How to Change Key (a practical guide)
Vložit
- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
- Unless you are an excellent melodist, if you write music and you strictly stay in key, you may be writing music that is boring. Even excellent melodists such as Tchaikovsky had to learn the art of key changing to keep his audience engaged! And this is exactly what this video is about, key changing techniques for everyone! This video starts out for beginners, but gets progressively more advanced.
We have 2 parts
Part 1 talks about abrupt key changing, and why a composer may choose an abrupt key change. Also, why do abrupt key changes sound abrupt?
Part 2 then talks about smooth key changing techniques using the relative major and relative minor scales. Also, find out how to utilize the circle of 5ths to break out of key and choose the correct key signature.
Links
================
I'm currently developing Music Jotter, a music notation software. If you'd like to support me, you can join early access:
Buy Me a Coffee ☕ bit.ly/mj-bmc
Not sure? Join my mailing list:
Mailing List 👉 eepurl.com/hSlUWD
Or, just subscribe to this channel already!
✅ Subscribe if you want the power and accessibility Music Jotter can bring via the web: / @musicjotter
We also have a Discord if you feel like chatting.
/ discord
*Original works in this video
================
*Composer: Mike
5 exercises
1 abrupt key changing demo
1 improv of pentatonic scale demo
2 relative minor to major demos
1 key changing exercise (how to break out of key other than relative major or minor)
*Composer: Izaak
Title: Lurking for Symphonic Orchestra
URL: www.youngcomposers.com/t45506...
Comment: Beautiful theatrical style symphonic work making use of excellent melody using simple functional harmony. This piece proves that complex harmony isn't always needed to make beautiful music.
*Composer: Henry @henryng0725
Title: Fugue from String Sextet
URL: • Six Voice Fugue from S...
Comment: This is a work that needs to be listened to many times. A very complex fugue, but once understood, the listening experience is incredibly rewarding. I break up this piece for you to show the melody lines.
*Composer: Johan
Title: Minuet Scherzando
URL: www.youngcomposers.com/t45607...
Comment: A fully engaging piece of music due to its extremely smooth key changes. I had a lot of fun analyzing this piece for this video.
0:00 Intro to Key Changing
1:09 Part I: Abrupt Key Changing (Kickoff Demo 1 by Mike)
2:48 Abrupt Key Changing: Demo 2 by Izaak
3:55 Abrupt Key Changing: Demo 3 by Henry
5:04 Music Jotter (Early Access)
5:58 Part II: Smooth Key Changing
6:18 Intro to Scales
6:37 Pentatonic Scale
6:59 Pentatonic Scale: Demo 1 by Henry
7:29 Pentatonic Scale: Demo 2 by Mike
7:41 Diatonic Scale
8:21 Smooth Key Changing (Relative Major & Minor)
10:28 I compose relative minor to major: Ex. 1
12:14 I compose relative minor to major: Ex. 2
13:23 How to break out of key?
14:21 Various Modulation Examples by Johan
14:53 The Melodic Minor Scale
16:52 Notable Modulation: Abmaj to Csharp min
17:44 Notable Modulation: Bbdom7 to Bmaj
18:17 Shared notes between keys - Hudba
My previous video specifically goes over the mechanics of Music Jotter's playback: czcams.com/video/7lKv9kXc35w/video.html in more detail.
And while this video is a broader based video around key changing, it still utilizes these topics I've gone over in the past: multi voices, triplets, playback, meterless music and custom note spacing.
Quite nice seeing the composing process here too
Thx for including my piece into your video Mike! It’s a very interesting and educational video.
For the first example when F sharp minor modulates abruptly to C minor, I reinterpret the dominant seventh of C sharp minor as German Sixth of C minor, which is one of my favourite device to change keys, and when modulating back to F sharp minor I just modulate by voice leading with chromatic downfall movement. This is conscious because of the first movement of the work quoted and one of my previous work which I would like to quote too. The use of pentatonic scale is conscious too since I wanna include elements from the first movement too.
I like the demonstration of the examples using Music Jotter. It really showcases the advantage of the software! Thx for the video!
Henry
Thank you, and I enjoyed including your piece in this video. Key changing is a wildly complex topic, and I tend to think its even more complicated than time signatures. But the abrupt key changes are nice to demonstrate because it's really interesting how unrelated scales can produce such different colors in music. Your piece was perfect to use as a demonstration of the pentatonic scale using a real world composition.
Hopefully Music Jotter was able to drive the video, and help make difficult concepts just a tad bit clearer!
Schubert: hold my beer
I can never forget the modulation from F major to C# minor in his D.960!
Shouldn’t you focus more on the operations of the program and less on theory and harmony?
You definitely noticed that I am switching gears with this channel. My intentions are to demonstrate my knowledge in this topic by using Music Jotter to make my points. I feel this is a way to build trust. If all I do is talk about the mechanics of the product, it will become "too sales pitchy" and I lose this trust. With that said, I will definitely create videos specifically designed to show off the product, with future product update videos.
Why do you want to change keys smoothly? Isn't the point of a key change to "shock" people?
Depends on the song, both approaches leave you with different results.
Sometimes an abrupt key change may not sound right (if unintentional). This is more of a problem with inexperienced composers who are just learning. I had this same problem when I was learning. I always had trouble getting back to root key and as a result, the key change would just sound forced.
My example with Chopin is an example of smooth modulations by one of the top composers of his time. He shows us how he comfortably can get to a completely different key without us even noticing. We do notice this subconsciously though, through the beauty of the music. But you are correct in that sometimes the point of an abrupt key change is to shock people!
Just like my fugue which has both abrupt and smooth key changing muahaha😜🤪
Henry
Yes when I first listened I noticed that key change right away. I think I even asked you about it!
I would say it’s because they are different tools in the toolbox. Maybe you have two ideas in different keys that you want to transition between instead of transposing one to fit the other, or maybe you want to have a very climatic moment that needs buildup to be effective. On the other hand, being quick with a key change can create colors and emotions unlike really anything else in music, so there’s your argument for that. Happy writing!