My hero!

Thanks!

Thanks for doing this, George - I really appreciate it! Now that KZfaq has enabled the "chapters" feature (a godsend for tutorials like this) I'm going to embed these timestamps in the scrubber bar.

No problem - glad it helped!

Problem with the circle of fifths is that its used for almost everything, so it's overwhelming. I find that after learning the cirlce of fifths, everything else you learn is somewhat connected to it, so just staying persistent works

@@WilliamZhao why does nobody mention the circle of fourths? That aught to work right?

Agreed, nice to see someone explain its basic utility, finding out which chords resolve to which.

You're welcome :)

Absolutely. We always looked about for some esoteric pivot ideology. In addition to hinging into another key from the diatonic keys, pivoting style one, I like how you explained pivoting style two - by altering one of the diatonics up or down a semitone and seeing where that might lead to and if you like how it sounds.

You're really welcome - glad it was helpful!

No problem, Franco - glad you liked it!

Good question! It'll be about proximity - although the G#m7 isn't diatonic to the target key, its notes are either shared (the B) or within a semitone of diatonics. It's the sort of modulation where voicing *really* matters: if you play around with it you'll find it probably works really well in some voicings, but not in others. Does that help?

@@BillHilton Thanks man! I know what you mean but I can't fully wrap my head around it just yet. But I do understand what McCartney was doing there, in this particular example, because when he changes to Bm, the notes stay the same, and he only changes the bass, walking it down from B to G#, G and finally F#. Do you have any videos explaining this sort of modulation? Or can you recommend one if you yourself haven't made one yet? Thanks again Bill!! ✌🏼

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks Tom! One or two pretty notable composers (I'm thinking of Berlioz and Rousseau) managed without much in the way of instrument skill, so you can still do a lot with just the knowledge...

@@BillHilton I honestly didn't know that! That's pretty encouraging

You can try fl studio or some other music software. I *think* fl studio is free as long as you don't use it to make money (commercial products) and you can't save "export" your songs in mp3. Not sure if you can save your songs. But if you're just interested in making music for practice, it's really good. Lots of free instruments that mimic their real world counterparts. You can write a whole orchestra if you're so inclined

@@tombackhouse9121 Unfortunately not, FL studio is not free unless you don't save any project. But it's not a big deal ! Use Cakewalk, it's the best free DAW you can find in my opinion. You'll have everything you want :). Be aware however that music needs investement. Time obviously : writing does not take 10 minutes. And money, a lot of money even if you use cakewalk, you'll still have to get decent VSTs (virtual instruments), and VSTs considered as classic can easily cost 500 € and they are not doing everything, they serve a particular purpose (VST for orchestral, for ambiant etc). Making it short, I've spent thousands of euros in music. If music becomes your passion, you'll hardly have the luxury of having other passions. Even eating xD.

Thank you, Daniel! 😃

Thanks very much indeed - really glad it helped!

I'll bear that in mind, Joyce, thanks! The great dilemma is that I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to viewing myself playing (everything has to be "demonstration quality", if you see what I mean), so a little more playing means I have to do a LOT more practice of whatever I'm demonstrating. Still, I guess that would be good for me!

Glad it helped, Jeremy! I've also got a more recent one on a similar theme: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bbWRgptpu6fSf58.html

Glad you liked it, Ramesh - thanks for taking the time to say so!

Thanks Gabriel!

Thanks very much for the kind words, Avramy - you're welcome!

You're welcome, Sofiya!

Thanks very much for the kind words, Amir - I'm glad it helped!

😂 Glad it helped!

You're very welcome Mok!

I can't even claim credit for the coinage, Raymond! I first heard it years ago, and I think it's pretty common currency among, e.g., session musicians.

Bill Hilton yeah it is! And the first time I heard it was on a Bon Jovi song Living on a Prayer, when the bass player (a very accomplished violinist too) said: “Then we are going to Disney it”. That was 1988!!! And he explained that it’s either a whole tone or semi to modulation. And once you know and watch a Disney movie, you hear it so often! And the interesting part I find is, and you explained that too, that for some reason it only works when there’s a bit of a pause or a sustain before modulating. What the neurological or psychological reason for that is, is beyond me. Perhaps that the old tonic and the new tonic are too close for the brain to realize it’s a root change??!! Do you know?

The "Festival di Sanremo" is an italian popular music festival. It's a week long and it's a very strong average italian tradition. Well... it's an ORGY of this kind of jumps. At the end of every song you can clearly feel the glicemy index of your blood increased

Glad I could help, Nick! If you need any guidance on where to go next with theoretical stuff, just give me a yell.

You're very welcome!

Yes, 100s of years of music was writen using "only" that changes. Althouhg pivots are used as well alot.

like what you did from 17:16 on...

You're very welcome! If you ever post any of your compositions online, feel free to share the link - I'll be interested to hear!

@@BillHilton Interestingly, in attempting to go through the processes correctly, I have made the kind of song I personally wouldn't listen to and be proud to show (not to mention, by song I meant a short loop encompassing the essence of a full track, the integral parts) It sounds a bit too lovey-dovey for me though and wondered if that was because I was shy of minor keys?

@@C.D.J.Burton Maybe - keep experimenting! I do a lot of songwriting (well, less now than I used to) and find I tend to write four or five that are a bit weak, or flat-out terrible, for every one I really like. You have to see what comes out! I've got a tutorial on the songwriting process here - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q7t0pNyBrpesnmg.html - it's jazz-oriented, but it'll show you how I think about the subject, which I guess you might find useful...

@@BillHilton Ahh it's always good to know when even the pro's say they make questionable material. I bet it's still awesome though! Thanks for directing me to the other tutorial. I will check it out next!

Jay Packard , did you ever find information on this?

Yup - I certainly do. Thanks, and well spotted!

You're welcome! Let me know if you're looking for any particular types of tutorials, or you have any suggestions/requests...

You're welcome Andre!

No problem - thank you!

Glad you liked it Ajay!

Glad it helped Lars - you're welcome!

Glad you liked it Abraham!

Thanks Jaren - you're very welcome!

No problem Olivier - thanks very much indeed!

Glad you think so - thanks!

Glad you like it, Art! If you ever have any questions about any of this stuff, feel free to shoot them my way. Re: the virtual keyboard thing, I've agonised over this for a long time (pros: it's useful for seeing which notes I'm playing; cons: it encourages people to focus on "pressing the right note", which is only half the battle when playing the piano). Anyway, I'm playing around with ways of making it work now, so expect it to arrive in tutorials soon (as soon as this week IF I can get it to a point I'm happy with; if not, it'll be after Christmas).

You're welcome!

You're welcome!

Thanks Don - glad you liked it!

Thanks William - glad to hear it!

Thanks very much - glad you liked it!

Thanks Yuri - glad you like it!

Thanks Chris - glad it was useful! Bear in mind that modulation is a pretty massive subject, so this is very much a taster rather than the whole deal. There's loads of other good stuff on the subject on KZfaq, so have a search around :)

Good tip, Vladi - thanks very much!

Thank you, and love from the UK!

Hmmmm - good question. Usually it's a case of simply switching to the new scale. An easy way of doing that would be to use adjacent or shared notes: say, for example you're modulating from C major to Eb major, you could move from E natural (in C major) to Eb. Probably a good way of learning more is to listen to/play some piano music that contains modulations and see how various composers do it?

@@BillHilton thanks a lot

You're welcome, Dave!

spear of justice bro

Thanks Mark!

Glad you liked it Magnus!

Ah, blast - sorry! Knew I'd forgotten something! I'll get that fixed right now - thanks very much for letting me know!

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

Thank you!

No problem Samuel - glad to help!

Thank you, Sonia!

Hmmmmmm…interesting. Given that the context sounds like a song rather than something like (eg) an orchestral work you probably need a fairly quick transition, but you could still do it quite smoothly by doing something like getting to a B major chord - non diatonic in A major, but close to the (diatonic) B minor, and use that as your modulation (because B is the V in E major…). It’ll be worth playing around with the exact shapes you use, as voicing and inversion can make the difference between a smooth modulation and bumpy one. Try it and let me know how you get on…!