So essentially the chromaticalteration we're doing here is
we're just sharpening the thirdof the A minor and we're making
it, A minor is spelled A-C-E.
(15:54):
So what we're doing is we'resharpening the C to a C sharp,
which gives you an A major.
That's one pitch changed by onehalf step.
That's it for this entiremechanic to work.
So this may be easier tounderstand.
Back to G on a I chord.
(16:15):
Then C is the IV chord.
Now I'm going to go to a minorII chord.
And then a V chord.
And then I'm soundly in G,right?
But if I go through thatprogression again and I used a
chromatically altered secondarydominant, it would sound like
this.
One chord G, four chord C, andthen now it's the five of five,
(16:43):
which is an A7 that then goes toD.
And I can use that to travel toD now.
So in other words, I can go G isone, C is four, five of five, D.
(17:03):
I am solidly in D now.
Four, five, one.
Now, could you tell the momentat which I traveled from G major
to D major, from one key toanother?
That is the reason I use theterms stealthy and subtle,
(17:24):
because this mechanic uses onepitch, one pitch that is altered
by one half step, and it createsthe necessary tension in order
to create a relationship to gofrom one key to the next.
Okay, I know that was a reallylong explanation for all that,
but that is a wordy subject, noquestion.
(17:47):
And there are many otherexamples of chromatic
alterations and secondarydominance where you can connect
one key to another in a verysubtle and stealthy kind of way.
And honestly, I'll probablydedicate an entire episode to
that in the future.
But for now, we must trudge on.
(18:07):
The next form of modulation thatwe're going to discuss is called
pivot chord or common chordmodulation.
Pivot chord or common chordmodulation is is a modulation
technique in which you use achord or multiple chords that
are shared between the key we'restarting from and the key we're
(18:29):
ending up in.
So let's say I'm in the key of Cnow.
And I'm gonna play a progressionwhere I start with C.
And then I go to a four chord F.
And then a 6 chord A minor.
And then a G, which is a 5.
So I'll do that one more time.
(18:51):
1 is C.
F is 4.
A minor is 6.
G is 5.
Now I'm going to use G, this 5chord, as a pivot chord.
Now I'm going to treat it likeit's a 4 chord in D.
(19:17):
five, one.
Now I'm solidly in D.
So just to give you an example,let's undo that and go back to
C.
So now if my one, four, five isD, G is four, A is five.
Again, my pivot chord or mycommon chord is G, which is the
(19:39):
four of D.
So D chord progression one, G isfour, And then I can go right
back to a C if I want to.
(20:04):
we landed on C again.
So basically what I'm doing isI'm using that G chord, that
pivot chord that exists as afive chord in C, but also a four
chord in D.
I'm using it to lead the earfrom one key to the other and
also back again.
A pretty simple but powerfultechnique.
A couple of famous examples ofthis would be Whitney Houston's
(20:27):
version of I Will Always LoveYou.
I actually don't know about theoriginal Dolly Parton version,
but you can always go down thatrabbit hole for study.
And also I Walk the Line byJohnny Cash.
And I'll just show you thatchord one really quick.
It's actually really simple.
He starts in the key of A major.
So you get A is one, D is four,E is five.
(20:50):
And when he arrives on that fivechord in E, he actually uses
that as a pivot chord to be aone in E now.
So what was a five in A, he'snow using all of a sudden as a
one in E.
So what he does is he sits on itand then he goes to a V chord in
E, which is B7, and then back toE again.
(21:13):
So you can hear it's just a 1-5relationship in E now.
So again, A is 1, D is 4, E is5, and then once he sits on the
5...
creates another fiverelationship, now your ear goes
to E.
Again, that's really simple, butit's also effective.
(21:33):
So all of these examples in thisepisode and the previous are
some of the most common forms ofkey changes in modulation, but
they're not necessarily all ofthem.
And I will always encourage youto go down the rabbit hole of
this and see what you can findout there.
See what different types ofmodulation there are that I
(21:55):
haven't already discussed.
I just wanted to discuss themost common ones, and I hope
that you were able to graspthem, and I hope that you
enjoyed it.
But now it's time for breakdown.
Today we wrapped up a two-partseries on keys, key changes, and
(22:21):
modulation.
We talked about direct or phrasemodulation in which a song or a
melody raises up or lowers downinstantly.
We talked about parallelmodulation where the first key
and the second key both have thesame root or tonic but they have
(22:45):
a different set of pitches inbetween.
We talked about relative keymodulation where you remember
where relative keys are theequal and opposite major and
minor keys that share the samepitches.
(23:05):
We talked about chromaticmodulation, where you can alter
a pitch or multiple pitches justby a half step and create this
powerful mechanic to changekeys.
Remember, secondary dominantswere included in that.
And finally, we talked aboutcommon chord or pivot chord
(23:26):
modulation, where the two keysshare chords that can be used to
smoothly connect key A to key B.
So on to the next episode whereI can't wait to continue this
music theory exploration withall of you.
Have a great week, folks.
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