Timeline for Reasons why certain key changes work better than others
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 10 at 0:02 | answer | added | Laurence | timeline score: 0 | |
| Nov 9 at 11:05 | answer | added | Tim | timeline score: 0 | |
| Nov 9 at 8:17 | comment | added | Tim | @ToddWilcox - this is closer to my thinking. I'll add a 'theoretical' answer later. | |
| Nov 9 at 4:21 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | One thing that happens briefly when a new major tonic chord is stated a whole step above the previous major tonic chord is there is a temporary sense of the Lydian mode (the third of the new tonic is the raised 4 of the old tonic). Whether it’s cultural or psychological, Lydian sounds have impact. This is also a feature of the applied/secondary dominant of the V chord. | |
| Nov 9 at 4:16 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | In universities in the U.S., “modulation” means changing to a different key. Some key changes are brief and not considered modulations but might be described as tonicization. In jazz I’ve heard of “the key of the moment” because there may be multiple ii-V-I patterns across several related tonal centers in a single head and they don’t last long enough to analyze them as modulations. | |
| Nov 8 at 17:23 | comment | added | root | From a deleted answer: "The shift by a whole step up might be the most harmonious, because it's the key of a secondary dominant to the dominant" | |
| Nov 8 at 17:22 | comment | added | root | @Tim Regarding your question in the comments, see the video "What's the Difference Between a Modulation and a Key Change?" for some opinions. | |
| Nov 8 at 17:22 | comment | added | Andy Bonner | @Dekkadeci I mean, it's just a matter of convenience, right? A key signature doesn't "make a key" by itself, just shows it. We could write everything with no key signature and just throw around the flats and sharps, but we could still say that a song was "in the tonality of" G major. See all the questions here about what key signature to use with modes. So yeah, the decision whether or not to change the signature mostly has to do with how long you're going to stay there and whether it's "worth it." | |
| Nov 8 at 17:08 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Nov 8 at 17:05 | comment | added | Dekkadeci | @AndyBonner - Maybe it's all the poorly notated pieces I've already seen (and all the shifts to the relative major), but I'd say neither key changes nor modulations require key signature changes. | |
| Nov 8 at 16:26 | answer | added | Elements In Space♦ | timeline score: 4 | |
| Nov 8 at 16:21 | answer | added | Michael Curtis | timeline score: 2 | |
| Nov 8 at 15:43 | history | edited | Tim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 8 at 15:35 | comment | added | Andy Bonner | @Tim That would be a largely hair-splitty one for me: "key change" is when the author bothers to change the key signature, while "modulation" is the process or mechanism of getting from one tonality into another. Or, reasonably, we could just say that "key change" can just be used interchangeably with "modulation." | |
| Nov 8 at 15:05 | history | edited | Tim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 8 at 14:58 | comment | added | Tim | @AndyBonner - sounds like a question is heralded - what's the difference between key change and modulation? | |
| Nov 8 at 14:52 | answer | added | root | timeline score: 4 | |
| Nov 8 at 14:51 | comment | added | Andy Bonner | Colloquially, I'd usually use "modulation" for any situation in which you move to a new key for a significant time (like through the end of the song, or until the next modulation). For shorter things, like just spending a couple of bars in "of V" stuff, I'd say that those bars "tonicize V." But esp in pop music, the "Mack-the-Knife" practice of hikin it all up a step, I would call modulation. | |
| Nov 8 at 13:42 | answer | added | Sparquelito | timeline score: 1 | |
| Nov 8 at 13:16 | comment | added | Tim | @ToddWilcox - I'm regarding a modulation as a temporary key change, which won't last a chorus, whereas a key change will stay in the new key for the duration, and not return to the original. For example, song's in key E, then key changes up to, say, F for the last chorus. Not related to each other, musically. | |
| Nov 8 at 13:12 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | Can you clarify what for you is the difference between a key change and a modulation? | |
| Nov 8 at 9:03 | history | asked | Tim | CC BY-SA 4.0 |