How To Modulate Anywhere

Changing keys is a great way to add more sophistication to a piece of music, but it can be a tricky process. Sure, there's some easy targets, but what if you want to get weird with it? What if you want to go somewhere completely different, somewhere with absolutely nothing in common with your starting key? Most of our normal modulation tools fall apart when the scales get too far away from each other, but theorists don't give up quite so easily.

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Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!

[ElowenFaye]

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

[TheSquareOnes]

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.

[MisterAppleEsq]

This is a key, change-inducing video.

[Manas-cowl]

I like how you touched upon every modulation possibility possible just to modulate chords tritone apart.

[ZipplyZane]

Just having heard the assignment: Since this is jazz, I predict you'll suggest using a tritone substitution

[Joe_Yacketori]

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.

[Classic]

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!

[nthSonata]

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

[trippstewartma]

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.

[philosophyjones]

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).

[luigivercotti]

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!

[JXter_]

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.

[atngo]

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.

[AdamEmond]

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!

[educostanzo]

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!

[dannydrumplayer]

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).

[tstthomason]

Haha, my classically-minded self immediately thought “chromatic sequence!” Fantastic video!

[katiekilgore]

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.

[krozjr]

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.

[iliadisgeorge]

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#).