# Kick it up a couple notches: That whole-step modulation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 8, 2023, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839 "2023-11-08T17:48:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/21 "2023-11-09T21:54:10Z")
It seemed to be a thing for awhile. Peggy Lee had a half-step changes in “Fever.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/22 "2023-11-09T22:16:11Z")
Allan Sherman does this twice during the “list of last names” section in “Shake Hands with Your Uncle Max.” ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2023, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/23 "2023-11-13T16:24:21Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > For guitarists, when it comes to barré chords, they’re all the same fingering, regardless of key. Maybe, but in my experience “Guitar Player Keys” are all sharp keys–G, D, A, E–because they can use open strings for that ringing sound: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/k3zCnTgdLG0/hqdefault.jpg "How to make an AC/DC song in 30 seconds 🎸") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3zCnTgdLG0) > [@ColdBrew50](#): > > That’s correct, but then Chopin didn’t play blues! Even Johnnie Johnson (pianist and arguable composer or co-composer of many of Chuck Berry’s hits) didn’t like playing in B! And self-described himself as having difficulties in that key…therefore, Bb for Johnnie Johnson. I think most people have trouble with B. Not to mention F#. > [@minor7flat5](#): > > ETA: My wife, a classically trained pianist, prefers Eb. For a guy who is all thumbs at a piano, I just can’t figure why one would want to faff about with a mix of black and white keys, but I’m certain real pianists all would understand her love of Eb. Can’t speak to piano, but saxophone and horn players prefer flat keys–F, Bb, Eb, Ab. C is neutral territory. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/24 "2023-11-14T11:36:15Z")
One more example of a half-step modulation: “Surrender” by Cheap Trick. The two-chord lead into each verse modulates after the intro, and the last verse, chorus and outro. Oh, one more! “Red Rubber Ball” by The Cyrkle, for the last verse and chorus. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/25 "2023-11-14T12:10:27Z")
Schoenberg’s commentary on the subject is in his usual hilarious style, yet one ignores his advice at one’s peril: > [@](#): > > Modulation to distant keys by means of a simple series of triads, the way recommended in most textbooks, is absolutely bad. That does not follow the trail of art but serves merely the purposes of the many examinations, to which those with no calling are subjected to protect those who are called against those who are chosen… > > The essential point is that an apparently sudden modulation, almost without exception, has already been announced beforehand: either through a certain restlessness or looseness in the harmony or through alteration, generally enlargement, of intervals in the melody; in the counterpoint through characteristic increase or decrease [of parts?]; in the dynamics; that is, in everything that is pertinent. Moreover, in the harmony quite often the modulatory potential of the pivot chord has been suggested beforehand. This chord has already been shown in an ambiguous light, so that its reinterpretation then has the effect of fulfilling a necessity. Now, the pupil can supposedly accomplish all that through harmony alone, using no other means but triads and dominant seventh chords (dominant! seventh chords!); and, as the plan underlying the whole thing, he need use nothing else but the coincidental possibilities of a cool relationship. ‘Because you are my father’s brother-in-law’s nephew, I am your friend.’ I am not advocating an aesthetic; I am not saying, this is not beautiful; I do not condemn as ugly something I do not understand; but if there is anything that has no poise, no elegance [Ebenmass], it is this manner of modulating. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/26 "2023-11-14T12:44:46Z")
Can’t forget Beep, Beep by the Playmates [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayTJtVzHOLs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayTJtVzHOLs) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/27 "2023-11-14T13:08:07Z")
> [@gnarator](#): > > I think most people have trouble with B. Not to mention F#. B major feels good under the hand, but, as said above, it just sucks for blues for where the blue notes are, and you can’t do those nice grace note slides from a black key to a white key. Just feels wrong. I remember being a kid trying to play along to the Black Crowes’ “Hard to Handle” and just having a wreck of a time trying to do so. F# is intuitive for some players. There’s a famous composer, and my middle-aged addled brain is not remembering who off the top of my head, who would compose everything in F# because he found it easiest on a piano. Similarly, my jazz piano teacher told me of a student he had that came to him only playing in F#. I mean, if you just want to mess around on the piano, you have a nice pentatonic scale there and you don’t even have to know how to really play to make something sound good. I’m not so much a fan of F# major myself, but I do really like Db major, another black-key focused key. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/28 "2023-11-14T13:21:09Z")
I think you are referring to Irving Berlin who fiddled around on the piano’s black keys. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/29 "2023-11-14T13:22:51Z")
That’s the one! ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/30 "2023-11-14T16:42:43Z")
> [@K364](#): > > I think you are referring to Irving Berlin who fiddled around on the piano’s black keys. Supposedly once he got reasonably well off he had a mechanical transposing piano, where a lever would shift the hammers sideways relative to the strings? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/31 "2023-11-14T16:57:56Z")
[Weser Bros. Transposing Upright Piano | Smithsonian Institution](https://www.si.edu/object/weser-bros-transposing-upright-piano%3Anmah_605967#:~:text=This%20transposing%20upright%20piano%20was,can%20play%20in%20any%20key). ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/32 "2023-11-14T18:08:57Z")
Someone with better ears than me will need to explain how the bridge of Christopher Tin’s “Baba Yetu” goes up and up and up until it reaches what sounds like the furthest possible key but then somehow settles back into the original key. [Video should be cued to 1:12, one-half stanza before the bridge] [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/GtRSLozhTqQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Christopher Tin Conducts "Baba Yetu" (Live at Llangollen)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtRSLozhTqQ&t=72) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/33 "2023-11-14T19:11:23Z")
Good question, T\_E. I was gonna oblige but somebody has already done exactly as you requested: [https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/2ave3u/analyzing\_the\_bridge\_of\_baba\_yetu\_by\_christopher/](https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/2ave3u/analyzing_the_bridge_of_baba_yetu_by_christopher/) ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2023, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/34 "2023-11-15T00:29:32Z")
I guess that’s the definitive analysis as it’s from Christopher Tin himself. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2023, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839/35 "2023-11-15T01:09:03Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > I guess that’s the definitive analysis as it’s from Christopher Tin himself. ⁢ That only gets you as far as the C#m chord, which puts the song in E major, using E, A, and B chords. To get back to the original G major, there’s an additional point where it plays A (the IV) then does a bVI-bVII in E—what I’ve called the Mario chord progression. It’s often used at the end of pieces to give a very triumphant fair. But, instead of going to E, it treats those chords as IV-V resolving in on G, the original key. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kick-it-up-a-couple-notches-that-whole-step-modulation/992839.md?page=1)