Piano Lessons - Slash Chord Modulations

Partial Transcript below:

In this piano lesson, we're going to look at some very unique slash chords. In previous lessons, we've used slash chords to transform very complicated chords into manageable, easy to play chords that sound fantastic.

Today, we've got a brand new use for slash chords on the piano. We're going to use them as modulation chords to transition smoothly between different keys.

Now modulation is a big word, kind of a scientific sounding word but it's an essential skill that you must have in your toolbox as a musician.

Webster's defines musical modulation like this: a change from one musical key to another. Let me say that again a change from one musical key to another.

Any musician can simply jump from one key to another, however, in this piano lesson I'm going to show you how to use slash chords to modulate smoothly from one key to another. Not only will these slash chords enable you to move smoothly from key to key, but they are especially useful if you are a keyboard player or a piano player in a band.

The amazing thing about the slash chord modulations is that they have the ability to telegraph your intentions to the entire band - simply by playing these slash chord modulations, your entire band will know that you're going to move to a different key and you won't have to say a single word!

This is very effective if you want to be able to direct a group of musicians on the fly from the keyboard or the piano.

Or let's change up a scenario a bit - this time let's pretend that there's a singer involved - either you or someone else. But the nightmare scenario is that you might start playing in a key that is waaayyy too low and the singer starts giving you dirty looks! Isn't that funny by the way how singers will always give the piano player dirty looks when something bad happens on stage? I guess it comes with the territory.

Anyway, there you are up onstage backing up the singer but you're playing in the wrong key. What a bummer. At this point, the superhero power that you need to pull out of your musical toolbox is the ability to modulate, or change to a different key.

There's lots of reasons to modulate - and the greatest piano players know all the tricks that enable them to modulate on the keyboard in such a way so that any other musicians that happen to be playing along can follow smoothly. This is in advanced skill on the piano but it's one of those essential skills that you dare not leave home without.

This is what we're going to study today. We're going to go over three fantastic ways to make smooth modulations, or transitions between keys on the piano. Here we go.

We're going to be looking at three specific techniques that will come in very handy in different situations that may require you to modulate on the fly.

The first example we'll look at is a modulation track to smoothly go up 1/2 step, for instance from the key of A to Bb. This is a very simple technique, and the beauty of this modulation technique is that any other musician that may be playing along with you doesn't even need to know that you're going to be moving up a 1/2 step. You can use this technique to all of a sudden clue them in and give a musical heads up the band saying in essence - "Hey we're moving up 1/2 step!" - and everybody makes the musical step together instead of having a giant train wreck on stage.

Here's the chord A - assume that now you want to move up to Bb. Now sounds OK to go from A to Bb if you're playing by yourself. But if you're playing with a band they may not know that you're moving up to Bb! So they'd be playing along in the key of A, and you would've made the jump to Bb! And together, it's just not very musical!

So you need to come up with a secret modulation chord on the piano going from the key of A to Bb that not only sounds good musically but also tells the band "Hey people were moving up"!

Let me show you know what it sounds like when you're playing along and the key of A...

Now here comes the secret modulation chord, listen to this - do you hear that? It sounds like it wants to go up to Bb. And that's where we are now. Let's do it again just to give you another example (back to A) Now here comes the modulation chord and we go to Bb. Do you hear that? The whole band could hear that coming and everybody would push up to Bb together.

Now let's analyze this and let me show you how it's done.

Again for review, here's the chord A on the piano... And here's Bb on the piano... Now let me play it with the secret modulation chord on the piano...

Here's that secret powerful modulation chord... And here's the Bb. It wants to go to Bb. It has to go to be flat right? So let's go back to the chord A on the piano. I could just tell you what the modulation chord is, but I want you to know how to find it on the piano.

Let's start with the chord that were modulating from, which is A. Then we want to do that magic modulation and go to Bb because it sounds so nice, works fantastic and the band will know what's going on.

Starting with A, here's the question that you have to ask yourself: A is the third of what other chord on the piano? Hmmm.... Let me say that again - A, the note to A, is the third of what other chord on the piano? Be flat? No. E? No. C#? No way! F? Yes, the note A is the third of F major.

So here's the trick- keep playing an A in your left hand on the keyboard, (because that's what it was playing already) and in your right hand, play that F major chord. There's that magic nice modulation chord.

Here's the reason it works so well-when you're playing an A major chord, the bass player is thumping an A down in the basement, and he has no idea what's coming! But you've got a trick up your sleeve - you know that you want to move up a half-step to Bb, so mentally you think "A is the third of what chord on the piano? ahhhh.... A is the third of F!" So you begin playing in F major chord with your right hand.

And the bass player's head snaps around and looks at you, but he's not mad, he's excited! He's thinking " Wow, this is cool. I'm part of modulation!" And deep down in his musical brain a little voice will say "Hey it sounds like I need to move to Bb" and everybody makes the move together, and another train wreck is avoided thanks to the happy technique of modulation.

This is a powerful modulation technique

Now don't be afraid to rewind this video and go through that again. There's not a whole lot of musical math that you have to understand, it's a pretty simple formula. But you have to get it exactly right to make that smooth modulation up 1/2 step.

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