Creating Good Transitions from One Key to Another

30 Comments

1. Hi Gary! I have a worship setlist coming up and need help with a particular transition between G key into the F major key. What sort of transition could I use in order to have a seamless transition??

   • Assuming your song that’s in G ends on the G chord, try this:

     G Am C C7 |F…

     -Gary

2. Hi! I’m playing for a wedding and need to transition from E major to Ab major… haven’t yet found a smooth progression.
   Hopefully you can point me in the right direction!
   Thanks
   M

   • It really depends on the genre of song that you’re playing, but you could try:

     OLD KEY: E A B7 E [Transition] C7 Bb7 Eb7 ||[NEW KEY] Ab

     -Gary

3. I’m working on a song that starts in D major and then goes to B-flat major. I’m not sure what to do as the two don’t share any common chords as far as I can tell. I saw that you helped someone going from E to C (you suggested E-Am-G7-C) so I transposed that to D (D-Gm-F7-A#) and it sounded good, but it didn’t fit too well into the song. I think it’s the dominant 7 chord throwing me off. Would there be any way to get there without a dominant 7 chord? Any help would be much appreciated, thank you in advance!

   • Hi Phil:

     There are several possible ways, all depending on the kind of sound you’re trying to create. One way is to use the G chord as a kind of pivot chord. If your progression includes the IV-chord (G in the key of D major), you could substitute it for a Gm chord, which can sound quite nice. So some suggestions might be:

     D A D Gm Eb Bb
     D D/F# Gm Cm Bb

     Basically what you’re doing, since as you point out there are no common chords, is creating an altered chord that sounds nice in D major (Gm, the minor-iv chord), and then using that as a common chord.

     If that example isn’t working for your progression, I’d suggest continuing to experiment in that direction: creating a nice altered chord in D major that exists naturally in Bb major, and then using it as a pivot chord.

     -Gary

     • Thank you for that insight! I ended up going with:

       D D/F# D/G Gm6 | Fmaj7 Cmadd11 Bb

       It fits beautifully into the song. I will definitely be using this technique in the future. Thank you again for your help!

       • Hi Gary,
         I’m currently working on a transition between an introduction piece in A minor to a song in D Locrian. The change would be accomplished in the bass guitar. With an electric guitar soloing on top. It’s been a little tricky to get there as there are no shared chords, plus the Locrian root chord (D dim) is a bit far from the D chord in the Amin intro. I’ve tried outlining a C7, F7, or G7. But, I think it’ll take at least 2 or 3 chords to get there. Any thoughts?

         Thanks!

         • Are you sure it’s D Locrian? What’s the first chord progression in that mode?

         • Hi Gary,
           Yes, it is Locrian. But, I think I’ve actually got it figured out now. The A minor progression is an arpeggiation of Am, F, D7add9 like this:

           A-a-c-A-a-c-A-a-A-a-c-A-a-e-A-a x2
           F-a-c-F-a-c-F-a-F-a-c-F-a-e-F-a
           D-a-c-D-a-c-D-a-D-a-c-D-a-e-D-a

           If I add the following arpeggios:

           C-a-c-C-a-e-C-a
           B-a-c-B-a-f-B-a

           and end with these single notes:

           Bb-D-ab-c-f

           I have a chromatic walk to Bb in the bass, plus the higher A to Ab movement to break the strong A minor tonal center. Then the beginning of the next song starts with C-G-F-G-Ab-F melodic walk to cement the new key.

           I’ve played it a few times and it sounds about right.

         • I’d still like to hear your thoughts. But, you’ve had the sounding board effect. 🙂 When I wrote it out for you it sparked a new idea that led me to a solution. So, I thank you for that.

         • Hi Rob: I’m not sure I’m understanding your notation. Are you writing out arpeggios when you write A-a-cA-a…?
           -Gary

         • Yes, that’s right. I have the capitals as the lower notes, and the lower case as the higher. The dashes (-) indicate the over ring in the arpeggios.

         • I don’t think I’d describe what you’ve written as Locrian. Locrian really does require a diminished chord as a kind of “tonic” — a very rare situation, and in the pop music world I don’t think I know of a single piece in the Locrian mode. The arpeggios you’ve written seem to outline the chords Am F D, then Am (inverted), then a kind of B chord which is hard to analyze. The notes you add (Bb-D-ab-c-f) don’t outline any particular chord in any key.

           None of that is a problem, of course. There is a lot of music out there (more in the Classical realm than the pop realm) for which chord analysis is difficult. If you like the sound that those chords make, it really doesn’t matter if you know what key they’re from, or whether they’re even part of functional harmony. Letting your ear be your guide is a completely legitimate way to write. I like your choices, and I wouldn’t worry too much if the analysis is hard to figure out.

           -Gary

         • Ah. I messed up my notation. This part shouldn’t have the dashes:
           Bb-D-ab-c-f.
           It should be
           Bb D ab c f
           as they are individual notes. And the same applies to the C-G-F-G-Ab-F which should be C G F G Ab F. I apologize for the confusion.

           As for it being Locrian, the chords later in the song follow the Locrian scale, e.g. flat 2, flat 5. The melodic walk in the beginning avoids the 2. So, it isn’t cemented until a minute or so into it. I guess you could say it’s in limbo until that flat 2 finally makes an appearance. But, to your point, since it’s a “pop” song, there are accidentals which obscure the key, as pop songs are want to do.
           Thanks for your input!

4. May I ask how do I transpose from A to Am?
   I need to do a medley between these key.
   Is it possible?

   Thank you for generously offering to help.

   • Hello Eileen:

     Transposing from major to minor where the tonic note is the same (in your case, A) can be done easily as an “abrupt modulation.” This means that you don’t usually need to worry about the transition – simply switch keys and the change should work.

     Because an E7 exists in both A major and A minor, you’ll have best success making the change after an E or E7 chord. But really, making an abrupt change anywhere in the major progression should work.

     Gary

5. i have to write a song and we have a key change from a to am and i just don’t know how to go about it.. any ideas?

   • A transition from major to minor shouldn’t be problematic. Generally, whichever chords get you back to the tonic chord of A major will work for A minor, so you can do an abrupt modulation. For example, something like this would work:

     A D Bm A E E7 |Am G F E Am….

     -Gary

6. Hi there,
   Thanks for offering to help us.
   Last Chord in the Worship song at Church is BEG# / E…………….we need to smoothly get to the first Chord in the next song which is CEG / C. Havent been on this road long,so you have a brother here that really needs help on this one. THANKS SO MUCH……………Regards, Max

   • Hi Max:

     That last chord is an E chord: E-G#-B over an E in the bass. So to get to a C chord, try this: 1) Follow the E chord with Am (A-C-E / A), then with G7 (G-B-D-F / G). The C chord should follow it nicely.

     Hope that helps,
     -Gary

     • Hi!
       Thank you for this great post! It’s very helpful. I’m currently struggling with how to transition from A to Db, but truly just what a good transitional progression in general is a good one to use. If you wouldn’t mind sending some ideas my way, I’d be so grateful!

       • Often, the best chord transitions happen when you’ve got a chord from the old key that’s in common with a chord from the new key. A good example of this might be changing key from A major up to D major. Let’s say you finish the chorus, which has been using this progression: A D Bm E7 A. Your new key of D major would have D in common, of course, but also the A chord. So when you get to the final A of your chorus, you could play A7 instead of just A, and now you’ve got a nice transition to D major.

         To get to Db major from A, think of the Db as actually a C# chord. When you get to the new key, you can start thinking of it as Db. In A major, the C# chord would be minor, so try this for a transition from A to C#:

         OLD KEY TRANSITION NEW KEY
         A Bm E7 A ||C#m Ab7 ||Db Ebm Ab7 Db…

         I hope that helps.
         -Gary

7. What is the best way to modulate from D major to B minor and back again?

8. Sir, please help…I am learning to play the song SKYLARK in the key of C on the guitar and wish to modulate up to the key of E (the wife prefers the one and I the other so I’m trying to compromise here)..Which bridge chords would work for this. Thanks in anticipation…. A.

   • By “bridge” chords, I assume you mean that you’d like chords that will help you change key from E to C. Without knowing your vocal arrangement, I can’t make specific recommendations. But I can tell you that getting from E to C is a bit tricky. You might try this sort of thing:

     E Amaj7 G13 G7 C

     The progression keeps the note E as a constant while the progression changes key. Then the E of the G13 becomes a 4-3 suspension when it moves to G7.

     Hope that helps.
     -Gary

9. Aaah Gary, you never commit. You said, “It’s usually between the verse and chorus that a key change will happen if at all.” so this would therefore be unusual.

   • Ha! 🙂 It’s not an issue of committing, since in music anything is possible. I think my statement in this blog post more pertains to the kind of modulation I was talking about – the one (as in the Justin Timberlake tune) where the song moves between major and minor. In such songs, it usually will start in minor, then change to major as it switches from verse to chorus. I probably should have been clearer in the post, and will edit it to make that clear.

     Cheers,
     -Gary

10. So you would say the modulations in this song are unusually placed?
    

    • There’s only one modulation, and it’s an abrupt modulation – not that unusual. You can read about abrupt modulations here.

      -G

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