Shifting keys...

[TBman]

I have just started to experiment and research, but are there any general rules to key shifting? For example lets say you are doing a 12 bar blues in E, using E7 A7 B7 and you want to do a complimentary section in a different key, without sounding totally bizarre. Do you just use the minor key using 7th chords or are there really no real rules.

[RedJoker]

oops... I came in to this thread thinking I could help with changing keys for singing but that isn't what you asked. Now I'm curious as to the REAL responses you get! Good question.

[Matt_Adamas]

Relative minor is one way to do it. Even just going up a 1/2 step can be pretty dramatic.

[rick-slo]

Too much stuff on the internet for me to comment. Here is an example:
http://www.idiotsguides.com/arts-and...te-to-new-key/

[TBman]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Too much stuff on the internet for me to comment. Here is an example:
http://www.idiotsguides.com/arts-and...te-to-new-key/

Thanks Rick, I'll read this thoroughly.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by TBman

I have just started to experiment and research, but are there any general rules to key shifting? For example lets say you are doing a 12 bar blues in E, using E7 A7 B7 and you want to do a complimentary section in a different key, without sounding totally bizarre. Do you just use the minor key using 7th chords or are there really no real rules.

It's actually very rare for blues to change key.
You do sometimes get a bridge in a blues song (the pop oriented kind), and almost always it will be to the IV chord - hardly a key change - but you might get a secondary dominant. Eg, in an E blues, the bridge might go A - E - F#7 - B7. That wouldn't be considered a key change, just a IV - I - V/V - V sequence.

In other kinds of music, key changes are very common, and the most common (in no particular order) are:
1. to the relative minor or major. So E major might go to C#m (and back), while E minor might go to G major and back.
2. to a parallel key or mode. So E major might go to E minor, or vice versa (and usually back at some point).
3. up or down a 4th or 5th. E major might go to A or B major.
4. to the parallel key of the relative key (!). Meaning: E major to G major, or E minor to G minor.
5. to the relative key of the parallel key. Meaning: E major to C# major (aka Db major), or E minor to C# minor.
You can think of both those as simply up or down a minor 3rd, but there is that link via the relative major/minor connection.
6. Up or down a major 3rd. E major to C major, or G# (Ab) major. This is rare, and the two examples I can think of stay in the new key, they don't go back.
7. The "truck driver's gear change". This is where the song simply shifts up a half-step (using the same sequence), as a crude way of injecting energy or interest as the song is starting to flag. Eg, E to F major. Yee-ha! As with #6, the song will normally stay in the new key - or even shift up another half-step later.
8. Up a whole step. (E to F#.) This is a more sophisticated (more subtle) trick than #7. Again, it's probable the song will stay in its new key and play out (although there is at least one famous example that goes back).

That doesn't really leave many other potential moves! Very rare key changes would be:
Down a half or whole step. That's the opposite of injecting energy, and who wants that?
A tritone (#4 or b5). E major to Bb major.
#7 or #8 above where the key also changes from major to minor or vice versa.

Still, nothing is ever ruled out. Sometimes a very rare key change is beautifully effective. My favourite is probably Double's old 80s hit Captain Of Her Heart, which flips from Bb minor to C major (and back via hints of C minor).

[TBman]

Thank you. After doing some more work I found a few other chords that fit nicely in the key of E and still fit the "blues."