Piano Lessons - Slash Chord Modulations

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Partial Transcript below:

The next modulation on the piano or keyboard that I want to show you today is how to modulate up a fourth.

The primary use of this modulation is not to go between verses of a song, because you're modulating up a fourth on the piano, and that's a pretty big jump.

The primary use of this modulation is when the next song that you want to transition smoothly to is a fourth higher than the key that you're currently in.

For example, let's say you're playing a song and you're cruising along in the key of D. You're coming to the end of your song and nobody knows where you're going next. But then you throw in this secret modulation chord, and the music sounds like it wants to go to the key of G. Now we're solidly in the key of G. Let me show you again...

Your playing the piano in the key of D, doing all kinds of neat things, and the band behind you has no idea what key the next song is in, where's it going to go from here? But you give them the secret modulation chord and they all say "I know we're going up to G". Let's take a look at this powerful modulation technique that allows you to jump up a fourth.

Now this modulation is so simple that I can show you in 30 seconds on the piano. Here's what it sounds like again - you're playing the keyboard in the key of D, you hit that modulation chord, and jump to the key of G, taking all your musical friends with you.

Here's how it's done - when you're playing in a particular key, again for instance the key of D... And you want to come up with fat modulation that will push you up a fourth, leave your left hand playing the same note D - and with your right hand, play a chord that is a whole step below the note in the left hand.

Now, what the whole step below D? Everybody knows that this would be C. So once you've run that musical formula in your head, keep playing the D in your left hand on the piano and play in C major chord in your right hand. There it is. Now like I've shown you in previous piano lessons, you can play that C major chord in your right hand anywhere you want on the piano. In addition you can even use the straddle technique to really make it sound cool. If you want to check out any of the previous slash chord piano lessons, go to playpianotoday.com/lessons

So let's move on in this piano lesson. You're playing the D in your left hand, and you're playing a major chord in your right hand that's built on a note a whole step below your left hand. (a C major chord)

Everybody hears that, and the bass player thinks "Hey this guy's modulating on the piano again... And this time it sounds like we're going to jump up a fourth! How does he do that?" And when you jump to the key of G, you find that you're friends made the jump along with you, and nobody wants to shoot the piano player.

Remember, rewind this piano lesson video if you need to and then we'll jump to the third modulation technique in this lesson.

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Now modulating in down on minor third is very useful when you're putting together a set of songs, and you want to go from one major key (like C Major) to a minor key that is a third lower (like A minor)

Now you're in a minor key right away. Did you notice how smooth the transition was? Let me show you again here is C... And here's down a third to A minor.

One little bit of music theory that applies to the piano and every other instrument: Every major key has what's called a relative minor key which can be found a minor third lower. For instance, the relative minor key of C major is A minor, because A minor is down a minor third from C.

Why do we care? The important point is that major keys and their relative minor keys have all the same notes in common. They have the same exact key signature. For instance, C major has no sharps or flats, (here's the entire C major scale, no sharps or flats here) and it's relative minor key, A minor, also has no sharps or flats. Here's the entire A minor scale, no sharps or flats here either. On the piano, we can really exploit this characteristic to make a fantastic slash chord modulation down a minor third.

Just to make a point, let's try this in a different key than C major. Let's take the key of F major. The key signature of F major has one flat - Bb. It shows up when you play the entire F major scale... now again, to find the relative minor of F major, we have to go down a minor third, which by the way is three half steps. Down three half steps lands us in the key of D minor. Here's the full scale of D minor on the piano. Look at that one flat shows up - Bb.

Again, the point of all this is that F major and D minor share all their notes in common. So here's what I'm driving at-

If you're playing an F major chord, and the bass player is playing the note F, you can safely move your right hand to the relative minor chord at any point. Again, the poor bass player was clueless about what the piano player was going to do, but he's pretty happy camper because he's still part of the modulation.

Here's a very important thing about this particular modulation on the piano - because there's no intermediate modulation chord between the two different keys, this is called a direct modulation.

In our other modulation examples, none of the other musicians knew that you're going to modulate on the piano, but at least you threw in an intermediate modulation chord that clued them in to where you were going.

This modulation, down a minor third, it is a direct modulation on the piano - it happens instantly. So to give all the other musicians a little bit of time to acclimate to the new key, don't move your left hand for a while.

Let me show you what I mean. Your playing a song on the piano in F, and you'd like to modulate down a minor third to the next song, which is in D minor. Simply move your right hand to a D minor. You've made the transition, but stay in that position for a while till it really starts sounding like you're in D minor. When you've been there for a little while, all of the other musicians will start hearing D minor as the tonal center, and they can (and will) safely move there anytime.