Modulation techniques

[El Cabron]

mostly all my compositions are written in one key...sometimes this is perfect but most of the times I would love to change the key smoothly...
can anyone give me some info about simple modulation techniques??
I was also wondering how to modulate from a minor key to the relative major...I never know if I'm in the major or minor(i.e.:when composing in a-minor/c-major)
I mean minor keys have a special sound,but I'm never quite sure if I'm in major or minor...

 

[Lodger]

well,

im not sure how well you understand chord leading, but if you do a user search for posts that i've made, i did a brief explanation of what chords resolve to what other chords. This is important because, essentially what modulation does is taking advantage of where a chord would go if it were in a different scale.

for example, consider this A minor progression-

i ace, iv dfa, v egb

way simple...but we can change scales by taking advantage of where they'd lead if they were in other scales

for example, we'll start out the same

i ace, iv dfa....

but using our memory that d minor is the chord of the 5th degree of g min, we can lead to the tonic chord of the g-minor scale. now just start your chord progression in g min and everything should sound fine. Learn your chord leading and realize that although you are in one key, that the resolving properties of chords in other keys are still there. I hope this helps; i will clarify if i need to


-Lodger

 

[El Cabron]

so you mean that using the e-min chord I can change the key from a-min to g-min...?
that sounds good...
can you give me some more examples??
what can I do,if I want to switch between minor and major,or vice versa??
thanks in advance

 

[Bezo]

...can anyone give me some info about simple modulation techniques?? I was also wondering how to modulate from a minor key to the relative major.

I responded to you other post and touched on modulation.

...I never know if I'm in the major or minor(i.e.:when composing in a-minor/c-major)
I mean minor keys have a special sound,but I'm never quite sure if I'm in major or minor...

Your song should revolve around the tonic of the key you're in. So, if you're in Cmaj, your harmony and melody will constantly resolve to 'C'. An Amin chord/note may not appear at all.

 

[matt42]

You can learn the cycle of fifths Each step up or down only modulates the key by one note. The more steps you move the more exreme the modulation and the more chance it's going to sound bad.

The first link I could find with a diagram:

http://www.petethomas.co.uk/jazz-cycle-of-5ths.html

As you can see each step moving left from Cmaj adds another sharp each step to the right adds another flat.