How To Write Chord Progressions 3: Creating Harmony With Modulations (Changing Key)

Chords are the building blocks of so much modern music. Understanding how to write beautiful chord progressions is a wonderful way to open your mind to new musical worlds.

Changing key (AKA "Modulation") is not so popular at the moment. Here we listen to examples from current artists like Mitski and Yebba, as well as songs from other eras, including Kate Bush and David Bowie. We walk you through some of the theory and also offer other ways of hearing what a chord change is and how it works. It is a skill worth looking into and may take your music into new, unexpected places.

Featuring interviews with musicians including Tristan Landymore, Tehillah Alphonso, Cassie Kinoshi and Carly Paradis.

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Our musical examples come from a range of artists such as The Beatles, Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse and Kate Bush.

SECTIONS:

00:00 1 Intro
03:04 2 What counts as changing key?
05:19 3 Half-Modulation
09:40 4 Common tones
14:52 5 Pivot Chords & Tension Chords
21:55 6 Step up, step down key changes
23:42 7 Surprise modulations
26:30 8 Smoothing out with quick chord changes & stepwise motion
29:21 9 Less surprising modulations
30:41 10 Taking the bait of a key change
32:21 11 Creating instability

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Ear Opener is a series of free video masterclasses that demystify the process of writing music. It combines simple, accessible explanations of the tools that people who write music use everyday, with honest discussion about the creative process.

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