Modulation. help~

[kelvin]

Hello all!

I am analyzing a song in C Major,
which modulates to the key of G Major using the chord D dominant 7.th.

This is the chord progression during the modulation in the chorus :
C, D dom 7.th, Bm, Em, Am, D, end with G Major.

1) Right before the chord Bm, the vocal sings the note "F",
which doesn't belong to the G Major scale.
(The melody is something like this : G, F#, F#, F, F#.
The first 4 notes comes with the D dom 7.th chord,
while the last "F#" comes with the Bm)

How can a "F" note appear during a D chord in the key of G Major? :smack: :question:

Regards,
Kelvin.

 

[GandLMan]

Re: Modulation. help~

My humble but honest opinion is . . . and this is gonna be a bit weird, so stick with me for a minute if the song you say is in C major, my guess is that the D7 Chord is functioning as a II Dominant chord in C major and not as a V dominant chord in G. Thus, this give's you the ability to bring in the #9 note (F) and the 9 (F#) giving it a very cool tension and resolution sound.

What is the band playing at that chord? Try and listen to hear if its a D7 chord, or a D7b9, D7#9 . . . etc, finding out the upper extensions of the chord will really help determine what the heck is going on . . .

What song is it? I'd like to have a listen to it . . . .

 

[Kent S.]

Re: Modulation. help~

I think the song is in G all the way thru ... that would make the F over the D7 a blue note, which function just fine as such ... adding a vocal inflection ... you could also look at it as a passing or neighboring tone.
In G the progression would be:
IV, V7, iii, vi, and then the familiar cadence of ii, V, I. Of course that's one way of looking at it, non-harmonic tones are very common in keyboard scores, and vocal parts.

 

[seafoamer]

Re: Modulation. help~

that would make the F over the D7 a blue note

yup, yup, yup!

 

[moog1000]

Re: Modulation. help~

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that the first chord of the song is the starting key of the song. As Kent said, the whole thing is in G as C is in the key of G major, so it starts on the IV of G, not the I of C.

 

[kelvin]

Re: Modulation. help~

My humble but honest opinion is . . . and this is gonna be a bit weird, so stick with me for a minute if the song you say is in C major, my guess is that the D7 Chord is functioning as a II Dominant chord in C major and not as a V dominant chord in G. Thus, this give's you the ability to bring in the #9 note (F) and the 9 (F#) giving it a very cool tension and resolution sound.

What is the band playing at that chord? Try and listen to hear if its a D7 chord, or a D7b9, D7#9 . . . etc, finding out the upper extensions of the chord will really help determine what the heck is going on . . .

What song is it? I'd like to have a listen to it . . . .

hi,
i have also thought about the D7b9,
but it doesn't seem to be that chord. :smack:

and it's a korean song. so i guess you don't know about that song. :laugh2:

 

[kelvin]

Re: Modulation. help~

I think the song is in G all the way thru ... that would make the F over the D7 a blue note, which function just fine as such ... adding a vocal inflection ... you could also look at it as a passing or neighboring tone.
In G the progression would be:
IV, V7, iii, vi, and then the familiar cadence of ii, V, I. Of course that's one way of looking at it, non-harmonic tones are very common in keyboard scores, and vocal parts.

hi,
i am sure that the song is in the key of C major
and it changes go G major during the chorus.

by the way...
what's a "blue note" ?
:laugh2:

 

[moog1000]

Re: Modulation. help~

Blue note literally means a 'bluesy' note. For example, in blues it is not uncommon to hear a b3 (your F against the D7) b5 or b7 against a major chord. Therefore these kind of notes against particular harmony are called blue notes because it sounds bluesy.

I don't think it's worth over-analysing this sort of thing, there may not be any logical reasoning for it just that 'it sounds good'. It could be that the vocal line is doing a 'turn' around the F# which is the chord tone against the D7. A turn is often used in classical music, where chromtaic notes are used around a 'pivot note'. If the next note in your example is a G then that could explain it - F# F F# G, or if it's an E then it's a simple 'passing note' as already mentioned.

 

[GandLMan]

Re: Modulation. help~

Yah, I take back what i said, these guys are bang on with the "G and Bluenote" idea . . .