Hey guys, just a quick tip. If this is too fast for your brain (as it is for mine), put the video on 0,75 speed. Not even is it much easier to understand but he also sounds like he is drunk which helps you to not feel intimidated by all his modulation skills. You're welcome :D
It actually sounds as if it was speeded up intentionally and designed to be slowed down for possible understanding. At 0,5 speed it is even more funny also! :)
My favorite way to modulate is to keep the listener so confused in general that they don't understand anything that is happening to them. Then you can do whatever you want and it all just works out because nobody knows what you did anyway.
This is one of your best videos in my opinion. I really love how you used a real life scenario to give a sort of chronology and also a graduation of complexity to the techniques you demonstrate.
My prediction was a chain. If you don't know how to get there, go to something you can get to. Just keep repeating until you get to something that can take you there.
I personally really like the more baroque way of modulating quickly: sequences. If you line them up correctly, you can often modulate fairly smoothly using since nice chromatic motion
I love that you have the "Building Blocks" library complete now. It's awesome to be able to link to those videos when referencing those concepts. Awesome!
I composed a piece in which I wanted to go from A major to E-flat major. I used the V in A as the Neapolitan in E-flat as my pivot. I like the Neapolitan anyway so I thought it worked well.
Another interesting way to go from D major to Ab major is by using the V chord of D major as a common chord, which acts as the Neapolitan chord of G# major (the enharmonic scale of Ab major)! I learnt it a week ago and I was fascinated!
Neapolitan and triton substitution are closely related, and using A7 as a triton substitution to resolve to Ab was the first solution he suggested in the video.
I like chromatic mediants, they sound cool and are very versatile, I'm writing a practice piece now that's basically a rondo where the returning subject is in Dm, and the challenge is modulating as smoothly as possible to every major key within 4 chords, it's really fun!
Now you made it, one of the best videos about modulation on youtube. I honestly felt like watching you solve a math problem, and boy it was a fun ride. Thanks!
Same thought here. When you presented the problem the first thing that came to mind was diminished7ths which you presented as 'more advanced' but in classical theory is fairly basic. A tritone sub however you don't even learn about until you take Jazz Theory.
An augmented fifth-sixth-chord with double dominant funktion appears e.g. in Beethovens 5. Symphony, 2. movement (Modulation from ab major to c major). And in works of Bruckner and Richard Strauss this chord is often used with (simple) dominant funktion, in prinziple as a tritone substitution. So I learned this term in lessons about late romantic harmonies.
True I have heard this comparison between aug6 chords (or German 6/5 chords) and tritone subs. Though they aren't strictly tritone subs because true tritone subs require a paralell 5th to resolve.
There are parallel fifths in resolve of this chord in pieces of the Vienna Classicism and Romanticism. They are calld „Mozartquinten“ (Mozart‘s fifths). At the moment I have no example but I will pick some up...
"because true tritone subs require a paralell 5th to resolve" Not really. It depends on the chord. Yes, in its simplest form it does, but as pointed out above, that happens sometimes even in classical music. But a lot of the time the tritone substitution is a 7b5 chord. Actually, I would argue that this is the "true" tritone substitution chord, because G7b5 and Db7b5 have exactly the same notes in them. Augmented 6th is basically a different way of looking at the same phenomenon. In classical music it's pure voice leading - you have the augmented 6th that resolves outwards (for example the augmented 6th in the key of C would technically be an Ab7, but in classical analysis the chord is based on both the Ab and the F# resolving to a G). It's not treated as an actual dominant 7th chord in classical analysis. But in jazz analysis Ab7 and D7 share the same tritone (that is between the 3rd and 7th of the chord) and just have a different bass note. I don't see a reason with treating them as a different thing. Tritone substitution and augmented 6th are just two different ways of analyzing the same thing. In jazz analysis people tend to think about harmony more vertically than horizontally. In classical analysis it's the other way around - voice leading is what it's all about.
One of my favorite ways to bridge two major chords a tritone apart can be heard in many film soundtracks. I - iii (6 4) - bV (6) - bV Those 2 middle chords in their inversions (second and first respectively) lend the progression a nice chromatically descending bassline, which you can hear everywhere in works ranging from Giacchino (Star Trek) Elfman (Batman) to Williams (The Last Crusade).
Patrick Hollen that's super smooth and beautiful... I wonder if it's because of the parallel sixths with the bass. . Lately I've been thinking that if you shove parallel sixths in an evident way (involving soprano or bass in said interval) within the voicing you can pretty much go wild (or absolutely conventional) and things will sound marvelous nevertheless
To get to Ab Major from D major using a tritone sub, you can also try DM - Gm - FM - EbM6 (or Eb7) - AbM, or DM - GM - FM - Em - EbM - AbM. You're still using a tritone, but your tritone is instead the bII of your starting key and the V of the next key. Plus the ii - bII is a ii-subV. Sounds a bit like a weaker ii-V but can be used to modulate to distant chords.
Diminished seventh chord was literally the first option that crossed my mind. Your way (two modulations via parallel keys) was my second idea. And as you started talking about the modulation to B-flat major, I came up with using B-flat major as an extratonal dominant to E-flat major (the actual dominant).
Okay hear me out, mode mixture resolving to d minor. Passage using the Neopolitan (Eb major) as a predominant chord to familiarize the listener, then all you have to do is the next time the neopolitan chord comes up, add in a seventh. Also you can use the late romantic staple the flat VI, which is Bb major, tonicize it (which sounds) pretty good, repeat twice, and then resolve to its parallel minor counterpart. This is ii in Ab, so follow it up with an Eb7 and voila.
I once modulated from A Minor to F# Major, which is quite a distant modulation indeed! I did it in just three steps: 1) Modulate from A Minor to the parallel Major, C Major. This was reasonable smooth. 2) In different voicings, play the C Major chord lower then jumping up to the F# Major. While it’s quite attention-grabbing, in the context of the piece it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do as the piece was definitely a slightly more out-there composition, at least in terms of key changes. 3) Spend a couple of bars sitting on an F# Major power chord. This is a wonderfully simple way of establishing a tonality without actually doing anything, and quietly and neatly resolves the uncertainty from step 2.
A technique I really like is using the German65 chord to modulate to a key a halfstep away. You just treat the German65 chord as a dominant seventh chord, then resolve that as expected. The opposite can also be done, where you treat the dominant seventh chord as a German65 chord, then resolve that as expected. The first technique is used to modulate up a halfstep, and the second is used to modulate down a halfstep.
I find modulations a Tritone away to be the most fun, because given that the Tritone is shared between the two keys your resolution is almost entirely dependant on what other notes you choose to hint towards a resolution. B and F can feel like they need to resolve to either C and E or F# and A#, both of which are the tonic and mediants of two major keys a Tritone away. The whole dim7 arpeggio maj min is cool and kind of a bad habit of mine but I really like doing similarly styled augmented arpeggios (repeated maj3s or min6es) as they sound like a really cool release, though the problem there is that it's the only interval aside from an octave or unison that you can repeat without reaching a Tritone (you should make a video on this idea if you haven't already). Compositionally, if I want to modulate to the key a Tritone away, I'll usually move to the relative Dorian, play the tonic min6 or dorian13 of that chord then move to the Tritone away min6 chord and resolve back to the mode in which I started from there, usually a 2 5 1 in major or an equivalent movement around the cycle of 5ths/4ths. Alternatively you can just move around the cycle of 5ths/4ths like 6 times or move to a mode closer to the Tritone mode and then move around from there.
Modulation chain is usually what I would use but this video truly opened my eyes about the possibilities of the first example and most importantly the diminished 7th possibilities. In my four years of music school, I don't remember our professors emphasizing the deminished 7th's vague tonality relating to MODULATION. This is awesome. Thank you!
Modulating between tritones is pretty easy one way of doing it is this In the key of C Play Second Inversion of C Major in right hand , And then have your left hand playing C bass note Now change every note in your right hand up one half step, And the bass note a half step down. Now play C Majors tritone F# Major
@@andrewsilver7048 a chord or arpeggio with only minor third interval. So 1, b3, b5, bb7 (which is the 6). Any of this four note can become your root since they are all only a minor third apart.
I love watching these videos. I started because I saw the Black Hole Sun video, and was interested. The funny thing is, I don't know any theory, so almost ALL of what you say goes over my head. But I still love watching these videos even though it feels like nothing makes any sense...
100k subs! congrats! (and btw you really are my favourite YT channel atm. It's always extremely interesting and I already learned very very much. Thank you!)
I actually started writing a song (in a kind of Beatles / pop genre) around the time you released your first building blocks video on modulation. In this song I had to go from a verse in D to a chorus in D sharp, which I didn't know was one of the hardest modulation to achieve. Following your video I wrote a bridge that accomplished a modulation chain circling around the circle of fifth and stating the dominant 7 (Ab7) two times in the end. It actually sounds amazing and it is a very smooth transition !
We watched your channel in my theory class. I started freaking out a bit because I love this channel and I'm glad my teacher found it and could expose it to my classmates. Really loved this video, extremely helpful for a Christmas instrumedly I want to write on my own time.
I'm realizing that a lot of knowing how to modulate is a lot about being able to audiate the sound you want to hear. Hearing the notes that you want to stay constant and which ones you want to change by half step is a good place to start. Also dominant chords either with the 3rd or the 7th in the bass can create really convincing voice leading to inverted triads which can be useful.
What's most common in jazz is just to use the 2-5 progression in the new key leading into the bridge, which works when going from D to Ab as a 2-5 that includes the tritone sub of the 5 of D as well as the actual 5 of the new key. So you would just play Bbmin7-Eb7 going into Ab, no need to worry about pivot modulations and all of that, just a simple 2-5 into bridge. Lots of tunes do that (body and soul with modulation up a half step using 2-5 for example)
Alex Price you’re correct, but the class was obviously a legit class, whether they asked for a jazz tune or not- and in order to get a grade, you have to meet the expectations set forth in criteria. If a lifelong jazz player turned in the assignment- the player might call it ii-V cycles, the teacher might say it’s the use of secondary dominants through multiple modulations- A static modulation might also be acceptable, With a common tone tying the two in- and a Neapolitan option is obvious- but this guy is showing a fuckton of creative and acceptable ways to modulate here, and that’s the purpose of his videos- I just subbed- good shit.
I will need to come back to this in a few months. I lost track halfway through, have to brush up on a lot of concepts before I can properly learn from this.
Actually D major and Ab major scales, share a common chord. Its A major chord--> V in key of D and II neapolitan in key of Ab (well in Ab it will be named Bbb to be exact, but the sound will be exactly the same). Also, they have another one in common. The V7(b5) in both scales are exactly the same chord. For D major scale: V7(b5) = A7b5 = A--C#--Eb--G. For Ab major scale V7b5 = Eb7(b5) = Eb--G--Bbb(=A)--Db(=C#).
In terms of modulating lines, I use the two tri-tones as common tones and then move patterns in one key, back to the tri-tones and then I move to congruent patterns with the same intervals as before but shifted to the other key. Using quartal intervals assists with the transition as well by suspending any cadence. I also like transitionIng to notes from the other key through an enclosure. Also, as a general rule of thumb, I find that using large interval jumps in lines allows me a lot of leeway in introducing notes from another key.
I have been waiting for this video for the longest time. Thank you so much!!!! If enough people also think so, I'd love to see you use beatles or beach boys songs as examples. There's so much of what you talked about in here is employed in their work. Having you explain this stuff always helps a ton. Thanks again!!
i know i'm late but, a modulation i like to use is using chords with shared notes. for example, one piece i'm working on goes from g major to f minor, so for the modulation, it goes like: g, am, g, am, g, am, em7, dm7, g, am, em7, f6, dm7, dbmaj7, ab, bb, fm. it's pretty simple but i really how it sounds, so i thought i'd share
Stopping to think before hearing your answers, first thing to come to mind was the chain modulation, in different words: divide the tritone in half; minor third modulation is easy, smooth, and common.
If you want to modulate to a lot of scales you can just pick a random chain of secondairy dominant (sd) and tritone substitution (ts) following eachother. ex: ts sd ts sd ts Let's just pick the 1st ts in an example in C: Cmaj7-Dm7-G7, because we use ts we just have to go a semitone down Gbm7, I am picking m7 because you can use the chord you arrive on as the IIm of your scale, this would give you: Cmaj7-Dm7-G7-Gbm7 Gbm7 (or F#m7) is the IIm in E, so the V in E is B7, which gives us F#m7-B7-Em7, if we continue this proces, at the end the final chain will be this: Cmaj7-Dm7-G7-F#m7-B7-Em7-A7-Abm7-Db7-Gbm7-Cb7(B7)-Bbmaj7 As you can see we started in Cmaj, and ended the chain in Bbmaj using a large detour to end up a whole tone lower, you would have to do this chain 5 more times (using the final chord as the new root) until you get back to Cmaj. This gives you a total of 65 chords in the progression (alot of them reused for sure). It's an interesting concept for long smooth jazz pieces you can drift away with because it takes so long to complete a circle, there simply isn't a root, especially if you only use m7 and dom7 chords for the entire piece, only the beginning and end are resting points.
Honestly my favourite way to do these is to write in a style that sets up a user expectation of not caring about jarring sounding chord changes in the first place. But that's more the case in my recent stuff, and I did used to write using these tricks more. The diminished is indeed a very neat tool and I used it a lot however, probably just to be obstinate (as I didn't like the thought of doing what was expected), I preferred to use augmenteds. Bit more awkward but still lead to some possibilities. The 7ths really help smooth things out though, whatever you're using... absolutely. Used them loads. I guess the most frequent changes though (probably even still today) are just ones that aren't awkward to do in the first place. For all that I like to include the weird and wonderful, it sits in a bed of the familiar. Always very cool watching these videos. :) Oh by the way when I did use the single notes for this purpose, I tended to usually have them be some kind of continuing drone leading up to the point - sometimes in a way that clashed, even. I do love drones so actually thinking about it, this was probably something I used an awful lot. I think I preferred some resolving clashing over them during the transition, to just silence and the note though. Silence and the note sounds a bit empty. It still can work.
The thing is, Ab is a tonic chord in D. Every key has 8 tonic chords: i, I, biii, bIII, t, T (doesn't make sense to call it #4 or b5 here), vi, and VI. Why? Because of exactly what you described at the end with the modulation chain; all of these keys are just parallel relative keys of each other, which means while they might diatonically be _very,_ different, they're essentially different epicenters of the same key. Doing the axis progression in D and then suddenly doing it in Ab isn't any more abrupt than approaching Ab from a dominant chord like you did, it's really the same thing, with the only difference being that it's less conclusive approaching it from the subdominant chord.
I don't know if i start thinking about modulation it seems to create conflict between the creative proces and my understanding of music. I love this video. Your way of thinking and the speed of it is when people blame you with words such as genius..;lol. I've seen many of the outs in modulation as you walked us through but the ones i use (i don't yet make a lot of use of them when creating a piece of my own) it comes as it comes. I don't think about it, it's like the melody would demand me to do so. When i create modulations such as 'sudden modulations' or 'transit modulations' they all sound so fabricated and too rough. I will experiment with the more gradual modulation, those i haven't tried yet as they seem perfect to 'fine tune' the character of a melody...THANKS for the video, very clear & to the point. It has been an issue for me but i don't mind, it kept me focussed on other things like phrasing skills.
Threre's also one more. If you spread out the whole tone scale like a chord it litteraly features 6 dominant 7 add nine chords with 5ths being dropped (because dom7 don't always need them), their roots are the notes of the scale. So, it is a set of three dominant chords and their triton substitutions and this spread out whole tone scale chord can be resolved to chords built on another whole tone scale (and there are only two of those).
I already use dim 7 chord on note out of key to bring tension and dissonance and it is still pretty smooth. But now I will try to use in modulation. Thanks for the info. Very useful
Great Videos! Keep up the good work! In bar 47 of Jacob Collier's Version of Hallelujah he goes from F to B natural this way: Gm/F - C/G - C#m/G# - F#7 B But this bar is just a transition, it starts two bars earlier in the key of C goes to E, than to F than to B natural in just 3 bars.
A modulation technique that I've taken a liking to lately is using a iv chord in a major scale instead of an IV chord and then just basically keep playing in whatever other scale contains the chord, like going from C major to (if I'm just writing freely and choose whichever scale I want at all times, that is), for instance G# major via a Fm7. Idk, I find it to be quite smooth
In minor key, use Neapolitan 6 chord to replace expected iv chord, resolve as dominant to the IV chord of new key, move up to 5th and then down to new tonic. Basically using the tonic of the new key as the pivot chord. I also like taking the dominant of the new key and resolveing it down the half step to the old dominant then back to the original key insted of to the tonic of the new one for just a couple bars worth of shifting key centers.
I understand less than 5% of what you say but i keep coming here for the drawings, the good music and because it makes me look brighter than I am (or does it??)
Using the diminished chord to modulate is great. However, it gives us 8 points of resolution. Not only do we have the 4 mentioned in the video, we have their parallel minor keys too.
I had a song in G go to Ab for a B section using a borrowed chord from Gm, the quick progression was Gmaj7 Cm7 Bm7 Bbm7 Eb7 Ab. The change came on beat 3 which I thought made it even smoother. The second time through I used a single note run that hits a G on beat 3 as a pivot note to go straight from G to Eb7 and again it sounded smooth. But a deeper lesson from another song was a change from Bbmaj7 in key of Bb right to an E9 to open the B section. I just practiced and practiced until I could sing the transition confidently and it worked. It was meant to be unsettling as a jump to key of A but it worked with practice. (: I learned my theory on the street but thanks for letting me ramble and for your work too.
Another fun way to modulate that tritone away is using a version of the Coltrane changes, albeit the less used version that divides the octave into minor thirds instead of major thirds (you can see this in Central Park West from Coltrane's Sound). You can start in D and use a ii-V to modulate to F and then again to Ab (i.e. Dmaj7 Gm7 F7 Bbm7 Eb7 Ab7). Or go the other way down the octave and use a tritone substitution to move into a new key center (i.e. Dmaj7 G7 F#7 B7 Bbm7 Eb7 Ab7).
Really good lesson! I only take issue with your term "parallel modulation," which could be confusing to some. Going to a parallel key is a shift in mode, it's technically not a modulation because modulation implies a change of tonic. Since there is no change in tonic, and none of the chords lose their function, it's just traditionally called "modal mixture" (your term "modal interchange").
Coolest way to modulate to the trtone is where you move the chord one half step up and the bass one half step down. It's basically a 5 chord but it's set up in a way in which it works because of the voice leading. Shoutout to Jacob collier✌️
When I compose and want to modulate I tend to do use pivot chords/2nd doms. I really like using deceptive Cadences to key change too... like using a B7 to go to CMaj, love that sound.
I try to make those distant modulations work just so I can learn something. But yeah, I check to see which actual notes the two keys share, then I restrict myself to using only those notes for a couple or four bars along with some kind of non-tonal percussion, sometimes a pitch-bending pad or two thrown in, and whatnot. And then I continue playing with those notes and then I add a note from the key I'm modulating to, not in a huge way, but with short notes, maybe with some synthesized delays, phasing effects, etc.... Then I'll add another note from the new key, preferably one that'll allow for a chord of some kind. Also, sometimes the shared notes between distant keys (or the new notes added one or two at a time) might allow for suspended chords, tritone triads, cluster chords, etc... so I keep an eye out for that, too. And then I naturally just go by whatever actually sounds good with everything else that's going on. In one project I was working on, I spent about 32 or more bars just modulating to the least-compatible key. The result is seamless, and the transitional section became a catchy experience all by itself. I've come to love modulating to different keys. It's something I look forward to every time I work on something. It adds so much surprise to the music than just picking one key and staying in that key through the entire piece.
Another way to change keys, esp for 1 and 2 semitones up is to just throw in a 2-5-1 in the new key. The 2 will usually sound unfamiliar, but the 5 being a dominant chord already gives you the key center toward the new 1.
I like using circle of 5ths personally. So like if I want to go from Bb minor to Bb major, instead of going straight to Bb major(parallel modulation) I do 1 of 2 things. Fewer flats direction: Bbm -> Fm -> Cm -> Gm -> G -> Bb Or Fewer sharps direction: Bbm -> Ebm -> Abm -> C#m -> F#m -> Bm -> Em -> Am -> Dm -> Gm -> G -> Bb But occasionally I will use an augmented 5th for the purpose of modulation.
As well as resolving a Dominant seventh chord down a semitone as a tritone substitution (or augmented sixth chord) you could resolve it a semitone up as the new chord works as a substitute for the anticipated I-chord being a bVI for it. Like, D-G-G7-C would ba an expected modulation but you could just do D-G-G7-Ab. Plenty of examples in Prokfjev's first symphony. And also one of my favourite toys: common-tone diminished seventh chords (check the intro for Tchaikovskys walz of the flowers for example)! For a D to Ab modulation you could establish a E#°/G# - D/A - A7 - D cadence and later treat the E#°/G# as B°/Ab and go straight to Ab. That doesn't sound very jazzy however…
What about augmented 6th chords? Like Bb7 in D major (actually Bb-D-F-G# - G# is the augmented 6th.) Normally, the Bb falls to A, the G# rises to A, F falls to E and D falls to C#, giving an A major chord, the dominant, leading you back to D major. But for modulation, you have enharmonic changes - the augmented 6th changes to an actual Bb7 - same notes, different feel - which now resolves onto Eb major, which is the dominant of Ab, and you're home. Just round it off with an Eb7-Ab cadence to nail the key down.
As you were going through your example I had the thought of reinterpreting the dominant of D major (A major) as a Neapolitan 6th of A-flat, and resolving it accordingly.
This was key to how Liszt composed. As anyone who has studied Liszt In depth knows his use of the diminished 7th was the cornerstone to how he approached harmony.
1: Have the chord in 1st inversion. 2: Move the tonic up and down by a semitone to c# and d# (in pitch order F# A C# D#) to form F#minor with a sharpened sixth 3: Move the first two notes up a semitone and respell the rest of the pitches so you get G Bb Db Eb and you can work out the rest.
I like using a Neapolitan chord. It really helps when modulating to the key a tritone away. C∆ - Db∆ - Gb∆. It helps but it doesn't always work well in forms of tonal chromaticism, such as wagnerian chromaticism, because it depends entirely on the perfect cadence between the Neapolitan and the target chord. I also like the augmented sixth chord.
The way that I almost always modulate keys is by doing some sort of chromatic scale going from one to the other. I suppose that it might be a bit lazy, but the pieces that I write are extremely melody focused (like pop songs) and so it would break the flow of the piece if I had the modulation take more than a couple of bars. That is, unless the modulation worked naturally in the melody, and if that's the case then I just let it naturally go to the other key (in other words, I unintentionally use one of the more complex techniques that this song talks about.) The one problem is that 95% of my music is designed to loop infinitely, so if I modulate to a key I'm going to have to modulate back to the first one at some point, which usually means that I'll throw in some chromatic modulation to a key or two in-between the initial key and the new one so that the jump isn't too big of a leap, and using a chromatic scale that has more than four half-steps in it seems like it's too long for a modulation to sound natural. Also, I don't like modulating down as it often loses a lot of the tension (though occasionally losing the tension is exactly what I want) so I basically go up to a key naturally and then have a few chromatic modulations up until I arrive at the original key.
That's why modulating down is unlikely, not only it drops the song's energy, it kinda hard to do.. Like D major to Db major, well... The common tones between those scales are Db (C#) and Gb (F#)... It should work nice if we modulate Db maj to D maj while raising the energy by directly using A maj (or A7) chord as a point of resolution (probably for Ab7 chord, the V of Db major), while singing the do (Db or C# note) to resolve to D (A maj/A7 has the C# note inside, the root of Db major scale and the leading tone of D major scale) . But it's kinda hard to do the downside modulation... Thanks for showing us the downside modulation technique in this video, using the dim7th chord as the secondary dominant.
For guitar in similar situations, I like to substitute V9 with dominant chords whose roots are on the same whole-tone scale as the root of the original V9. Consider: Dmaj7 - Em7 - A9 | Eb9 - Abmaj7 (Eb9/F is an option, and I like it more, if you go to Abm7) The point is if you look at the typical guitar fingerings of dom-9 chords, you don't have a 5th, and you're left with 1, 3, 7 and 9, which all are on the respective whole tone scale (A B Db Eb F G), which is very ambiguous-sounding, so substitutions done with dom-9 chords formed from the notes on that scale work pretty well. Dom-7/#5 work, too, but make for a sharper transition; dom-9(no5) sound much more gentle and versatile to me. Sequences like: Dmaj7 - F#m7 - A9 | B9 | Eb9 - Abmaj7/Eb or even Dmaj7 - Em7 - E7/#5 | B9 | Db9 - Abmaj7 or as simple as Dmaj7 - A7/#5 - Abmaj7 sound great. And the idea is about the same as with the diminished chords: functional ambiguity that is created with the chord notes you are given.
I also went for a modulation chain: D Em B7 C#m G#m D#7 G# So basically: tonic to supertonic in D, B7 suggests new key of Em, C#m = interrupted cadence (not sure if Americans have different term for this) still in Em. G#m - so we're a bit ambiguous here, could be i and iv in C#m, could by v and i in G#m. D#7 pulls it towards G#m but then resolves to the major (but we're now going to call it Ab). Seven is an odd number of chords though so maybe throw in a D#m between the C#m and the G#m I dunno. Sounds pretty smoooooth either way though. This sort of thing is fun! Edit: Think I muddled up my ivs and my vs there but other than that
Going D7 to Gdim is actually a valid way to do it, the Gdim resolves to the Ab in a nice way so by going D7 Gdim Ab, it just sounds like a delayed resolution of the D7
I find it funny that the first piece I learned on piano features the dimished 7 chords quite prominently (although the modulations are quite tame there) - Bach's wohltemperiertes Klavier BWV 846
In a more classical way, I think you would rather use the Neapolitan Sixth of D: g minor b6, which is an inversion of Eb, the dominant of Ab. You can then without a problem play Eb (here I prefer using a six/four chord to really make sure the transition is clear to everybody :D) closing with Ab. In total: D-gminor b6-Eb 6/4-Eb-Ab
Would you show the technics of modulations between the different modes, particularly far modes? I mean, church modes, makams, synthetic modes, pentatonics, Messian scales(limited transposition) and ect... For example, modulation between D-Dorian pentatonic and E flat- Hicaz Makam or, F-Diminshed scale and B flat-mixolidyen scale. Thanks
Love the videos! Do you think you could revisit how to structure a song (in terms of verses and choruses and such)? I want to better understand how things like solos, intros, pre-choruses, etc. fit into a song and when to use them. Thanks!
I would do something like a "2-3 Chain", which is where I use the 2-3-4-5 sequence in Chords but make them all minor or all major in order to transition super smoothly to keys separated by minor 3rds; and I would do it twice to end up in the key of the tritone. EX: C-Dm-Em-Fm-Gm-G#m-A#m-B-C#(7)-F#
In addition to the Neapolitan sixth chord, one can modulate by a tritone by using the French augmented sixth chord. For example, in C tonality, the French augmented sixth chord is: {D, F#, Ab, C}. Perhaps because of the construction of this chord (its notes are contained in the whole-tone scale, no wonder why they call it French), the F# tonality has the same French augmented sixth chord: {G#, B#, D, F#} or, in other words, {Ab, C, D, F#}!
I also tried to think of other ways of modulating to remote keys by using the French augmented sixth chord of the original key, and I came to the conclusion that one can modulate, from C, to C#/Db, D, Eb, F#/Gb, G, A and Ab. *To C#/Db by spelling the chord as {G#, B#, D, F#}, i.e. the dominant seventh flat five. *To Eb by considering the {D, F#, Ab, C} as an altered VII of its dominant, Ab (secondary dominant). To be more specific, as the dominant ninth sharp five chord of Eb, i.e. {Bb, D, F#, Ab, C}, with the root omitted. *To Ab as described above (not as secondary dominant, though, but just dominant). *To G as a dominant seventh flat five (hmm... the same as in C#/Db tonality). *To A by considering the chord as an altered VII of A, i.e. {G#, B#, D, F#}, or as an altered dominant with the root omitted. *To D by considering the chord as an altered VII of its dominant, A. *To F#/Gb as mentioned in the comment above. I am now wondering, can the French augmented sixth chord (or perhaps the German, or Italian) of the original key modulate to even more remote keys? What about a chord in the original key (with a function of either a dominant or a secondary dominant, altered or not) contains the same notes as an augmented sixth chord of the destination key (like the C7 that goes to B7 and finally to E, as in Waldstein Sonata)? Is there any "cheatsheet"? Please 12tone, make a video about all these, if you haven't already. They're really exciting!!!
A year late on the "Let me know in the comments," but I think it's interesting too that the constraint was a 32 bar song. Particularly when switching keys like that, using a slow tempo and letting the chords breathe a bit more can help the listener adjust to a new key center or weird harmony. So since 32 bars isn't much to work with, instead of wasting time sitting on a chord, or pivot tone for a few bars, you can slow the tempo down to just make a single bar last longer.
Well in jazz the #iv half diminished or even minor is frequently used as a ii/iii, especially in circle of fifth progressions going to the I. D minor could be pretty smoothly used in such a transition. Also, many jazz songs, such as Just Friends, use the ii V progression up a half step, which is pretty foreign to the key. However, this progression in D Major (fmin7 to Bb7) is vi7 to V7/V in the key of Ab, which isn't very foreign at all. From there, you could either use the ii7 V7 in D, which is a substitution in Ab, do a ii7 V7 IM7 in Ab, or do something more interesting.
If it's part of a medeley, I just play the dominant chord of the target key and hold it for a bit. I try and transpose the songs so that they line up nicely, either in the same key, or one fourth or one fifth away. If i'm going from a major key to a minor key(or the other way around), I try to transpose the songs so that they are either relative minor/major or have the same root.
I would've done it two ways: First way, I would have done a I - ii - V7 in D major but then voice-led the V7 to the V7 of Ab major (the tritone substitution in D major, shared notes of Db and G, leading A and E to Bb and Eb respectively) and then to I. Second way, I would have done I - ii - V7/bV - I/bV, as the ii in D major acts as a bvi interchange from Ab Aeolian.
Here are basic examples of the methods for modulation used in this video from C major: Direct modulation: Db, B Borrowed chords: A, E Modal interchange: Bb, Eb, Ab Pivot modulation: G, D Secondary dominants: F Tritone sub: F# Diminished 7th: A, F#, Eb Try combinig these methods!
Yay modes of limited transposition! They're useful for getting interesting places, especially if you're fine letting the melody do a bit more heavy lifting in a solo or duet. A whole tone riff would be neat for a romantic sound, or octatonic for a more Messiaen sound.
Hey guys, just a quick tip. If this is too fast for your brain (as it is for mine), put the video on 0,75 speed. Not even is it much easier to understand but he also sounds like he is drunk which helps you to not feel intimidated by all his modulation skills. You're welcome :D
This comment is the light in my shit day, thank you!
It actually sounds as if it was speeded up intentionally and designed to be slowed down for possible understanding.
At 0,5 speed it is even more funny also! :)
That is what I was searching in the comments! Thank you
Lol
I can watch in 1.25x speed. Please someone say I'm badass.
My favorite way to modulate is to keep the listener so confused in general that they don't understand anything that is happening to them. Then you can do whatever you want and it all just works out because nobody knows what you did anyway.
Sensai?
I think that's called a "shock and awe" modulation. :)
I don't think that's called "modulation" at all.
Primus
Good plan. I do it all f the time in more than just music.
I like how you touched upon every modulation possibility possible just to modulate chords tritone apart.
This is a key, change-inducing video.
I note what you did there.
noting this is key
+Dennis Fluttershy Because this video is both key and change-inducing.
I majorly laughed at this joke after seeing it for the seventh time.
@@imnimbusy2885 Geez, your words are so dissonant to my ears.
This is one of your best videos in my opinion. I really love how you used a real life scenario to give a sort of chronology and also a graduation of complexity to the techniques you demonstrate.
Just having heard the assignment: Since this is jazz, I predict you'll suggest using a tritone substitution
I predict that he'll use an intermediate key. So start on D, then go to a key that has a chord in both keys and than Abm.
My prediction was a chain. If you don't know how to get there, go to something you can get to. Just keep repeating until you get to something that can take you there.
Or draw a neo-remannian set of triangles and find the shortest route.
I personally really like the more baroque way of modulating quickly: sequences. If you line them up correctly, you can often modulate fairly smoothly using since nice chromatic motion
I love that you have the "Building Blocks" library complete now. It's awesome to be able to link to those videos when referencing those concepts. Awesome!
I composed a piece in which I wanted to go from A major to E-flat major. I used the V in A as the Neapolitan in E-flat as my pivot. I like the Neapolitan anyway so I thought it worked well.
That's a good point. I rarely see people talk about Neapolitan chords.
John Foster I think they're underrated. I listen to a lot of metal too, so that phrygian sound with the harmonic minor is just great.
Yeah, there's a lot of cool-sounding chromatic voice leading you can create using the Neapolitan.
@@johnfoster7762 Neapolitan is one of my favorite scale.
@@trippstewartm4a1 exactly. That's why I like it so much. Bring the dissonance.
Also tritus authenticus. Samething with augmented 4th.
Another interesting way to go from D major to Ab major is by using the V chord of D major as a common chord, which acts as the Neapolitan chord of G# major (the enharmonic scale of Ab major)! I learnt it a week ago and I was fascinated!
Good catch, I didn't even think of the Neapolitan!
Yep my response shows this exact thing. Good catch and watch how smooth it transitions in latin jazz style.
how does that even look like on a guitar fret?
Neapolitan and triton substitution are closely related, and using A7 as a triton substitution to resolve to Ab was the first solution he suggested in the video.
In addition, they also have the same French augmented sixth chord. For example, in C the French aug. sixth is: (D F# Ab C) and in F#: (G# B# D F#).
I like chromatic mediants, they sound cool and are very versatile, I'm writing a practice piece now that's basically a rondo where the returning subject is in Dm, and the challenge is modulating as smoothly as possible to every major key within 4 chords, it's really fun!
Now you made it, one of the best videos about modulation on youtube. I honestly felt like watching you solve a math problem, and boy it was a fun ride. Thanks!
What school did you go to? It's really cool that you discussed Tritone Subs in your regular Theory classes, rather than a Jazz Theory class.
Same thought here. When you presented the problem the first thing that came to mind was diminished7ths which you presented as 'more advanced' but in classical theory is fairly basic. A tritone sub however you don't even learn about until you take Jazz Theory.
An augmented fifth-sixth-chord with double dominant funktion appears e.g. in Beethovens 5. Symphony, 2. movement (Modulation from ab major to c major). And in works of Bruckner and Richard Strauss this chord is often used with (simple) dominant funktion, in prinziple as a tritone substitution. So I learned this term in lessons about late romantic harmonies.
True I have heard this comparison between aug6 chords (or German 6/5 chords) and tritone subs. Though they aren't strictly tritone subs because true tritone subs require a paralell 5th to resolve.
There are parallel fifths in resolve of this chord in pieces of the Vienna Classicism and Romanticism. They are calld „Mozartquinten“ (Mozart‘s fifths). At the moment I have no example but I will pick some up...
"because true tritone subs require a paralell 5th to resolve"
Not really. It depends on the chord. Yes, in its simplest form it does, but as pointed out above, that happens sometimes even in classical music. But a lot of the time the tritone substitution is a 7b5 chord. Actually, I would argue that this is the "true" tritone substitution chord, because G7b5 and Db7b5 have exactly the same notes in them.
Augmented 6th is basically a different way of looking at the same phenomenon. In classical music it's pure voice leading - you have the augmented 6th that resolves outwards (for example the augmented 6th in the key of C would technically be an Ab7, but in classical analysis the chord is based on both the Ab and the F# resolving to a G). It's not treated as an actual dominant 7th chord in classical analysis. But in jazz analysis Ab7 and D7 share the same tritone (that is between the 3rd and 7th of the chord) and just have a different bass note. I don't see a reason with treating them as a different thing. Tritone substitution and augmented 6th are just two different ways of analyzing the same thing. In jazz analysis people tend to think about harmony more vertically than horizontally. In classical analysis it's the other way around - voice leading is what it's all about.
One of my favorite ways to bridge two major chords a tritone apart can be heard in many film soundtracks.
I - iii (6 4) - bV (6) - bV
Those 2 middle chords in their inversions (second and first respectively) lend the progression a nice chromatically descending bassline, which you can hear everywhere in works ranging from Giacchino (Star Trek) Elfman (Batman) to Williams (The Last Crusade).
Patrick Hollen that's super smooth and beautiful... I wonder if it's because of the parallel sixths with the bass.
. Lately I've been thinking that if you shove parallel sixths in an evident way (involving soprano or bass in said interval) within the voicing you can pretty much go wild (or absolutely conventional) and things will sound marvelous nevertheless
Luigi Brandão I think that's a good insight! Parallel sixths have always sounded so cool to me.
Parallel sixes or thirds make everything better.
Beautiful and mysterious :)
Why use the notations (6 4) and (6) to say second and first inversions respectively? I don't see the logic?
To get to Ab Major from D major using a tritone sub, you can also try DM - Gm - FM - EbM6 (or Eb7) - AbM, or DM - GM - FM - Em - EbM - AbM. You're still using a tritone, but your tritone is instead the bII of your starting key and the V of the next key. Plus the ii - bII is a ii-subV. Sounds a bit like a weaker ii-V but can be used to modulate to distant chords.
The keys they are a-changing...
Extremely clever
@@kaylons The keys they are a-changing...
Haha, my classically-minded self immediately thought “chromatic sequence!” Fantastic video!
Diminished seventh chord was literally the first option that crossed my mind. Your way (two modulations via parallel keys) was my second idea. And as you started talking about the modulation to B-flat major, I came up with using B-flat major as an extratonal dominant to E-flat major (the actual dominant).
Okay hear me out, mode mixture resolving to d minor. Passage using the Neopolitan (Eb major) as a predominant chord to familiarize the listener, then all you have to do is the next time the neopolitan chord comes up, add in a seventh. Also you can use the late romantic staple the flat VI, which is Bb major, tonicize it (which sounds) pretty good, repeat twice, and then resolve to its parallel minor counterpart. This is ii in Ab, so follow it up with an Eb7 and voila.
Love most of your videos, but this one is even better than the rest. So many fascinating options for modulations!
I once modulated from A Minor to F# Major, which is quite a distant modulation indeed! I did it in just three steps:
1) Modulate from A Minor to the parallel Major, C Major. This was reasonable smooth.
2) In different voicings, play the C Major chord lower then jumping up to the F# Major. While it’s quite attention-grabbing, in the context of the piece it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do as the piece was definitely a slightly more out-there composition, at least in terms of key changes.
3) Spend a couple of bars sitting on an F# Major power chord. This is a wonderfully simple way of establishing a tonality without actually doing anything, and quietly and neatly resolves the uncertainty from step 2.
A technique I really like is using the German65 chord to modulate to a key a halfstep away. You just treat the German65 chord as a dominant seventh chord, then resolve that as expected. The opposite can also be done, where you treat the dominant seventh chord as a German65 chord, then resolve that as expected. The first technique is used to modulate up a halfstep, and the second is used to modulate down a halfstep.
You beat me to it.
I know the German 6th. What's a German 65?
@@musical_lolu4811
German 6/5 (? Not sure myself.)
This video helps out a lot, I was struggling with switching scales, but now I have loads of ideas to use, Thank you.
Your videos on harmony, especially this one, have prompted me to finally start actually writing chordal harmony for my songs. Thank you.
I find modulations a Tritone away to be the most fun, because given that the Tritone is shared between the two keys your resolution is almost entirely dependant on what other notes you choose to hint towards a resolution. B and F can feel like they need to resolve to either C and E or F# and A#, both of which are the tonic and mediants of two major keys a Tritone away. The whole dim7 arpeggio maj min is cool and kind of a bad habit of mine but I really like doing similarly styled augmented arpeggios (repeated maj3s or min6es) as they sound like a really cool release, though the problem there is that it's the only interval aside from an octave or unison that you can repeat without reaching a Tritone (you should make a video on this idea if you haven't already). Compositionally, if I want to modulate to the key a Tritone away, I'll usually move to the relative Dorian, play the tonic min6 or dorian13 of that chord then move to the Tritone away min6 chord and resolve back to the mode in which I started from there, usually a 2 5 1 in major or an equivalent movement around the cycle of 5ths/4ths. Alternatively you can just move around the cycle of 5ths/4ths like 6 times or move to a mode closer to the Tritone mode and then move around from there.
Modulation chain is usually what I would use but this video truly opened my eyes about the possibilities of the first example and most importantly the diminished 7th possibilities.
In my four years of music school, I don't remember our professors emphasizing the deminished 7th's vague tonality relating to MODULATION. This is awesome. Thank you!
Short answer: Diminished 7ths
Flamínio Maranhão yeah, that was my first idea when looking at the problem, without even knowing whether it would work :)
What is a diminished 7th? My brain is fried trying to understand these concepts
Modulating between tritones is pretty easy one way of doing it is this
In the key of C
Play Second Inversion of C Major in right hand , And then have your left hand playing C bass note
Now change every note in your right hand up one half step, And the bass note a half step down.
Now play C Majors tritone F# Major
@@andrewsilver7048 a chord or arpeggio with only minor third interval. So 1, b3, b5, bb7 (which is the 6). Any of this four note can become your root since they are all only a minor third apart.
I love watching these videos. I started because I saw the Black Hole Sun video, and was interested.
The funny thing is, I don't know any theory, so almost ALL of what you say goes over my head. But I still love watching these videos even though it feels like nothing makes any sense...
100k subs! congrats! (and btw you really are my favourite YT channel atm. It's always extremely interesting and I already learned very very much. Thank you!)
I actually started writing a song (in a kind of Beatles / pop genre) around the time you released your first building blocks video on modulation.
In this song I had to go from a verse in D to a chorus in D sharp, which I didn't know was one of the hardest modulation to achieve.
Following your video I wrote a bridge that accomplished a modulation chain circling around the circle of fifth and stating the dominant 7 (Ab7) two times in the end. It actually sounds amazing and it is a very smooth transition !
We watched your channel in my theory class. I started freaking out a bit because I love this channel and I'm glad my teacher found it and could expose it to my classmates. Really loved this video, extremely helpful for a Christmas instrumedly I want to write on my own time.
I'm realizing that a lot of knowing how to modulate is a lot about being able to audiate the sound you want to hear. Hearing the notes that you want to stay constant and which ones you want to change by half step is a good place to start. Also dominant chords either with the 3rd or the 7th in the bass can create really convincing voice leading to inverted triads which can be useful.
This is the best channel I've ever seen! Congratulations!
This is literally my favorite video of 12tone
What's most common in jazz is just to use the 2-5 progression in the new key leading into the bridge, which works when going from D to Ab as a 2-5 that includes the tritone sub of the 5 of D as well as the actual 5 of the new key. So you would just play Bbmin7-Eb7 going into Ab, no need to worry about pivot modulations and all of that, just a simple 2-5 into bridge. Lots of tunes do that (body and soul with modulation up a half step using 2-5 for example)
Alex Price you’re correct, but the class was obviously a legit class, whether they asked for a jazz tune or not- and in order to get a grade, you have to meet the expectations set forth in criteria.
If a lifelong jazz player turned in the assignment- the player might call it ii-V cycles, the teacher might say it’s the use of secondary dominants through multiple modulations-
A static modulation might also be acceptable,
With a common tone tying the two in- and a Neapolitan option is obvious- but this guy is showing a fuckton of creative and acceptable ways to modulate here, and that’s the purpose of his videos- I just subbed- good shit.
I will need to come back to this in a few months. I lost track halfway through, have to brush up on a lot of concepts before I can properly learn from this.
Actually D major and Ab major scales, share a common chord. Its A major chord--> V in key of D and II neapolitan in key of Ab (well in Ab it will be named Bbb to be exact, but the sound will be exactly the same).
Also, they have another one in common. The V7(b5) in both scales are exactly the same chord. For D major scale: V7(b5) = A7b5 = A--C#--Eb--G. For Ab major scale V7b5 = Eb7(b5) = Eb--G--Bbb(=A)--Db(=C#).
Thanks for pointing these out!
Happy Holidays, 12tone. I really like all your videos. They're very inspiring and fun to watch! Thanks and all the best in the new year!
brilliantly put together video, thanks
In terms of modulating lines, I use the two tri-tones as common tones and then move patterns in one key, back to the tri-tones and then I move to congruent patterns with the same intervals as before but shifted to the other key.
Using quartal intervals assists with the transition as well by suspending any cadence.
I also like transitionIng to notes from the other key through an enclosure.
Also, as a general rule of thumb, I find that using large interval jumps in lines allows me a lot of leeway in introducing notes from another key.
Very helpful techniques presented quite efficiently!
I have been waiting for this video for the longest time. Thank you so much!!!! If enough people also think so, I'd love to see you use beatles or beach boys songs as examples. There's so much of what you talked about in here is employed in their work. Having you explain this stuff always helps a ton. Thanks again!!
i know i'm late but, a modulation i like to use is using chords with shared notes. for example, one piece i'm working on goes from g major to f minor, so for the modulation, it goes like: g, am, g, am, g, am, em7, dm7, g, am, em7, f6, dm7, dbmaj7, ab, bb, fm. it's pretty simple but i really how it sounds, so i thought i'd share
Stopping to think before hearing your answers, first thing to come to mind was the chain modulation, in different words: divide the tritone in half; minor third modulation is easy, smooth, and common.
If you want to modulate to a lot of scales you can just pick a random chain of secondairy dominant (sd) and tritone substitution (ts) following eachother.
ex: ts sd ts sd ts
Let's just pick the 1st ts in an example in C: Cmaj7-Dm7-G7, because we use ts we just have to go a semitone down Gbm7, I am picking m7 because you can use the chord you arrive on as the IIm of your scale, this would give you: Cmaj7-Dm7-G7-Gbm7
Gbm7 (or F#m7) is the IIm in E, so the V in E is B7, which gives us F#m7-B7-Em7, if we continue this proces, at the end the final chain will be this: Cmaj7-Dm7-G7-F#m7-B7-Em7-A7-Abm7-Db7-Gbm7-Cb7(B7)-Bbmaj7
As you can see we started in Cmaj, and ended the chain in Bbmaj using a large detour to end up a whole tone lower, you would have to do this chain 5 more times (using the final chord as the new root) until you get back to Cmaj.
This gives you a total of 65 chords in the progression (alot of them reused for sure).
It's an interesting concept for long smooth jazz pieces you can drift away with because it takes so long to complete a circle, there simply isn't a root, especially if you only use m7 and dom7 chords for the entire piece, only the beginning and end are resting points.
Honestly my favourite way to do these is to write in a style that sets up a user expectation of not caring about jarring sounding chord changes in the first place. But that's more the case in my recent stuff, and I did used to write using these tricks more. The diminished is indeed a very neat tool and I used it a lot however, probably just to be obstinate (as I didn't like the thought of doing what was expected), I preferred to use augmenteds. Bit more awkward but still lead to some possibilities. The 7ths really help smooth things out though, whatever you're using... absolutely. Used them loads. I guess the most frequent changes though (probably even still today) are just ones that aren't awkward to do in the first place. For all that I like to include the weird and wonderful, it sits in a bed of the familiar. Always very cool watching these videos. :)
Oh by the way when I did use the single notes for this purpose, I tended to usually have them be some kind of continuing drone leading up to the point - sometimes in a way that clashed, even. I do love drones so actually thinking about it, this was probably something I used an awful lot. I think I preferred some resolving clashing over them during the transition, to just silence and the note though. Silence and the note sounds a bit empty. It still can work.
The thing is, Ab is a tonic chord in D. Every key has 8 tonic chords: i, I, biii, bIII, t, T (doesn't make sense to call it #4 or b5 here), vi, and VI. Why? Because of exactly what you described at the end with the modulation chain; all of these keys are just parallel relative keys of each other, which means while they might diatonically be _very,_ different, they're essentially different epicenters of the same key.
Doing the axis progression in D and then suddenly doing it in Ab isn't any more abrupt than approaching Ab from a dominant chord like you did, it's really the same thing, with the only difference being that it's less conclusive approaching it from the subdominant chord.
I don't know if i start thinking about modulation it seems to create conflict between the creative proces and my understanding of music. I love this video. Your way of thinking and the speed of it is when people blame you with words such as genius..;lol. I've seen many of the outs in modulation as you walked us through but the ones i use (i don't yet make a lot of use of them when creating a piece of my own) it comes as it comes. I don't think about it, it's like the melody would demand me to do so. When i create modulations such as 'sudden modulations' or 'transit modulations' they all sound so fabricated and too rough. I will experiment with the more gradual modulation, those i haven't tried yet as they seem perfect to 'fine tune' the character of a melody...THANKS for the video, very clear & to the point. It has been an issue for me but i don't mind, it kept me focussed on other things like phrasing skills.
Threre's also one more. If you spread out the whole tone scale like a chord it litteraly features 6 dominant 7 add nine chords with 5ths being dropped (because dom7 don't always need them), their roots are the notes of the scale. So, it is a set of three dominant chords and their triton substitutions and this spread out whole tone scale chord can be resolved to chords built on another whole tone scale (and there are only two of those).
I already use dim 7 chord on note out of key to bring tension and dissonance and it is still pretty smooth. But now I will try to use in modulation. Thanks for the info. Very useful
Amazing videos. Thx a lot for sharing your knowledge with the world and for free.
Great Videos! Keep up the good work!
In bar 47 of Jacob Collier's Version of Hallelujah he goes from F to B natural this way:
Gm/F - C/G - C#m/G# - F#7 B
But this bar is just a transition, it starts two bars earlier in the key of C goes to E, than to F than to B natural in just 3 bars.
I like using chromatic notes to "climb" between keys, especially in the form of a melody. Wouldn't say I do it often, but it's great when it works.
A modulation technique that I've taken a liking to lately is using a iv chord in a major scale instead of an IV chord and then just basically keep playing in whatever other scale contains the chord, like going from C major to (if I'm just writing freely and choose whichever scale I want at all times, that is), for instance G# major via a Fm7. Idk, I find it to be quite smooth
In minor key, use Neapolitan 6 chord to replace expected iv chord, resolve as dominant to the IV chord of new key, move up to 5th and then down to new tonic. Basically using the tonic of the new key as the pivot chord. I also like taking the dominant of the new key and resolveing it down the half step to the old dominant then back to the original key insted of to the tonic of the new one for just a couple bars worth of shifting key centers.
I understand less than 5% of what you say but i keep coming here for the drawings, the good music and because it makes me look brighter than I am (or does it??)
Using the diminished chord to modulate is great. However, it gives us 8 points of resolution. Not only do we have the 4 mentioned in the video, we have their parallel minor keys too.
I had a song in G go to Ab for a B section using a borrowed chord from Gm, the quick progression was Gmaj7 Cm7 Bm7 Bbm7 Eb7 Ab. The change came on beat 3 which I thought made it even smoother. The second time through I used a single note run that hits a G on beat 3 as a pivot note to go straight from G to Eb7 and again it sounded smooth. But a deeper lesson from another song was a change from Bbmaj7 in key of Bb right to an E9 to open the B section. I just practiced and practiced until I could sing the transition confidently and it worked. It was meant to be unsettling as a jump to key of A but it worked with practice. (: I learned my theory on the street but thanks for letting me ramble and for your work too.
Another fun way to modulate that tritone away is using a version of the Coltrane changes, albeit the less used version that divides the octave into minor thirds instead of major thirds (you can see this in Central Park West from Coltrane's Sound). You can start in D and use a ii-V to modulate to F and then again to Ab (i.e. Dmaj7 Gm7 F7 Bbm7 Eb7 Ab7). Or go the other way down the octave and use a tritone substitution to move into a new key center (i.e. Dmaj7 G7 F#7 B7 Bbm7 Eb7 Ab7).
Yknow I didn't notice until just now how good the 12tone logo is.
Really good lesson! I only take issue with your term "parallel modulation," which could be confusing to some. Going to a parallel key is a shift in mode, it's technically not a modulation because modulation implies a change of tonic. Since there is no change in tonic, and none of the chords lose their function, it's just traditionally called "modal mixture" (your term "modal interchange").
Holy cow, I never realized where I've heard this before but you hear it all the time in Overture to Candide
Coolest way to modulate to the trtone is where you move the chord one half step up and the bass one half step down. It's basically a 5 chord but it's set up in a way in which it works because of the voice leading. Shoutout to Jacob collier✌️
When I compose and want to modulate I tend to do use pivot chords/2nd doms. I really like using deceptive Cadences to key change too... like using a B7 to go to CMaj, love that sound.
I try to make those distant modulations work just so I can learn something. But yeah, I check to see which actual notes the two keys share, then I restrict myself to using only those notes for a couple or four bars along with some kind of non-tonal percussion, sometimes a pitch-bending pad or two thrown in, and whatnot. And then I continue playing with those notes and then I add a note from the key I'm modulating to, not in a huge way, but with short notes, maybe with some synthesized delays, phasing effects, etc.... Then I'll add another note from the new key, preferably one that'll allow for a chord of some kind. Also, sometimes the shared notes between distant keys (or the new notes added one or two at a time) might allow for suspended chords, tritone triads, cluster chords, etc... so I keep an eye out for that, too. And then I naturally just go by whatever actually sounds good with everything else that's going on. In one project I was working on, I spent about 32 or more bars just modulating to the least-compatible key. The result is seamless, and the transitional section became a catchy experience all by itself.
I've come to love modulating to different keys. It's something I look forward to every time I work on something. It adds so much surprise to the music than just picking one key and staying in that key through the entire piece.
Another way to change keys, esp for 1 and 2 semitones up is to just throw in a 2-5-1 in the new key. The 2 will usually sound unfamiliar, but the 5 being a dominant chord already gives you the key center toward the new 1.
I like using circle of 5ths personally. So like if I want to go from Bb minor to Bb major, instead of going straight to Bb major(parallel modulation) I do 1 of 2 things.
Fewer flats direction:
Bbm -> Fm -> Cm -> Gm -> G -> Bb
Or
Fewer sharps direction:
Bbm -> Ebm -> Abm -> C#m -> F#m -> Bm -> Em -> Am -> Dm -> Gm -> G -> Bb
But occasionally I will use an augmented 5th for the purpose of modulation.
As well as resolving a Dominant seventh chord down a semitone as a tritone substitution (or augmented sixth chord) you could resolve it a semitone up as the new chord works as a substitute for the anticipated I-chord being a bVI for it. Like, D-G-G7-C would ba an expected modulation but you could just do D-G-G7-Ab. Plenty of examples in Prokfjev's first symphony. And also one of my favourite toys: common-tone diminished seventh chords (check the intro for Tchaikovskys walz of the flowers for example)! For a D to Ab modulation you could establish a E#°/G# - D/A - A7 - D cadence and later treat the E#°/G# as B°/Ab and go straight to Ab. That doesn't sound very jazzy however…
thank you that was a lot of great information. have a great holiday!
This is pure gold, thank you! you blew mi mind!
What about augmented 6th chords? Like Bb7 in D major (actually Bb-D-F-G# - G# is the augmented 6th.) Normally, the Bb falls to A, the G# rises to A, F falls to E and D falls to C#, giving an A major chord, the dominant, leading you back to D major. But for modulation, you have enharmonic changes - the augmented 6th changes to an actual Bb7 - same notes, different feel - which now resolves onto Eb major, which is the dominant of Ab, and you're home. Just round it off with an Eb7-Ab cadence to nail the key down.
I love augmented 6th chords for half-step modulations!
As you were going through your example I had the thought of reinterpreting the dominant of D major (A major) as a Neapolitan 6th of A-flat, and resolving it accordingly.
This was key to how Liszt composed. As anyone who has studied Liszt In depth knows his use of the diminished 7th was the cornerstone to how he approached harmony.
1: Have the chord in 1st inversion.
2: Move the tonic up and down by a semitone to c# and d# (in pitch order F# A C# D#) to form F#minor with a sharpened sixth
3: Move the first two notes up a semitone and respell the rest of the pitches so you get G Bb Db Eb and you can work out the rest.
Congratulations on 100k!
Great Video!
Helped me out a lot
This video was fire. Thank you!
I like using a Neapolitan chord. It really helps when modulating to the key a tritone away. C∆ - Db∆ - Gb∆. It helps but it doesn't always work well in forms of tonal chromaticism, such as wagnerian chromaticism, because it depends entirely on the perfect cadence between the Neapolitan and the target chord. I also like the augmented sixth chord.
The way that I almost always modulate keys is by doing some sort of chromatic scale going from one to the other. I suppose that it might be a bit lazy, but the pieces that I write are extremely melody focused (like pop songs) and so it would break the flow of the piece if I had the modulation take more than a couple of bars. That is, unless the modulation worked naturally in the melody, and if that's the case then I just let it naturally go to the other key (in other words, I unintentionally use one of the more complex techniques that this song talks about.) The one problem is that 95% of my music is designed to loop infinitely, so if I modulate to a key I'm going to have to modulate back to the first one at some point, which usually means that I'll throw in some chromatic modulation to a key or two in-between the initial key and the new one so that the jump isn't too big of a leap, and using a chromatic scale that has more than four half-steps in it seems like it's too long for a modulation to sound natural. Also, I don't like modulating down as it often loses a lot of the tension (though occasionally losing the tension is exactly what I want) so I basically go up to a key naturally and then have a few chromatic modulations up until I arrive at the original key.
Circle of fourth. Also can take you anywhere but may take time :)
That's why modulating down is unlikely, not only it drops the song's energy, it kinda hard to do..
Like D major to Db major, well... The common tones between those scales are Db (C#) and Gb (F#)... It should work nice if we modulate Db maj to D maj while raising the energy by directly using A maj (or A7) chord as a point of resolution (probably for Ab7 chord, the V of Db major), while singing the do (Db or C# note) to resolve to D (A maj/A7 has the C# note inside, the root of Db major scale and the leading tone of D major scale) . But it's kinda hard to do the downside modulation... Thanks for showing us the downside modulation technique in this video, using the dim7th chord as the secondary dominant.
For guitar in similar situations, I like to substitute V9 with dominant chords whose roots are on the same whole-tone scale as the root of the original V9. Consider:
Dmaj7 - Em7 - A9 | Eb9 - Abmaj7 (Eb9/F is an option, and I like it more, if you go to Abm7)
The point is if you look at the typical guitar fingerings of dom-9 chords, you don't have a 5th, and you're left with 1, 3, 7 and 9, which all are on the respective whole tone scale (A B Db Eb F G), which is very ambiguous-sounding, so substitutions done with dom-9 chords formed from the notes on that scale work pretty well. Dom-7/#5 work, too, but make for a sharper transition; dom-9(no5) sound much more gentle and versatile to me.
Sequences like:
Dmaj7 - F#m7 - A9 | B9 | Eb9 - Abmaj7/Eb
or even
Dmaj7 - Em7 - E7/#5 | B9 | Db9 - Abmaj7
or as simple as
Dmaj7 - A7/#5 - Abmaj7
sound great. And the idea is about the same as with the diminished chords: functional ambiguity that is created with the chord notes you are given.
I also went for a modulation chain:
D Em B7 C#m G#m D#7 G#
So basically: tonic to supertonic in D, B7 suggests new key of Em, C#m = interrupted cadence (not sure if Americans have different term for this) still in Em. G#m - so we're a bit ambiguous here, could be i and iv in C#m, could by v and i in G#m. D#7 pulls it towards G#m but then resolves to the major (but we're now going to call it Ab). Seven is an odd number of chords though so maybe throw in a D#m between the C#m and the G#m I dunno. Sounds pretty smoooooth either way though. This sort of thing is fun!
Edit: Think I muddled up my ivs and my vs there but other than that
Thank you so so so so much for this!
Going D7 to Gdim is actually a valid way to do it, the Gdim resolves to the Ab in a nice way so by going D7 Gdim Ab, it just sounds like a delayed resolution of the D7
I find it funny that the first piece I learned on piano features the dimished 7 chords quite prominently (although the modulations are quite tame there) - Bach's wohltemperiertes Klavier BWV 846
In a more classical way, I think you would rather use the Neapolitan Sixth of D: g minor b6, which is an inversion of Eb, the dominant of Ab. You can then without a problem play Eb (here I prefer using a six/four chord to really make sure the transition is clear to everybody :D) closing with Ab.
In total: D-gminor b6-Eb 6/4-Eb-Ab
Would you show the technics of modulations between the different modes, particularly far modes? I mean, church modes, makams, synthetic modes, pentatonics, Messian scales(limited transposition) and ect... For example, modulation between D-Dorian pentatonic and E flat- Hicaz Makam or, F-Diminshed scale and B flat-mixolidyen scale. Thanks
Love the videos! Do you think you could revisit how to structure a song (in terms of verses and choruses and such)? I want to better understand how things like solos, intros, pre-choruses, etc. fit into a song and when to use them. Thanks!
I would do something like a "2-3 Chain", which is where I use the 2-3-4-5 sequence in Chords but make them all minor or all major in order to transition super smoothly to keys separated by minor 3rds; and I would do it twice to end up in the key of the tritone.
EX: C-Dm-Em-Fm-Gm-G#m-A#m-B-C#(7)-F#
In addition to the Neapolitan sixth chord, one can modulate by a tritone by using the French augmented sixth chord. For example, in C tonality, the French augmented sixth chord is: {D, F#, Ab, C}. Perhaps because of the construction of this chord (its notes are contained in the whole-tone scale, no wonder why they call it French), the F# tonality has the same French augmented sixth chord: {G#, B#, D, F#} or, in other words, {Ab, C, D, F#}!
I also tried to think of other ways of modulating to remote keys by using the French augmented sixth chord of the original key, and I came to the conclusion that one can modulate, from C, to C#/Db, D, Eb, F#/Gb, G, A and Ab.
*To C#/Db by spelling the chord as {G#, B#, D, F#}, i.e. the dominant seventh flat five.
*To Eb by considering the {D, F#, Ab, C} as an altered VII of its dominant, Ab (secondary dominant). To be more specific, as the dominant ninth sharp five chord of Eb, i.e. {Bb, D, F#, Ab, C}, with the root omitted.
*To Ab as described above (not as secondary dominant, though, but just dominant).
*To G as a dominant seventh flat five (hmm... the same as in C#/Db tonality).
*To A by considering the chord as an altered VII of A, i.e. {G#, B#, D, F#}, or as an altered dominant with the root omitted.
*To D by considering the chord as an altered VII of its dominant, A.
*To F#/Gb as mentioned in the comment above.
I am now wondering, can the French augmented sixth chord (or perhaps the German, or Italian) of the original key modulate to even more remote keys? What about a chord in the original key (with a function of either a dominant or a secondary dominant, altered or not) contains the same notes as an augmented sixth chord of the destination key (like the C7 that goes to B7 and finally to E, as in Waldstein Sonata)? Is there any "cheatsheet"? Please 12tone, make a video about all these, if you haven't already. They're really exciting!!!
A year late on the "Let me know in the comments," but I think it's interesting too that the constraint was a 32 bar song. Particularly when switching keys like that, using a slow tempo and letting the chords breathe a bit more can help the listener adjust to a new key center or weird harmony. So since 32 bars isn't much to work with, instead of wasting time sitting on a chord, or pivot tone for a few bars, you can slow the tempo down to just make a single bar last longer.
Well in jazz the #iv half diminished or even minor is frequently used as a ii/iii, especially in circle of fifth progressions going to the I. D minor could be pretty smoothly used in such a transition. Also, many jazz songs, such as Just Friends, use the ii V progression up a half step, which is pretty foreign to the key. However, this progression in D Major (fmin7 to Bb7) is vi7 to V7/V in the key of Ab, which isn't very foreign at all. From there, you could either use the ii7 V7 in D, which is a substitution in Ab, do a ii7 V7 IM7 in Ab, or do something more interesting.
If it's part of a medeley, I just play the dominant chord of the target key and hold it for a bit. I try and transpose the songs so that they line up nicely, either in the same key, or one fourth or one fifth away. If i'm going from a major key to a minor key(or the other way around), I try to transpose the songs so that they are either relative minor/major or have the same root.
Can you do an understanding Never Meant, by American Football?
I would've done it two ways:
First way, I would have done a I - ii - V7 in D major but then voice-led the V7 to the V7 of Ab major (the tritone substitution in D major, shared notes of Db and G, leading A and E to Bb and Eb respectively) and then to I.
Second way, I would have done I - ii - V7/bV - I/bV, as the ii in D major acts as a bvi interchange from Ab Aeolian.
Here are basic examples of the methods for modulation used in this video from C major:
Direct modulation: Db, B
Borrowed chords: A, E
Modal interchange: Bb, Eb, Ab
Pivot modulation: G, D
Secondary dominants: F
Tritone sub: F#
Diminished 7th: A, F#, Eb
Try combinig these methods!
Thank you for this dude!
Yay modes of limited transposition! They're useful for getting interesting places, especially if you're fine letting the melody do a bit more heavy lifting in a solo or duet. A whole tone riff would be neat for a romantic sound, or octatonic for a more Messiaen sound.