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Music vocabulary · Music Theory and Harmony

Modulation

Meaning in music, with examples

nounCommon term

In music, modulation means: A change from one key to another within a piece, making a different note feel like the tonal home.

In Turkish: modülasyon, ton değişimi

How it is used

Used in analysis and arranging. Musicians discuss a modulation to a related key or prepare one with a chord shared by both keys.

Example sentences

  1. The modulation to E major gives the final chorus a brighter colour.

    The final chorus establishes a new key instead of merely using one unusual chord.

  2. Mark the modulation in bar twenty before rehearsing the string parts.

    The mark helps the players locate where their passage changes its tonal centre.

Common collocations

  • modulation to a new key
  • prepare a modulation
  • abrupt modulation
  • keyThe group of notes and chords that a piece is mainly built on, centred on one home note. A song in the key of G major keeps returning to G as its point of rest.
  • chord progressionA series of chords played one after another that forms the harmonic backbone of a song, often written with Roman numerals such as I–IV–V.
  • transposeTo move a whole piece or passage up or down by the same interval into a different key, keeping all the notes in the same relationship.

More terms: Music Theory and Harmony

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