Fender has solid modeling IMO, and they stepped back from having every amp preset loaded with effects (echo! phase shifter! delay!) in recent years and at least on my higher end Mustang GT 100 the default sound just sounds like a decent guitar amp. (With more reverb than I’d like so I reflexively kill that.) And amazingly the Mustang I have actually works great with outboard pedals, something that never ever worked with modeling amps before I got this one (hello, Line 6).
I mean, I still have a tube amp (okay, several), but this is pretty cool.
I’m no musician, but I would guess that the “acceptable” chord changes completely depend on whether or not you are playing tonal music and which key/mode you are playing in.
For example, in functional harmony, let’s say you are playing in the key of C major, in which case the function of Am would be submediant, and you could resolve it to D minor or F major, etc. This is in classical Western style and not some super crazy jazz. But the idea is that the chords have certain qualities, like tense vs relaxed, and may “want” to resolve in certain directions. Also, simple chords can be inverted, different chords substituted, etc, all of which will change the sound.
Let’s say I am playing D G A, I IV V. Now I do you don’t necessariy have to play them in that exact order. For example Prine’s Paradise is D G back to D A. So it is really I IV I V. I guess still technically counts as I IV V. How do I move that to C key. Do I just jump directly to C F C G? I just tried it and it doesn’t sound right, it’s the same song in a different key. No reason to do that.
So I guess what I am asking is how to gradually move from one key to another so that the listener doesn’t really realize it’s happening. I don’t know much about classical music, but I remember reading, years ago, nay decades, that Bach or Beethoven or someone did that, would start in one key with a melody, go to another, and eventually end up right back where he started
In your example, the song is in the key of D and never changes key; the accompanying chords just go D–G–D–A–D. So if you want to end up in the key of C, one way would be to add or improvise a section where the harmony “naturally” leads eventually to C eg by using common chords or related chords, so you could try D–G–C, D–Dm–G–C, D–Bb–Gsus4–G–C, etc. (see also below) instead of jumping directly from the key of D to the key of C. For instance Dm is parallel to D and also occurs in the key of C.
As you rightly point out, it is also not that interesting to just play the same song in a different key, so you are faced with the task of reharmonizing the original; instead of C–F–G again, play C–Cdim7–C–F7b9–C–Dm7b5 (idk… you get the idea)
There are all kinds of exercises on how to do this, but I think one way to do this smoothly is to break it up into intermediate steps (like using chords as pivots: explanation —it shows exactly how to do what you are asking, step by step), so for example you can follow your scale I IV II and get something like D–G–Em–Am–Dm7–G7–C, or pick an intermediate key, like D–Em–C ,and expand it into something like D C6 B7 Em Ddim7 Am/C F6 Ab7/F# C/G G7 C, the actual chord voicings will be important.
Types of modulation:
Caveat: I probably flubbed my examples, corrections welcome
