Why Change Key in the Middle of a Song?

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 13 Aug 2014 11:40 am

"Look At Us" starts out in the key of Eb and changes to E after the steel solo-that's what it says on the rhythm tracks I've got for the song. Another great example of pretty key change is on Tammy Wynette's song "Til I Can Make It On My Own". On Martina's "Timeless" cd after Martina sings the "Til I can make it on my own" part, Paul Franklin plays an awesome key change on steel. Then, on Trisha Yearwood/Aaron Neville version of the Patsy Cline hit "I Fall To Pieces" before Trisha starts to sing, Robby Turner plays a beautiful steel part for the key change.

scott murray · Post by **scott murray** » 13 Aug 2014 12:09 pm

I love a good key change, and you just don't hear them very much these days. Trying to get a singer to change keys is like pulling teeth at times, even when there's a pause long enough to adjust their capo.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 13 Aug 2014 4:13 pm

JS Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" goes through all 24 major and minor keys in succession. Fortunately no-one plays it on pedal steel or it might end up as the "Bad-Tempered Clavier".

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 14 Aug 2014 7:10 am

Alan, Did you hear a band or recording that prompted you to start this thread?
What bands/songs are you referring to?
Just curious what bands/songs with a Key Change got this started???

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 14 Aug 2014 7:19 am

When the landlord changed locks on the doors, I had to CHANGE KEYS.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 14 Aug 2014 9:35 am

Pete Burak wrote:Alan, Did you hear a band or recording that prompted you to start this thread?
...

Actually I was watching a Waylon Jennings show on my computer, downloaded from YouTube, and playing along with it on a PSG. I do that a lot. It's good practice, and better practice than just practising instrumentals that I would never play in public. Without having the information that the band has as to what key they're playing in you have to figure it out while they're playing. It gets frustrating when you're just getting into your stride on the song when they change key and you have to figure it out again. By the end of their two minute number you've probably spent 90 seconds figuring out the keys and thirty seconds playing.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 14 Aug 2014 9:44 am

Alan Brookes wrote: Without having the information that the band has as to what key they're playing in you have to figure it out while they're playing. It gets frustrating when you're just getting into your stride on the song when they change key and you have to figure it out again. By the end of their two minute number you've probably spent 90 seconds figuring out the keys and thirty seconds playing.

It should get easier with practice, though, Alan. Most key changes don't happen suddenly, without warning. There's typically a 1- or 2-bar turnaround written in that ends up on the V7 chord of the new key, so once you hear that V7 chord, you're ready to modulate to the new key. It does get easier to hear that with practice.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 14 Aug 2014 1:27 pm

As Jim said in his earlier post:

It can add interest. Especially in a song that has no bridge to add interest, where otherwise the song would get to be pretty monotonous. It's not for every song, but, when used judiciously, it can be effective.

Indeed... I've heard/ been playing some tunes and thought, "They couldn't think of anything else to do here, so, up a whole step!"
Sometimes a modulation can save a song. There's also the school of thought that every time you hit a II (major), it's a temporary modulation to the "five of five", as is so popular in much classic country (think of the chorus in "Don't You Ever Get Tired of Hurtin' Me?" And the same could apply to I VI II V swing progressions, and so on.
Takes the ear to a new place.

Mark Wayne · Post by **Mark Wayne** » 14 Aug 2014 6:35 pm

Alan, sometimes it can be a matter of musical texture as you know, as in the case of Conway Twitty's "I'd Love to Lay You Down", in which (in contrast to many songs that modulate upward) he lowers the song by a whole tone, and then another whole tone. It just so happens that he's singing the word "down" before each modulation

Per Berner · Post by **Per Berner** » 15 Aug 2014 1:07 am

In the case of bagpipers changing keys, who cares? They sound just as awful in any key, and I stay a mile away to avoid hearing them anyway.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 16 Aug 2014 10:55 am

Jim Cohen wrote:...It should get easier with practice, though, Alan...

Well I think after playing steel for 50 years I'm not going to get any faster. If anything, my recognizing the key is going to get slower as my years advance.

Don Drummer · Post by **Don Drummer** » 20 Aug 2014 1:11 pm

"My Elusive Ddreams" - Tammy Wynette/David Houston two modulations. Tammy Wynette/George Jones one modulation.

Cody Angel · Post by **Cody Angel** » 2 Sep 2014 4:00 pm

I think it's just a tool in the arsenal when used right. To me, the key change on a Amarillo By Morning it just what the doctor ordered and as well executed as any. Also, the way Conway did Last Date with steel in F and sangin in c really gave it anow awesome flow.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 3 Sep 2014 3:19 am

I tend to think of it as usually signalling a change in the direction of the lyrics, whether it be altering a viewpoint (either to another person or just a different emotional viewpoint, or perhaps a passage of time), or to allow for another person to sing.
Jim Eanes sang "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" in F, and Allen Shelton's intro and solos were in G. Banjo doesn't sound the same in F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QyVm8hI_rM
The Seldom Scene used a key change in Pictures From Life's Other Side (Dunno if Hank wrote it, but he recorded it) before the last time through the chorus to change which singer sang which part; Duffey still has the high part, but it started with him having the high harmony, and the new key has him on lead, Starling moved from lead to baritone, and Mike sang "low tenor", the high harmony voiced an octave down. These shifts happen without any part moving more than a couple frets: I think they went from A to C, with the C# coming down to C, E staying put and the G note moving to A (Mike Auldridge has a beautiful Dobro intro here, too).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3v-0-y5Z0o
In my personal opinion, I think the key change in He Stopped Loving Her Today came at the wrong point, since it would have marked a change in nearly any other break point in the song

Tom T Taylor · Post by **Tom T Taylor** » 3 Sep 2014 6:36 pm

Harper Valley PTA sprang to mind

Tom T Taylor · Post by **Tom T Taylor** » 3 Sep 2014 6:36 pm

Harper Valley PTA sprang to mind

James Mayer · Post by **James Mayer** » 3 Sep 2014 8:41 pm

Um, flamenco guitarists change key. Example: Alegrias is typically played in a major key but the "silencio" section is in a minor key.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 8 Sep 2014 1:30 am

I always like the whole step down modulation, not many do it.
Conway Twitty, who appeared to modulate more than most, had a song called "I'd Love To Lay You Down". He went from the key of D down to C then to Bb. Always thought it was effective in that song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7FspsAHqfQ

Tim Whitlock · Post by **Tim Whitlock** » 8 Sep 2014 6:40 am

I submit "I Walk the Line" as the most famous song for modulations.

James Mayer · Post by **James Mayer** » 8 Sep 2014 8:50 am

"Coal Miner's Daughter" has two mods.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 8 Sep 2014 10:45 am

I've never noticed any Mods in the movie

John Ed Kelly · Post by **John Ed Kelly** » 17 Sep 2014 9:44 pm

''...Can you imagine a bagpiper or a flamenco guitarist changing key?''

Hello Alan,

I played in a pipe band (as a drummer, although my main instrument is clarinet) whilst dragooned in to National Service in the late 60s and I'm pretty sure the Scottish bagpipes can be played in only one key - Bb.

As far as gratuitous changes of key are concerned, I suspect they tend to be used as a cover for a lack of musical ideas by second rate musos.

Chrs,

JK

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 19 Sep 2014 11:01 am

That's how I feel, John. Of course, there are those who try to listen to an entire album of pipe music and find it monotonous, and I suspect that it's because they don't realise that it's always in the same key.

Being in the same key for consecutive songs can be beneficial. For instance, on the Elvis album "Elvis is Back" he sings one of the most magnificent blues I've ever heard, "Reconsider Baby", and follows it with "Like a Baby", not only in the same key and beat, but it's arranged on the album so that the timing between the tracks is exactly on the beat, making the two songs almost continuous, so that the second song gains from the momentum brought up in the first.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 19 Sep 2014 7:33 pm

I love to hear and play songs with key changes-those key changes to me, make the song more beautiful. I think some of the prettiest songs played on steel have beautiful key changes.

John Alexander · Post by **John Alexander** » 3 Oct 2014 6:13 pm

An example of an effective use of key change appears in the first minute of Bill Evans' recording of Polkadots and Moonbeams:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NTxWQfMSsA

Here the song, which is played in F major, has already (as written) a fairly dramatic key shift, up a major 3rd to A major at the beginning of the "B" section (the "bridge"), right after the first 16 measures (at 1:13 in this recording). As if to emphasize this shift, Evans plays the first 8 measures of the tune as a piano solo in D major, a minor 3rd below the home key of F, then modulates (beginning at 0:33) up to F (at 0:37) with the bass and drums entering for the repeat of the melody in the second 8 measures, to be followed by the normal modulation up to the bridge.

The effect of the successive modulations at the end of each 8-measure "A" section, each going up a 3rd, is a progressive build-up to the bridge. It lends a sense of drama to the performance of the song.

I think part of the reason it works so well is that the melody of bridge is very similar to the main melody except that it is in a higher range, and seems to naturally function as the climax for the whole 32 measure structure.