What key changes do you like in heavy psychedelic prog and metal?

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

Insert Spinal Tap quote below, but what other keys would you mix that saddeat of keys with for an epic heavy song that could end up sounding emotionally charged with either rage, joy, or purpose?

Also please give me other great key changes that come to mind and possibly a song or two which utilize them as context.

 

[Securb]

For me, there is something about F#m thuds, and it sounds nice and dark for that style of music.

 

[Mincer]

I do tend to use a lot of key changes, but they are all in service to the melody. But something you can try are parallel major keys. The difficult thing is always transitioning to the new key transparently, so it doesn't sound like the end of a Broadway song.

 

[Securb]

I do tend to use a lot of key changes, but they are all in service to the melody. But something you can try are parallel major keys. The difficult thing is always transitioning to the new key transparently, so it doesn't sound like the end of a Broadway song.

I get what you are saying. I hate that overused device when Broadway and Pop modulate the key of the last verse up a full step. Cheap Trick did use it well in Surrender. We modulate keys a lot, and it is definitely a departure from Broadway. This song has a tonal center around Bm for the verse and the chorus is E Phrygian, it does not sound anything like Rent or Cats.

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[Chistopher]

I like this one thing that's kinda like a key change but not quite, but imma look it up first because I feel it has it's own name. But it's basically a chord progression that resolves to a chord other than the tonic and then that chord becomes the tonic of the next cycle.

 

[Seashore]

I am not a super knowledgeable theory-head like some people here, and I don't always take the time to analyze something I enjoy (in fact sometimes I avoid that on purpose). But I'm a sucker for a song in natural minor with a key change to the fourth or fifth for some sections. I also enjoy modes (Phrygian and Dorian) that imply that kind of modulation and then maybe resolve to it. The Phrygian melody near the end of "Midnight Tango" on Al Di Meola's Elegant Gypsy album gets stuck in my head for days at a time. And speaking of Dorian, I really like minor chord progressions that use a major add-9 on the dominant. Really just give me all the perfect fifths. Stack em up.

The prog and fusion I like has internal modulation but not necessarily wholesale "key changes" in the song structure. I think I gravitate more towards overlapping patterns and cool polyrhythms than a specific tonality, as long as it doesn't sound too happy or toothless. Helps to have an interesting/heavy head section. "After The Cosmic Rain" by Return To Forever, "Nyctaphobia" by Eleventh House, "Playing The Game" by Gentle Giant, "Red" by King Crimson.

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