How to Modulate to ANY Key (Easy to Difficult) 

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I love the level you teach at! Not many RU-vidrs breach the gap between Music Theory I and advanced jazz harmony, but you fill it very well.

For the circle of fifths modulation, changing the tonic to the 5 (or 4) doesn't actually sound like it has changed until you've destabilized the old key by including one of the changed notes (for major, flat the 7 or sharp the 4). In this Cmaj -> Fmaj example, it only sound like you're in Fmaj once we hear a Bb. That's one of the reasons that baroque composers loved harmonic minor since there are so many ways to destabilize the key.

9:08 is just so beautiful to me, the dissonance to the hold to the release is the best. I love this!

Music DOES tell stories, but its stories in emotion rather than in a plot, because music is likely a formalization of the tone and tempo of voice that imparts a persons emotion to a listener when a person speaks. Notes that are closer in pitch connect better melodically, but do not connect together very well harmonically, so its not just the smallest or leading tone that connects strongly in melody, its also whole tones, minor thirds and major thirds which all connect strongly in a melody. for harmony its the reverse, notes which are far apart in frequency connect more strongly while those which are closer in frequency don't connect very well, its octaves or larger intervals that connect best in a harmony, for example organ stops are composed of more than one pipe separated in frequency by large intervals that then connect so well we hear them as if ONE pipe with a particular sound.

Excellent pace, insight, and playing! Great exposition!

The easy way to modulate is just put a capo on the piano. Done!

I've always loved using chromatic mediants to shift away from a tired chord progression. I appreciate you walking through these other great ideas.

love your videos man. the way you articulate your points is so well done. keep doing what your doing!

I’ve always wanted to learn different forms of modulations to apply in my pieces!! Thank you so much Zach!

That concept of leading tone of 7th degree for the five chord is awesome. can totally relate to our indianclassicalmusic. love that modal modulation for changing keys.

Your explanations are clear and direct, and in 10 minutes, I understood the different modulation strategies! Thanks Zach.

This was a great lesson, man I wish I had your videos when I was in college. It would've saved me so much time, it's amazing how well you can learn with the right teacher. Thank you so much man

Chain modulation with thirds is in John Coltrane's Giant Steps as well As Maurice Ravel's Ondine.

One of my favorite modulations I've written was from Db major to E major using some similar techniques to what you mentioned. I added a dominant seventh note to the tonic Db major chord, which could also be interpreted as a C# dominant chord since they're enharmonic equivalents. The C# dominant resolved to F# minor, and from there I did a 2-5-1 to the new tonic of E major. With a proper buildup, I think it's easy to change keys seamlessly, even if they're not very close to each other on the circle of fifths.

Super helpful video. Inspires lots of possibilities and ideas to work through when trying to follow a modulation to its home key again! Thank you. 🙏🏽

This is the best treatment of modulation I have found on utube. Worth a watch.

Dude, this is gold, concise and to the point. Subscribed with one video, I'm gonna check the rest. Cheers

Thank you for the helpful tips. I have been doing the parallel modulation and changing the scale using the same root for many years since I find them interesting.

Very well put together. Very concise. Didn't waste anytime while also explaining everything really well. Subscribed!

I have watched many videos about modulation because I can't get it yet; and your video helped me to close some concepts and open new ones. The most difficult video I have watched so far, but as very useful too! Great examples btw! the sounded great and very graphic also!

Loved what you played for the Modal modulations :)

I’m not a composer, but I am a music theory geek! This was an awesome video! You explained everything clearer than my music theory professors. Looking forward to watching more videos!

incredibly useful video - i will revisit this many times I'm sure. thank you for sharing, lot's to learn here!

Ive been involved in music for most of my life and now I stumble upon this lesson that would have explained everything that ive struggled to grasp for many years. Good news is I just started writing EDM so time to implement some of these techniques that i have not used before.

Quite the most useful material presented in the most efficient way! None of the superfluous chat other RU-vidrs have, just solid info! Excellent

for chain modulation in thirds, consider alternating between major and minor - this keeps more common tones between the chords and sounds even better

Although a guitarist, this was one of the most useful videos I've seen. 10 minutes of instruction blossoming into months/years of compositional enjoyment. Thank you!

Thanks for the post, this is an extra good one. Outstanding.

This vid was so helpful thanks man keep it up!👍

Awesome vid Zach - loving your work. I was keeping up all the way until the altered common tone section😅. Deffo gunna need to watch that section a few more times.

The modal technique at 6:48 is *super* useful for writing epic guitar solos! Use the same underlying groove but change the mode of the guitar melody.

Wow. My mind was blown. I’ll be doing a lot more experimentation of chords to create some chord progressions. Thanks for making this video. Peace and blessings to you and your family.

I remember this from 30 years ago. Very happy to see this helping others

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Good explanation my friend!

I wish he had added these notes in the video somehow. Chromatic might be confusing to read. Circle of fifths modulation: You have to go to the 4th of the new key. F.x. modulating from C to F doesnt work until you play Bb after. (You can also use Gminor, some jazzy chords or Fsus4, as long as they use the Bb note in them, since it's the only changed note between the two keys.) Chain Modulation: Apparently you can just modulate up or down a minor third from the tonic, I wish I knew why, but I guess I'll keep it in mind. You can chain this modulation to get a sort of dramatic or powerful building effect, no matter if u modulate up or down. Chromatic Modulation: It seems like you modulate up from almost any chord (at least 1, 4 and 5 works from my testing so far.), modulating so you land on the new 1 chord either after the 2nd chord so you can play smth within the new scale and go back (to your new) home, or after the 4th chord so you start completely over at (the new) home. These are the chords: G, D, Eb, Bb, A, D, C# 1, 4 (1), 5, (1), 4, (1) G to D (Normal 4th) to Eb (Chromatic modulation 1up from D) to Bb (The 5th of Eb) to A (Chromatic Modulation 1down from Bb) to D (The fourth of A) to C# (Chromatic Modulation down again)

Youre a great teacher! Just discovered your vudeos and youve earned yiurself a sub!

I found that very interesting and well explained, I'm mainly a blues/rock singer and guitar player, not a piano player or composer, my signwriting is closer to Steel Panther than Beethoven tbh, but when explained well, knowing these things can really help with any musicians playing and creativity.

Thank you so much Zach.

Nah nah this video just unlocked what I needed in my brain. I keep questioning if my ears and brain are right and wrong. We all hear and think the same musically or at least similar enough to play and listen to the same stuff. I’m no longer gonna question it. And just keep learning and going. I’ve been playing for 6 years since I was 16 and because of RU-vid I was able to learn. I thought I wasn’t good at it. Until I started playing with others and taking it seriously. What u hear on records and what u hear in your brain is all right. It’s the matter of doing it. I hope others learning never stop. Without music I wouldn’t have discipline or the understanding instant gratification doesn’t exist. I got the “bug” that helped. But other than that it’s all me. Same goes for everyone on earth. An every concept applies. Music teaches more than music ooooof wow. So powerful in to the point where I’m actually commenting on a social media platform🥲 changed life musically. maybe I’m just retarded🤣

Love the vids about heavy harmony stuff. Keep it up

well done! just found you - clear and concise. new sub

Excellent.Thanks !

Chromatic modulation happens if you change one of the tones of the chord and thereby change its mode or content. Eg. C major into C minor by lowering the E to Eb.

Great Job!!!! Stay the course and keep rocking these awesome videos!!! Subscribing now!

Fantastic !! Thank you

Zach.... Wow! I just gotta say... again 😅. I friggen LOVE your videos. Literally, EVERY video I've watched and let me just say... is so chalk full of valuable and useful information! As ALWAYS, thank you, thank you, thank you! 😊😊😊

In my recent music, I was playing in mixolydian and dorian at the same time. It is a cool theme. When I don't play the 3th that often it will be a surprise hearing it as a major 3th.

what software is this that is showing the piano? and the chords

Man you're great. You will soon become one of the bests❤

Excellent my friend!

Love your videos. Thank you. Curious, what software are using to show the chords in the one measure on screen as you play?

Great video! And great teaching!

Just what I needed. SUBBED

Ok wow, What a goldmine.. Saving this gem, going to play around with these Thank you!!!

dude i could stay focused for the whole 10 minutes of the video, that was fascinating. really nice explained and very interesting :)

I love how directly he talks about direct modulation

Amazing video man.

I liked where you used the tritone and sounded a little bit like old school Tony Banks!

Awesome video Zach!! I especially loved the Altered Common Tone Modulation. I've instinctually done this a few times when trying to sound more like my classical influences like Anton Bruckner, Wagner or Edward Elgar. Just didn't know there was a name for it. I'll definitely continue to do this maneuver more intentionally in my future writing.

I love how the program called a simple D flat chord a Fmin/C# chord at 2:56 I did learn a lot from this video though, thanks for uploading. I really needed to learn composition and this video fixed most of my problems. All I knew was to modulate up a minor third.

It just baffles me watching you go through chord progressions so easily and knowing your exact options for which keys to play for each chord! 9 years of piano and I've regrettably barley delved into improvisation or chord progressions or any music theory outside of high school lol. Most pieces I've just learnt through piano synthesias.

Fantastic video

"Today's video is sponsored by me" is one of the coolest things I've ever heard

You just earned a new subscriber brother

Subscribed! Explainers that make music theory useful to composing--yes please! 😃🎹 And thank you!

I heard that story, but in the version I heard it was about J.S. Bach's (20!!!) kids doing that on the harpsichord when he was napping. 😂

That's a great lesson.

Thank you 🙏🏽🎼👍

Years ago I was noodling on the piano and discovered that any IIm7-V7-! to the desired key from the tonic major 7 chord will sound good. I just discovered this on my own; try it and see for yourself.

oh wow thanks, i needed this so much. sharing in my discord for sure. I would love a video on how to use passing chords. Usually the only videos i can find on this topic are in the context of Jazz or Neo Soul Gospel music. I'd love to see a composer's point of view how they use passing chords.

This is helpful for me as a noob, thanks.

Def learned more in this video than in books and in school

This is fabulous too. Thanks again Zach. 1 question I'm missing (to anyone). In the "Altered Common Tone Modulation" Demo, is there some logic that suggested you going from CMaj(b5) to BMaj?

“They say they use to play the scale and stop right before the top to wake Beethoven up” they also say silence is the most deafening sound 🙊

I play guitar, but enjoyed the video a lot. I understood it all, but the last part got a bit more complex. I don't know Diminished harmony, but certainly on the piano it sounds cool. But for pop or folk guitar songs, mostly it's simple. I think the parallel stuff is cool. I did it but did not describe it, like you said about chain. If your using the popular 4 chord progression, like D A Bm G, what might be a simple way to use it? Like Fm Bm when switching verse/chorus or chorus/bridge? And what do you think of direct modulation up maj2 (I did it twice up in a solo section of a song and back to original key and sounded quite natural). That seems very popular in "pop". I also think some songs just doing direct min3 or P5, but maj2 seems easiest to do (and hear). How about that? Sorry, many questions and thoughts.

What's the chord/sheet music display thing you use on the screen that's hella neat

just found out this channel!!subs!

Nice video. "Using it without knowing/noticing it" very much applies to me 😄. BTW, what's that great music in the background of the Compose & Conquer Community chapter?

What's the software that you use where you can play on the keyboard and it'll show you the chord notation/name?

Interesting video! Might be less confusing if you fixed the transcription so that there aren't flats and sharps in the same chord like the F-sharp major chord at 4:02, or the B major chord at 8:39 or 9:52. Similarly, the "E major" chord has an A-flat instead of G-sharp at 8:53.

9:50 Have to ask, how you came up with those four resolutions. To my mind, a C# diminished, could resolve to yes, D, and therefore F, Ab, and B (and any of those being major or minor). Wasn't sure where the G major or E major came from?

1:32 when I had a band that was writing original music there was one song that the guitarists (I'm just a lowly bassist) wanted to end on the V power chord but it drove me crazy so in the live demo jam recording I waited until the guitars had mostly faded out and played the root note of the key to resolve it haha.

On the parallel modulation, can I use the Am as the fifth?

Oooooo useful

You mixed up parallel modulation for relative modulation and modal for parallel. A parallel modulation is where you keep the same tonic but the type of scale changes(C major to C minor, D lydian to D dorian). Relative modulation is where all the notes stay the same but the tonic changes (G major to E minor, Bb major to Eb lydian).

Great video, the only backside imo is that your software translates and writes chords out of tonal rules - by using random enharmonies, for exemple A dur chord is written A, D bemol Mi then A. While it should be done for the sake of compréhension A, C diez Mi then A.

did you label G7 as Gmaj? is this some kind of classical notation for the dominant 7th chord?

So glad I happened upon your channel whilst browsing. Really enjoyed this video. You really know how to put complex musical theory across in a way esoteric to a lot of people. Thank you.

Altered common tone immediately brought to mind the work of Tony Banks in Genesis.

I do believe that first direct modulation was actually moving by a third. I know someone who made a really good video about that recently.

how do you play piano and is transcript into music sheet i want to try it

What program is he using ?

What are the other 3 Modulation types?

As a composer, how do you choose a key to modulate into? After 2 verses and a chorus, my song needs a change, but there are so many keys to choose from...

Chromatic mediant modulations is all over J rock , anime intros. great video thank you.

Could you modulate from the key of C#m to let's say B Maj ?

@0:18 "... and now we can just move to B major". I love this whole passage but I hear it as setting up C minor, then the Ab to Eb sounds like a big fat "amen", so at the point you say "now we can move to B major" it sounds like the Eb was at rest so we were in the key of Eb, but the B major chord doesn't sound like the new key. It sounds like another "amen"-type move that comes to rest on the following chord, F#. Then it sets up F# for a while and does the old "deceptive" thing of going to the relative minor, Eb minor. So if I'm hearing it right, the keys we've had so far are C minor, Eb major, F# major and a suspenseful ending that seems like it wants to resolve to Eb minor. *QUESTION: If I analyze it that way, would you still call it "direct" modulation? And if not, what would you call it?* 'Thanks.

Hey Zach, great video. Did anybody ever tell you about your doppelgänger? His name is Adam from Viva la dirt league!