The Harmonious Blacksmith: A Music Theory Exploration

Ep. 16 : Key_Changes_&_Modulation_Part_2

• Kevin Patrick Fleming • Season 2 • Episode 16

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🎶 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:

piano plays softly

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome home to my fellow music theory lovers and enthusiasts alike. Welcome back to my podcast, The Harmonious Blacksmith, a music theory exploration. Today's episode is part two of a two-part series about key changes in modulation. And I am your humble host, Kevin Patrick Fleming. Applause Yay! Yay! Yay! I love all my peeps out there. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for your support. And so we begin Season 2, Episode 16. I do need to remind all of my listeners out there that this is a linear and cumulative podcast, meaning that Concept A leads to Concept B, and Concepts A plus B lead to Concept C, and so on. So you definitely want to be aware that there is a construction going on here. And so to all of my newly listeners out there first of all welcome welcome welcome we are so happy you're here and hope you enjoy the experience but if you are a beginner in music theory you may feel a little lost jumping into this episode first I do suggest going back to my very first episode which is called the beginnings of music theory start from there go through the series and catch back up to here and you will probably feel a lot more comfortable learning what we're learning today and lastly if you look in the description of this show you will see a support the show link and starting at just three dollars and up you can really help the show go and your name or handle will be attributed to it unless you want to remain anonymous which would also be fine and again i do appreciate the support y'all it goes a long way thank you so much so based on episode 15 what is a key. A key is a set of diatonic pitches created from a formula that work together to make melodies, harmonies, chords, and chord progressions. And keys always have a tonic or tonal center that we call home. And that feels like home. For those of y'all that have been listening, we know about musical tension from chord progressions. And that tension is created by the tonic or home base of the key that everything centers around. Remember my analogy of a solar system where the sun is the tonal center and everything that revolves around it are all the other sounds. They could be the pitches, the chords, or everything that revolves around the tonal center of the key. So if that's what a key is, then what is a key change? A key change is when you simply go from that original set of pitches and you travel to a new set of pitches that again work together to create melodies, harmonies, chords, and chord progressions in an agreeable fashion to our ears. Okay, well if that's what a key is and that's what a key change is, then what is modulation? Modulation involves the techniques we use in order to make a key change or a change in the set of pitches. So to sum those three things up, a key is a set of diatonic pitches that work together to make the sounds that we hear in music that are agreeable in general. A key change is when we move that to a different set of pitches that does the same thing. And modulation involves the techniques we use to Got it? The most basic form of modulation that can get us to another key is called direct modulation, also known as phrase modulation. Direct or phrase modulation is when a key is changed by going from one key and literally just raising it or lowering it without any other smooth connection. or technique used to get you there. It is really what I call the laziest form of modulation. You hear it a lot in major pop songs, for example. A good example would be I Want to Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston. It stays in one key and at the very end of the song, it just raises up and it really energizes and brightens the song. But to give you a generic audio example so that I'm not infringing on any copyright I did music. I'm going to start with a 1, 4, 5, and G with a basic melody, and then you're going to hear me raise it up to A using a direct or phrase modulation. Then after we get to A, I'm going to perform that direct modulation again, and we're going to take it up to B. So it's going to start like this in the key of G. 1, 4, 5, 1. Now we'll raise that up. 1, One more time. One, four, five, one. So I just sang those three notes over the one, four, five chords. And you can tell the first time it was on the level of G. The second time it was a little higher on the level of A, a whole step up to be exact. And then we went up another whole step to B at the end. But I sang the same pitches functionally each time. As you can tell, I sang the same melody. So really all we're doing is we're taking the tune and we're just raising it up. And that's direct modulation in a nutshell. Let's go to modulation technique number two, which is called... parallel modulation. Parallel modulation is an interesting one because it involves the same tonic or root note in both keys. An example of this would be the famous Spanish Romanza, which starts in E minor, sounds like this... et cetera, et cetera, based on an E minor chord. And then when the second section comes out, it sounds like this. Which is based on an E major chord. And then eventually it returns back to the A section and goes back to an E minor chord again. So as you can tell, it has the same tonic or root note, which is E, but one section of the piece is in minor, the other's in major, which yields a completely different set of pitches and a completely different key. So again, E major would be, your 1-4-5 would be E, A major, B major, and then back to E. And if we're in E minor, it would be E minor, A minor, B minor and back to E minor. And that's an example of a parallel modulation. Our next example of a modulation technique is called relative key modulation. Relative key modulation is when the 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 be the epic song Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. It's a song that starts mainly in E minor and has all of its chord progressions surrounding E minor in the beginning. And then once it hits the verse where the vocals come in, everything mainly revolves around G. And so what happens is when it goes into the verse, it starts on a four-chord C And then it goes to a five chord D and it also goes to a two chord in G on A minor. It eventually ends up on G major. And so the verses are geared around G major and they resolve in G major. But every time it goes back into the instrumental break in between the verses and at the end of the song, it's all revolves around E minor. And again, as a friendly reminder, 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. And the other one has a tonal center in G. And consequently, they sound extremely different. So a second example of this that you can go listen to is I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles. It's mainly in G, but the chorus starts to hover around E minor. So I urge you to go think of a few examples of that one. They're not too difficult, and you can have fun going down a rabbit hole. And just to give you a generic example of how this modulation can happen, let's go ahead and start in E minor. And I could play something like a I chord in E minor. And then a IV chord in E minor, which is A minor. And then the V7 chord, which is B7. We would, of course, be in harmonic minor at this point. I'm not going to go there right now, but just know that that's the V of E minor. And then we can resolve back to E minor. And we're clearly centering our tonal 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 E minor, and then D, and then G, D, C, D, G. Wow. And so we easily got to G major. Now you can tell that the ear is able to rest on the level of G major instead of E minor. And that sums up a relative key modulation. Next on deck, we have what is called... chromatic modulation. A chromatic modulation is one in which you alter one or more pitches within a chord progression or a melody in order to travel from one key to the next in a stealthy and subtle kind of way. Now, when I say chromaticism, I mean we're altering a pitch or pitches by just one half step. Recall what a chromatic scale is. Generally speaking, that's just all the half step. It's covering all the sounds in the system. The root word chroma of chromatic means color. And so think of chromatic as all the colors in the spectrum of our music system. So a chromatic scale would include all the half steps that we have in our system. So we're altering a note by a half step specifically in order to create the necessary tension you need in order to create a tension and resonance The most common form of this chromatic modulation that you hear in pop and rock music is called a secondary dominant. A secondary dominant is a chromatically altered chord that is used to set up a five, one relationship in the new key so that again, our ear gets pulled in that direction. The most common example of a secondary dominant is what we call a five of five chord. So let's say we're in the key of G major. 1 is G, 4 is C, 5, 7 is D7, and then we're back to G. So we're really familiar at this point with the dominant relationship of D7, which gives that 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're doing is we're creating that 5-1 relationship, but to the 5 chord in the key. So again, if my 1-4-5 in G is G-C in D, my 5 chord is D, obviously, right? So essentially, you're just creating, you're just saying, what is the dominant 7 chord of that 5 chord? So if my five chord's D in the key of G, what is the dominant seven chord for D? And the answer is it would be A7. Because again, if I'm in the key of 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 that sounds. So now how do we do that in modulation, though? So I'm going to go back to G, and G is one.

UNKNOWN:

G.

SPEAKER_00:

C is four, D is five, and back to one. I'm clearly in G, but now I'm gonna go G, and then a four chord C. Now I'm gonna use the secondary dominant, the five of five, which would be A7, and then to D. which it's a chromatically altered 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 chromatic alteration we're doing here is we're just sharpening the third of the A minor and we're making it, A minor is spelled A-C-E. So what we're doing is we're sharpening the C to a C sharp, which gives you an A major. That's one pitch changed by one half step. That's it for this entire mechanic to work. So this may be easier to understand. Back to G on a I chord. Then C is the IV chord. Now I'm going to go to a minor II chord. And then a V chord. And then I'm soundly in G, right? But if I go through that progression again and I used a chromatically altered secondary dominant, it would sound like this. One chord G, four chord C, and then now it's the five of five, which is an A7 that then goes to D. And I can use that to travel to D now. So in other words, I can go G is one, C is four, five of five, D. I am solidly in D now. Four, five, one. Now, could you tell the moment at which I traveled from G major to D major, from one key to another? That is the reason I use the terms stealthy and subtle, because this mechanic uses one pitch, one pitch that is altered by one half step, and it creates the necessary tension in order to create a relationship to go from one key to the next. Okay, I know that was a really long explanation for all that, but that is a wordy subject, no question. And there are many other examples of chromatic alterations and secondary dominance where you can connect one key to another in a very subtle and stealthy kind of way. And honestly, I'll probably dedicate an entire episode to that in the future. But for now, we must trudge on. The next form of modulation that we're going to discuss is called pivot chord or common chord modulation. Pivot chord or common chord modulation is is a modulation technique in which you use a chord or multiple chords that are shared between the key we're starting from and the key we're ending up in. So let's say I'm in the key of C now. And I'm gonna play a progression where 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. 1 is C. F is 4. A minor is 6. G is 5. Now I'm going to use G, this 5 chord, as a pivot chord. Now I'm going to treat it like it's a 4 chord in D. 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 is D, G is four, A is five. Again, my pivot chord or my common chord is G, which is the four of D. So D chord progression one, G is four, And then I can go right back to a C if I want to. we landed on C again. So basically what I'm doing is I'm using that G chord, that pivot chord that exists as a five chord in C, but also a four chord in D. I'm using it to lead the ear from one key to the other and also back again. A pretty simple but powerful technique. A couple of famous examples of this would be Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You. I actually don't know about the original Dolly Parton version, but you can always go down that rabbit hole for study. And also I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash. And I'll just show you that chord 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. And when he arrives on that five chord in E, he actually uses that as a pivot chord to be a one in E now. So what was a five in A, he's now using all of a sudden as a one in E. So what he does is he sits on it and then he goes to a V chord in E, which is B7, and then back to E again. So you can hear it's just a 1-5 relationship in E now. So again, A is 1, D is 4, E is 5, and then once he sits on the 5... creates another five relationship, now your ear goes to E. Again, that's really simple, but it's also effective. So all of these examples in this episode and the previous are some of the most common forms of key changes in modulation, but they're not necessarily all of them. And I will always encourage you to go down the rabbit hole of this and see what you can find out there. See what different types of modulation there are that I haven't already discussed. I just wanted to discuss the most common ones, and I hope that you were able to grasp them, and I hope that you enjoyed it. But now it's time for breakdown. Today we wrapped up a two-part series on keys, key changes, and modulation. We talked about direct or phrase modulation in which a song or a melody raises up or lowers down instantly. We talked about parallel modulation where the first key and the second key both have the same root or tonic but they have a different set of pitches in between. We talked about relative key modulation where you remember where relative keys are the equal and opposite major and minor keys that share the same pitches. We talked about chromatic modulation, where you can alter a pitch or multiple pitches just by a half step and create this powerful mechanic to change keys. Remember, secondary dominants were included in that. And finally, we talked about common chord or pivot chord modulation, where the two keys share chords that can be used to smoothly connect key A to key B. So on to the next episode where I can't wait to continue this music theory exploration with all of you. Have a great week, folks.