Key change to ban ?

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by mawmow

Thanks again guys !

I made a mistake : I wanted to name C to Eb or D to F.

Anyway, all your interventions brought some interesting thoughts to me.

Cool. In short, there are no "wrong" or "bad" key changes. There are ways of changing cleverly and tastefully to any key you like.

Except maybe ...

Some people think modulating up a half-step is kind of crude, or tasteless - hence the epithet "truck driver's gear shift". It's sometimes used as a cheap way of injecting energy into a song, as if the writers or arrangers feel the song is getting boring, and they don't want to make it interesting in any more clever way.

https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/Tru...7s_Gear_Change

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Some people think modulating up a half-step is kind of crude, or tasteless - hence the epithet "truck driver's gear shift". It's sometimes used as a cheap way of injecting energy into a song, as if the writers or arrangers feel the song is getting boring, and they don't want to make it interesting in any more clever way.

Haha. In a former band of mine, we just called it "gratuitous key change". We even tweaked one song to do that half-step up modulation like 4 times at the end, just to be overly gratuitous.

[mawmow]

I was not sure I would launch this thread,
but it turns out to bring many interesting info.
Many thanks guys !

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

Haha. In a former band of mine, we just called it "gratuitous key change". We even tweaked one song to do that half-step up modulation like 4 times at the end, just to be overly gratuitous.

Only 4 times? Snowflake!
Check this out:


5 truck driver shifts in less than two minutes: first one at 0:50, and then after every subsequent verse. I think that's what they call chutzpah! (I can imagine Kurt Weill turning in his grave .. or maybe just chuckling at the cheek...)

[Nymuso]

I don’t get the derision of the half step modulation, calling it a ‘truck driver’s gearshift’ or whatever, insinuating that it is some cheap mechanism to keep the song interesting.

Well then, what isn’t? What about dynamics? Yeah, all that get louder / get softer stuff! What a gimmick! What about vocal harmony? And don’t get me started on bridges and guitar solos! And what’s this business of changing pitches note to note? Can’t fool me there. I know that’s just lipstick on a pig.

You use what works. Modulation is all over the place because it works. I don’t see why it should be singled out for stoning.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

I don’t get the derision of the half step modulation, calling it a ‘truck driver’s gearshift’ or whatever, insinuating that it is some cheap mechanism to keep the song interesting.

Well then, what isn’t? What about dynamics? Yeah, all that get louder / get softer stuff! What a gimmick! What about vocal harmony? And don’t get me started on bridges and guitar solos! And what’s this business of changing pitches note to note? Can’t fool me there. I know that’s just lipstick on a pig.

You use what works. Modulation is all over the place because it works. I don’t see why it should be singled out for stoning.

Because it's a cheap trick, that's why.

I quite like it myself, because it's amusing. There are certainly other cheap tricks (cheesy cliches) in music, worthy of a groan each time you hear one, but the truck driver shift is the most obvious in-your-face one.

I love the sheer audacity of doing it so many times in Mack The Knife - it's making a point of it, not using it as a cheap shot. IOW, once towards the end is the cliche. Five times throughout is comical bravado.

There are other uses of it where it just seems unnecessary, like piling on the intensity, going OTT.

But obviously it's all a matter of taste! There are some songs where I think the accusation of crudity is unfair. Not every modulation up a half-step is tasteless. Otis Redding's I Been Loving You Too Long is a great example - partly because they cleverly make you think it's going up another half-step, and it doesn't.

As for modulations up a whole step or a 3rd (sometimes included in this concept), that's definitely unfair. The whole step is usually subtle and effective, and modulations up a minor or major 3rd are a powerful effect, with a true intensity. (Most of the ones I know are handled very well.)

BTW, this is not just about any kind of modulation! It's not about different sections of a song being in different keys, where repeats of previous sections usually return to the original key. It's just about repeating the previous sections of a song, but raising them to a new key.

That's why the truck driver shift gets denigrated: it seems like the writers (or the arrangers) feel like the song is just not interesting enough to keep going any longer just repeating verses and choruses in the same key. But the track is still too short. So what are you gonna do? The song has gone the whole way through and is still too short; and just repeating the earlier sections is not interesting. If you do that, you're afraid listeners will just get bored and switch off. And you can't be bothered to write any new section to add more meat. So, OK, let's go through it again, but just shove it up a half step. That'll wake everyone up!

[EZYPIKINS]

There are so many factors to deal with pitch.

The guitar is an imperfect instrument by design.

How you attack it will determine the sound perceived.

Let's assume for a moment, that your guitar is intonated properly. ( Meaning 12th fret harmonic, matches the 12th fret fretted note, with a "strobe tuner" Peterson or Conn.)

Cheaper tuners will show correct intonation and be slightly off. As you move up the neck, this may become more noticeable.

I intonate my guitars with Peterson strobes Either clip stomp or analogue models.

Getting things as close as humanly possible.

That said, I can knock things out of tune, simply by varying my finger pressure.

The lower your action, the less pressure you'll need. The less chance of pushing things out of wack.

Action, intonation, and neck relief, all play their part. Once they have been set. (and they change constantly) The biggest variable is you.

The way you finger the chord. How hard you press, the force in which you strike the strings.

Is the chord one you have trouble with? You will tend to push harder. Pushing the notes sharp.

I'm mainly a fingerstyle player on acoustic. I play from the nut, to the body, and beyond, constantly.

Key changes, different inversions. oddball open tunings.

I'm just saying, not to discount the human error. Is it something you can correct, with a different approach?

Definition of insanity-repeating the same behavior, and expecting different results.

[EZYPIKINS]

There are so many factors to deal with pitch.

The guitar is an imperfect instrument by design.

How you attack it will determine the sound perceived.

Let's assume for a moment, that your guitar is intonated properly. ( Meaning 12th fret harmonic, matches the 12th fret fretted note, with a "strobe tuner" Peterson or Conn.)

Cheaper tuners will show correct intonation and be slightly off. As you move up the neck, this may become more noticeable.

I intonate my guitars with Peterson strobes Either clip stomp or analogue models.

Getting things as close as humanly possible.

That said, I can knock things out of tune, simply by varying my finger pressure.

The lower your action, the less pressure you'll need. The less chance of pushing things out of wack.

Action, intonation, and neck relief, all play their part. Once they have been set. (and they change constantly) The biggest variable is you.

The way you finger the chord. How hard you press, the force in which you strike the strings.

Is the chord one you have trouble with? You will tend to push harder. Pushing the notes sharp.

I'm mainly a fingerstyle player on acoustic. I play from the nut, to the body, and beyond, constantly.

Key changes, different inversions. oddball open tunings.

I'm just saying, not to discount the human error. Is it something you can correct, with a different approach?

Definition of insanity-repeating the same behavior, and expecting different results.

[Mr. Jelly]

If I remember correctly Clapton did a live song on record years ago where he was soloing over blues changes and he the band went from E to F# to G# to A to B to C# and back to E. It could have been a different key, but you get the point.

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Because it's a cheap trick, that's why.

Bah! I think the real reason many acoustic guitarists hate half-step bump ups is they can't play F and Bb cleanly.

But while we're on the subject of cheap ways to fill up a song, how about all the dee-dee-dees and li-li-lis all over pop music by some very important acts; names one dares not mention without bowing one's head. That's the kind of thing that really gets to me. Mister Big Time Song Writer couldn't think of any lyrics to put in part of his song so he hums it? If I did that and put it in Show and Tell you guys would be all over me.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

Bah! I think the real reason many acoustic guitarists hate half-step bump ups is they can't play F and Bb cleanly.

Could be!
But the kind of people that sneer at half-step bump-ups are usually more sophisticated than that. Just usually a few degrees too sophisticated...

Originally Posted by Nymuso

But while we're on the subject of cheap ways to fill up a song, how about all the dee-dee-dees and li-li-lis all over pop music by some very important acts; names one dares not mention without bowing one's head. That's the kind of thing that really gets to me. Mister Big Time Song Writer couldn't think of any lyrics to put in part of his song so he hums it? If I did that and put it in Show and Tell you guys would be all over me.

You know the story of You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling? The initial writers (Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil) didn't like the "woh-woh-oh" line which Phil Spector added, thought it needed proper lyrics - but Spector was right. It's probably the main hook of the song.

I.e., those kind of things can seem like cheap, unimaginative fillers when you first hear them, but this is pop music! It stands or falls according to how catchy it is, and meaningless vocables - at least if attached to melodic phrases - are annoyingly catchy. Even when the songwriter thinks they could have done better, the public often disagrees.

As with the truck driver change, I sometimes get irritated with "la la las", sometimes not. Sometimes they are clearly an integral part of the song - at least once you've heard it a few times - and replacing them with proper words would spoilt it.
Sometimes they are like a simple expression of feeling good, as meaningless as laughter, cheers or squeals of excitement, or (alternatively) moans of sadness or disappointment - that's the function they have: raw emotional expression, not poetic literacy!

It's instructive to read all the derogatory comments made about You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' when it first came out. People thought it was too slow, or had too much meaningless shouting, or had that silly "woh woh oh" line ... but now it's generally regarded as one of the greatest pop ballads of all time.

[FrankHudson]

I just got done finishing (maybe more at abandoning to release because I'm unable to get studio space time) a song that modulated back and forth between E minor and F major. Rather than bridge or verse/chorus like structure, it's two sections and the alternation doesn't follow an expected pattern (AABABB with an intro & outro based on the A somewhat). I decided to go with the 1/2 step jump straight up (no transitional common chords). I wasn't fully happy with vocal and my playing, but I kind of like the effect, which is a bit unsettling. The first chord after the shift feels "out of the tune/key," because it is, until the new key center is established retroactively to hearing the jarring chord. Yes, I played the initial guide track (which I had to keep) on acoustic guitar with the vocal I also had to keep, so F and Bb needed to be visited by this less than skilled musician. The composer said I had to play those chords, so what could I do.

I laughed at the Truckers Gear Change name, which I hadn't heard! Apt description that I'll remember.

Is modulation often a cheap trick? I agree with the notion that most music is a cheap trick. Complaints about overuse of certain tricks are kind of like Yogi Berra's saying "no one goes there anymore -- it's too crowded." If too many pop songs use certain cheap tricks, it sort of says they work for popularity. Interestingly, one of the reasons I wanted to create an oddly modulating piece was a Rick Beato rant where he claimed that modern pop music never modulates anymore, and that that is boring.

[b1j]

Stevie “Breaker One Niner” Wonder:
I just called…to say..I love you
You are the sunshine of my life

Mumford and Sons: broke open an entire resurgence of the woh-woh-woh genre.

[b1j]

Also, forgot to add:

The Glider capo from Franklin Strap lets you move up or down one or more frets in the time of a 16th rest. A gimmick for a gimmick.

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

Modulation is all over the place because it works. I don’t see why it should be singled out for stoning.

No one has denigrated all modulation.

Only a specific flavor - the half-step up modulation - which is cliche and trite and sticks out like a sore thumb.

Mainly because it most often happens in songs with minimal harmonic sophistication. It ends up sounding tacked on at the last minute.

You won't find lots of half step modulations in classical music.