Having established that changing key is a valid way of adding interest and contrast to a song, how might we achieve it?

First a recap

Last post-about-key-changes we reached a conclusion:

Being ‘in C’ means two things.

• Only the notes from the C scale
• The C note as a ‘home’ or tonic note

Which can be generalised as

Being in a key means two things:

• Using only the notes from that key
• Using one of that group of notes as a ‘home’ or tonic note

Therefore… da da daaaaa!

To change key you can do one of these or both:

• Change the group of notes you’re using.
• Change the note you’re using as a tonic note.

Got that?

The obvious next step would be to go straight to the kind of key change we are most used to, which is the cheesey up-a-tone boy band change.

So we will.

The chords in C major are: C Dm Em F G A m Bdim.

A tone up from this is D major, and the chords in D major are: D Em F#m G A Bm C#dim.

According to an old podcast episode of chord facts, we can generalise the chords in the major scale as: I ii iii IV V vi VIIdim (lower case means minor).

So… if we had the chord progression C G Am F, we could generalise and say that’s I V vi IV. So in D major we’d get D A Bm G.

Neatly, this changes both the group of notes you’re using (there are different notes in C Major and D Major) and the tonic note (from C to D). So one is higher pitched than the other, but both progressions sound the same apart from that.

Which means the same melody will fit if you play it a tone up.

For an example, do a youtube search for Westlife. If you can bear it.

Related posts:

1. Key Changes – Part One
2. Basics – Some questions about intervals
3. Basics – how time signatures work.
4. Basics – Major and Minor
5. Basics – Some questions about chords