Modulating: Just Jumping Into A New Key?

Hello everyone :)

So I was just messing around learning the melody/chords to this song and noticed it changes key a few times.

Starts in E minor

1:05 - G minor

1:19 - D minor

1:26 - F minor

1:32 - B minor

1:58 - D minor

etc... haven't done the rest.

It just jumps straight into them and the whole thing sounds incredibly smooth. Is there any sort of rule or tip to make sudden key changes as smooth as they are in this piece?

Thanks for your time :)

What may help sudden key changes go as smooth as in this song is if the keys are in some way related. For instance, A minor to its relative major (C major), to its parallel major (A major), or to other minor keys, particularly E minor or D minor. At least this is the way things are done in traditional genres and styles of classical music.

What also may help is a chord or a series of a few chords that will bring two very unrelated keys together. For instance, B minor to F major, which could go something like this: Bm, C7, F. Or, Bm, D, Dm, F.

I hope this helps a bit.

It's an harmonic technique usually associated to movies soundtrack, so games and tv series used it too. You just have to harmonize the melody using the mediant relationships (commonly diatonic or chromatic).

Just count the 3 steps of the scale:

Em (mediant = G) -> Gm (dominant = D) -> Dm (mediant = F) -> Fm -> (subdominant B) -> Bm (mediant = D) -> Dm

As you can notice, there isn't exactly a strict rule. It's a soundtrack cliché, you use major chords to "add bright" and minor ones to "add darkness". Sometimes, you can jump to dominant and subdominant (this happens in this music), completely at your will. Hans Zimmer uses this a lot. I made these days a little piece to exemplify this to some colleagues: http://www.4shared.c...a_mediante.html

The harmonic sequence from my piece: Dm –> Fm –> Ab –> C –> Em –> Gm –> Bb –> D

Some modulations are diatonic, with a common chord while some of the use a chromatic transformations, with at least one note being used as a chromatic semitone of each chord - for example: when you modulate from e minor to g minor, you use b-b flat chromatic movement while keeping tone g as a common tone to make it less agressive. g minor and d minor are closely related so a common chord g minor or modal F major can both make a modulation element for changing key signature.

Nevertheless, our ears are very much accustomed to all strange harmonic effects so there are not many surprises left in tonal music unless it's very widely interpreted. ;)

I have to agree with Sojar and Ken have said: They have explain modulation very well and breifly.

I think in the case of this song the program material itself is a big factor as to why the key changes sound "right." Exciting, in fact. Because each section is almost identical to the last. The rhythm is the same, the orchestration is the same, and the chord progressions sound virtually the same. So when you make that jump in key to the next section, you are still in familiar territory. Your mind just goes "Oh yeah, I've heard this before, it's just a different key." And because he doesn't clutter it up with unnecessarily passing chords, he doesn't confuse the listener.

Try this for an experiment. Take this progression, which is similar to the piece, and try modulating it to various keys. A lot of them will sound good juxtaposed together without a single passing chord. The first chord in each series is the new key for that series.

Dm-Bb-C, Am-F-G or Dm-Bb-C, Gm-Eb-F

Sorry, didn't mean to confuse you, each sequence begins and ends on the tonic

Dm-Bb-C-Dm, Am-F-G-Am or Dm-Bb-C-Dm, Gm-Eb-F-Gm

Not all will sound good. See which ones!

Check this out for examples of quick key changes. G to Bb @ 1:05, with no connecting chord at all, then Eb

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=qPQRdi6GUcw

Edited December 6, 201213 yr by Ken320