[nightchef]

You can’t avoid barre chords altogether with a half-step modulation, but you can minimize them by placing a capo so as to put each half of the song in a key where you’ll be playing a mix of barre and open chords — for instance, say the song starts in D and modulates up to Eb, place the capo on the third fret so it starts in B and modulates up to C. (The best exact approach will depend on the harmonic content of the song, of course—the strategy I just mentioned won’t be much help if the song never goes to the IV chord!)

Brent, about songs with verse and chorus in different keys — my favorite example is “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, which has a verse in A, and then shifts to C for the chorus — and then halfway through the chorus modulates a second time to E, to set up a V-I resolution back to the verse. Just to put the cherry on the sundae, the last time through the chorus, the shift is from C to F. That King kid had some tricks up her sleeve.

And then of course, there’s the ultimate multi-modulation song, “Good Vibrations”.