REGIONS

I would love to know how some of you guys veiw the regions when you modulate.

Here is how i think of them and ill use the key of C major as the mother region.

So if i write a harmony in C and establish it as the original tonality and then i decide to modulate to a new region i have 2 choices.Either i go to the right(cycle 5) or to the left (cycle.4) and of course each has its relative minor.

Now i have to ask myself which one and why?

I see the sharp side (cycle 5) as being the brighter side and the flat side(cycle 4) as the darker side.So the first question i ask myself is does my tune want a brighter modulation or deos it require a darker sounding change.Once i decide on that then i ask ,how far away do i want to go? close G or F or far F# or Db or in between somwhere.

The further i go the more distant the relationship to the original and the more contrast it gives.

When that is decided i like to balance the modulation with one to the opposite side before returning home to the original tonality.I see the original tonality as "home",the sharp side as "light" and the flat side as"dark".Do any of you guys think the same? I would love to hear your opinion.

My composition teacher once asked me ,"why do jewlers put black velvet behind a diamond ring? Before i could answer he spat out'because it makes the ring spakle MORE than ussual and this is how he sees the regions. The tonality being the ring and the modulation being the contrasting "black velvet" and when you return after a modulation the home key sounds so much more "homely".

Take care

Never heard of musical regions in this context. I understand modulation to be a deliberate act of moving to a new key via a harmonic progression (as opposed to just starting a new phrase in a new key).

I suppose I just do it. Depending on the desired effect, moving to remote keys might take some preparation but there's a pivotal chord/harmony somewhere - just a question of getting onto it. It's harder with a solo monophonic instrument because the harmony has to be implied.

Like...if the music suggested a new key an augmented 4th up I might go via the Supertonic chromatic 7th (enharmonically an augmented 6th) resolving onto Ic of the new key. A diminished might do it. But if the home key has been well established such suddenness probably wouldn't work (unless one wants the shock effect, of course), and a quick return to the home key may be forced to preserve the flow. Then again, doing something big in the new key might carry it forward.

I'm not sure I've grasped what you mean by musical/key Regions. The diamond analogy didn't quite come across but that's probably my fault!

M

The term "Regions" is a term that Schoenberg coined. He has a big chart(That is actually kinda handy) that shows all the keys and how closely related they are. Get the book "Structural Functions Of Harmony".

I actually find this to be a better way of thinking about harmony. Just think of Cmaj,amin,emin,Gmaj as belonging to the same region. I realize this isn't the way that Schoenberg put it but it works for me. To me... because I'm a pianist.... and because I improvise a lot I tend to associate the regions with the physical sensation of the keys under my fingers.

.

I'm not sure I've grasped what you mean by musical/key Regions. The diamond analogy didn't quite come across but that's probably my fault!

M [/b]

Its my fault Montpelliar ,i should explain myself a little better so here it goes.As tumababa said Schoenberg termed modulating destiantions as regions.He looked at every modulation as an embelishment on the original key and not quite as a modulation even though a modulation had taken place.He calls it Monotonality.So first we establish Cmajor for example and that is our mother key and if we modulate to Gmajor then we have moved to the dominant "region".If we modulate to Ab from Cmajor we have moved to the "minor submediant region " and so forth..

He saw every chromatic note from C as a region of C and not as a new "mother" tonality.So C is Home and all modulations are expiditions away from home, but they never replace home entirey,they are just places(regions) that we visit for the sake of variety.

Now if we go from C to F we introduce the Bb note and against the Cmajor key and we know that the Bb is darker than the B natural that we just heard in the original key and as we keep moving to the (cycle4) side,lets say Bb major we then have a Eb as well which aginst the mother key of C is a b3rd, so it gets even darker or minorish.But if we go the other way ,to the dominant side (cycle5),lets say to Gmajor we bring in the F# and this is definantly brighter casue it acts like C lydian which is a majorish ''bright sounding" mode.

I have been taught that the sharp keys are a movment to a brighter sound and a move to the flat keys is a move to the darker sound.

So if you make a sound that is dark (black velvet) and then you move to a brighter sound(diamond ring), the brighter key sounds even more brighter because you have just sounded its opposite.(dark to light)

Its like when you really apreciate the sunshine after a couple of cloudy days,the sun seems so much more beautiful and aparent.

I hope this explinantion is better but i really want to know if any of you guys see it this way???

Composers have different ways of looking at things and it is great to hear other opinions.

I see harmony as the "painters canvas" and when i modulate i liken it to changing the shade of the canvas so the melody takes on a different color ,that is of course if i decide to keep the melody from also modulating.

Thanks for listening and take care.

Thank you for that - clearer now. As you probably gathered I haven't viewed key relationships like that! Perhaps because I see 'key' as a very transient thing unless (as per Tumababa) I'm improvising over tunes written in keys. I do sometimes write in keys though, so worth thinking about. We learn all the time.

Cheers.

:w00t:

I personally love modulating up or down a semitone. It's so potent and unpredictable, and can cause severe mood changes - that I love

I personally love modulating up or down a semitone. It's so potent and unpredictable, and can cause severe mood changes - that I love

Me too mate.Its very dramatic going straight to a distant key from the original.

My favorite is going from the tonic ,say Cmajor chord ,then change that to a C diminished and then straight to the Db major chord .The Cdiminished acts like a substitue dominant of Db (Ab C Eg Gb)

and it audibly tonisizes the Db. Great mood change!!

My modulations are much more by feel than planned and predictable. Thus, they usually fall outside the common practice conventions. My most common type of modulation is probably a leading-tone mod: the melody anticipates one of the notes of the tonic triad of the new key by stepping up, either whole or half step. For example, to move to Db major, the melody could go from C or Cb to Db; or from Eb or E to F; or from Gb or G to Ab. Of course, which note you move from will depend on the preceding harmonic context, and it's also possible to move the melody down to these notes.

Easier way to modulate to half-step higher:

Melody on C, play a Ab chord or Ab7, and hurray! You go on Db smoothly.

I have problems using diminished chords, I can't make them fit in a melody line, it always sounds "out"...

I personally love modulating up or down a semitone. It's so potent and unpredictable, and can cause severe mood changes - that I love

You can do that with a german sixth too. Bu beware, because if you do it sudden it sounds like "truck driver's gear change" (ex: nearly all Bon Jovi songs, last chorus:))