the end of the 20th century, as popular music became increasingly rhythmic and devoid of harmonic colour.
Modulations may be fleeting or more secure. A piece of music might move through several keys in a matter of bars with
sufficient time to become established. Tonality can be blurred, and it is not always easy to say what key certain bars of m
they are in a defined key.
The Magic of Distance
All major keys have identical internal structures; they are simply built on key notes (roots) of differing pitch. But a piec
to C subjectively sounds as though it has "gone somewhere". From the perspective of C major, G major seems to be a di
difference is even more profound if we move from C major to, say, Bb minor.
Modulation may support the lyric content – or undermine it. Imagine you are writing a love song in which the speaker s
behind, in a major key, and the happiness ahead, in a minor key. The keys are the reverse of what you might expect, wh
is about something more than what the lyric is explicitly saying.
A key change can have a subtle effect that perhaps represents uncertainty or an emotional dislocation. Or it can be crude
ratchet up the final choruses for added excitement.
Keys and Singing
When you write songs for yourself to sing, take into account the keys that suit your voice. Find your lowest note and yo
comfortable singing, and then any higher notes you could get by pushing your voice, and finally high notes that are reac
Relate the highest comfortable note to the scale of the key in which you want to write a song. Check to see if this note is
scale, like the root, third or fifth. You can plan your melody to take that into consideration.
A well-known recording trick is to pitch a song in a key that is slightly too high for the singer, so the straining for notes
performance. Motown writers like Holland-Dozier-Holland used to pitch songs in keys that were just a bit too high for M
Stubbs of The Four Tops, to bring out more passion in their voices. But if you're going to sing your songs live, don't use
many – or you'll never get through a set with your voice intact. The opposite effect is not so common, but worth conside
something from Michael Stipe singing at the low end of his range, and as for Lee Marvin's 'Wanderin' Star'....
With age, the voice naturally loses some of its range. This has had an interesting consequence for a singer-songwriter lik
relied on altered guitar tunings. Over the years her tunings have had to move down to match the drop in her voice – cau
problems as the guitar strings have got slacker.
Near Keys and Far Keys
Some keys are "closer" to each other than others – we can speak of "related" keys, or "near'' and "far" keys. Adjacent ke
away) are close. Each key has a relative minor or major that is three semitones (half-steps) from the root note; that is a n
on this figure:
Cb Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F C G D A E
Abm Ebm Bbm Fm Cm Gm Dm Am Em Bm F#m C#m G