MODULATION

•  Some styles are defined by their cliches. Take Barbershop, for instance, or Southern Gospel and Black Gospel. But in contemporary music, more imaginative modulating will give your song the needed lift without sounding corny.

•  Some modulations are not really necessary to the song, but they enhance the arrangement, such as doing the last chorus or two a step or half step higher. Musicians call these “arranger modulations,” as opposed to “composer modulations,” which are a part of the structure of the song.

•  Whatever purpose the key changes serve, they all boil down to two categories—direct modulationsand pivot chord modulations. The more common of the two is the pivot chord modulation, in which the new key is approached by a chord common to both keys.

•  It’s technically correct to say that any chord containing a tone common to both the old key and the new key can be used to modulate, but be careful how you do this. While some can be fresh and striking, not all common tone modulations are nice sounding and appropriate to the style you’re in. As in all things musical, let your ear decide.

•  A direct modulation is a change into a new key without using a common chord. One way is simply to start the next chorus or verse in the new key with no modulating chord. This can be startlingly effective in a “presentation” song, (that is a song sung to but not by the audience) but is not recommended in a congregational chorus because most of the congregation doesn’t know the key change is coming until it has already happened. They suddenly realize the train has gone onto a new track without them, so they drop out and come back in when they’ve figured out where the melody has gone. Thus we have a short train wreck. Our worship has been momentarily derailed.

•  The most common modulation of all is going up a half-step or whole-step by using the unadorned V7 chord of the new key to introduce the next verse. This is okay, even expected, in certain traditions such as Country or Southern Gospel, but if you’re writing in a contemporary style and trying to be a bit imaginative, you might want to explore some other avenues instead.

•  The problem is that in a congregational song with a fairly broad range, anything beyond a step up may stretch beyond the comfort range of half the congregation.

But there are solutions. One way to modulate is by use of an instrumental interlude. The modulation can begin anywhere in the interlude, at the beginning, even in the middle of a measure, and by any imaginative modulating device you choose.

You can even get a refreshing lift by doing the interlude in any other key, even half an octave away, then modulating into the new vocal key. Even if you modulate back into the original key, it will feel like a new key when the singers come back in.

Sometimes we change key for just three or four bars and then resolve back into the original key. In this case we usually don’t bother to change the key signature, but use accidentals during the trip. A change of key is not really considered a modulation unless it stays in the new key for a while, long enough to become established as a new tonal center.

There are other ways to get from one key into another, and we’ve only touched the surface. Play around with modulations and see what you learn. When you hear a really good one, figure out how it was done. It will enrich the colors of your music.