Staying within Disney, in When will my life begin from Tangled (awesome song), during the verse - which is in E - it modulates to G (which is a 3rd minor up) landing on C major (IV of G), ending the modulation on G major, and then going back to E (starting from B major which is the V of E). Hope this makes sense
It also happens in the song "See the light" in Tangled (C to Eb), between the first chorus and the second verse. No surprise there tho, the music's also by Alan Menken haha
This is also known as the "flying modulation", this beautiful effect comes from chords borrowed from the parallel minor key, most commonly the bIIIMaj7, IVmin6 and bVII Dominant ("backdoor dominant")chords. All chords from the parallel minor key sound great as substitutes for the V chord of the context key. Try them, they are beautiful. Enjoy!
Exactly what I came here to say! This key change works so well because underneath it’s playing with the major/minor substitution thing. At least how I think of it. It really does feel joyous when it happens.
Great to see you again, Ser Jeff! Excellent tutorial. But tell me this: are you greenscreening it now or is this what your living room actually looks like?
"Beethoven takes the scenic route, and Menken flies direct." -- that is just brilliant. Awesome video Jeff - very grateful you exist in the world out there!
Love the style of editing in this video Jeff! A great newer tune with a chromatic mediant is 'Leave the Door Open' by Silk Sonic - most of it is in C, and it does that half-step modulation into the final chorus HOWEVER the bridge modulates to Ab.
David Bennet talks a little more about why this key change works so well. One explanation I really like is that this modulation is basically like moving to the parallel minor key. (F major is the same key as D minor, which is the parallel minor to D major)
in the case of aladdin and im sure many others, i believe this key change possibly evolved for the sake of accommodating the higher range of the female vocal which typically enters there. so now i know where you have been all this time... learning fancy video editing techniques!
Hell yes! Thank for for making a chromatic mediant video that actually has context. A lot of videos on the subject use examples of either just adding a chromatic mediant to a chord progression, without actually staying in the new key. It's a different effect. In the Disney examples, it still sounds like sort of step up modulation, but definitely is more dramatic and noticeable than just transposing up a half or whole step. Also, I can also hear the power of the fill coming into play here. Literally just adding a drum fill can be enough to set us up for a distant key change, as long as the moment calls for something uplifting and dramatic this is a great device.
Yebba is an amazing artist and she has a 2 of this really good modulation in her cover of ‘age of worry’ The harmony that takes you there is spectacular too - amazing singing by her, amazing arranging by james francies, and amazing playing by everyone
It feels like this (menkan modulation) is also used a lot in some Japanese anime opening when they do such key change before going into the chorus (Komi-san(Cinderella girl), K-on(go go maniac), Bakemonogatari(Sweet Slubmer)... etc.) . I was wondering some of the reasons or theory behind this. Thank you for this explanation.
That reminds me of Pokemon Johto's Japanese theme song "OK!", which is mainly in A minor but has a brief modulation to F# minor before returning to the main key in the chorus. Or the very first theme song in the entire anime history "Mezase Pokemon Master!", also which has an A minor intro, lyrics, and coda, but with an ambiguous F# minor transition into an A major chorus.
I saw an interview where they asked Alan Menken, "What's the Alan Menken chord?" And he wasn't sure what they meant exactly, but his first thought was to modulate up a minor third. So he's definitely aware that that's something he likes to do.
yoo, Jeff welcome back! I remember watching all of your videos in high school when I was in jazz ensemble but sadly have not done any practicing as im in college now and didn't bring my sax. It's still fun watching your music theory videos tho :)
First time viewer here and as a result of this video, new subscriber! I was so hoping you were going to address Circle Of Life... That's got my FAVOURITE key change of all the Disney films! It just tugs on my heart strings and makes me cry! Love your content Jeff, keep it up!
TOTALLY LOVE your videos. I gotta have the R&B course! You open doors that I never even saw before discovering your videos. Thank you! "A Whole New World" ;-)
Somewhere around 1990 I got hung up on writing music that constantly jumped up by minor thirds. You go up four minor third key changes and pretty soon you’re back where you started. Mix that up with a few chord substitutions and you got some pretty cool stuff going on. You would think I’d be a star by now.
2:57 I totally disagree. The man besides him is the true disney legend. Mad respect for Howard! Disney always had "I want" songs since Snow White but it's only after The Little Mermaid and "Part of Your World" that that's been the formula ever since, thanks to Howard Ashman. The little mermaid, beauty and the beast and Aladdin's songs was written by Howard Ashman. Alan Menken is the one who composed the music. It's a shame that you're explaining about disney renaissance but you dont even mention Howard. Sadly just few of disney fans that recognize and talked about him. He is literally the reason why disney is still exist now. Howard Ashman is a legendary lyricist who made Disney rise from its downfall and started the renaissance era of Disney, who recently returned from his huge career in musical broadway theater world that time. He is the one who directing Jodi Benson to sing Part of Your World. We all know that the original Part of Your World will always be the best "I Want" song in the entire disney universe. Not just because the nostalgia vibe but also Jodi Benson was really well and carefully directed by Howard Ashman, that even her breaths, stress and pause on each syllable are really well and gently cared for. When he directed Jodi, he always said "don't focus to the song, now you're telling a story". Howard isn't focusing of the song and what makes the song sounds good or what makes it a song but how it tells a story. That's why there are many imperfections in his song, because it's the main part of it. An important part of maintaining that type of reserved passion is also that Part of Your World does not change key. In the worlds of pop music and musical theater finishing off with a key change is a helpful tool for bringing songs to a heightened emotional level and when covering Part of Your World, some people have done exactly that but I don't really think that a key change is necessary because that wasn't the intent of the songwriters. Howard said that intensity is better than enormous in this song. In fact I think that's staying in the same key the whole time is what makes it work so well having it push and pull and eventually bring Ariel back down to where she started tells a story effectively it even ends with the same motif it began with showing the audience the life that she wants but then going back to the life that she has. You can know that Howard Ashman was a great lyricist that he can even tell a story from a song. He also made the song dynamically switching from singing to talking and vice versa but the transition between them is still unnoticeable. And it didn't happen once, literally he directed every songs in those 3 films. If you really search on youtube, there are many videos that show behind the scene of the songs making. Like in beauty and the beast, he directed Paige O'Hara the same way too. Just search "Howard Ashman demo" on youtube, you can see how may songs he sung really containt much emotion than current disney songs. Hard to believe that this beautiful song, Part of Your World, was almost cut from the movie. Jeffrey Katzenberg hated it and thought that it not only slowed down the movie but was boring. Howard fought hard to convince Katzenberg that this song belonged in the movie. And I'm glad he did. Disney renaissance is mostly known by their songs. Before the little mermaid project, Howard gathered the whole disney crew for a meeting. He tell about broadway history to all the crew and they all were impressed at him. Fun fact: Howard did much more than write the songs on this movie, he also brought on board Jodi Benson, directed her during this song, changed an English butler crab named Clarence to be a Jamaican crab named Sebastien, wrote the dialog in the scene where Triton gives Ariel her legs, and also produced the movie with John Musker. This is how Jodi's said to him ruclips.net/video/itaEZeJoqK0/видео.html After The Little Mermaid released and became a biggest success in box office, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken was going to make movie called Aladdin. They've come up with several of ideas and musical numbers but Jeffrey Katzenberg then dragging them to a new project, Beauty and The Beast. Unfortunately, Ashman passed away 6 month before beauty and the beast was released and that movie was dedicated to him that even in the credit scene you can see that they gaved him credit to honor him because of how important he was. After beauty and the beast released, Jeffrey then took away all of Ashman's idea and script, almost 99% of them. But sadly some of the songs were removed in the final film He is the one who bring the new element broadway musical to the movie. This is the bright spot where everyone started to watching to animated movies again, previously no one was at all interested in animated movies. That's why every single disney movie now has a song in it. Disney keep using this formula until now (but not as effective as in the renaissance) because it's Howard's legacy. You can tell how they respect Ashman that even in Beauty and The Beast credit scene, there's a statement to honor him "To our friend, Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful." Howard Ashman 1950-1991 No wonder why The Little Mermaid be the first disney animated classic who get an oscar nomination. Also Beauty and the Beast is Disney's 30th animated motion picture, a dedication to Howard Ashman before he had passed away and the only classic movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Best Picture. He was the one who brought “I Want” song to another level! I Want song is literally every disney movies now. "In almost every musical ever written... the leading lady usually sits down on something... and sings about what she wants in life, and the audience falls in love with her and roots for her to get for the rest of the night." - Howard Ashman. He and his partner, Alan Menken, is the greatest duo that anyone have ever recognized in animated movie history. Also gain respect to Alan Menken, The little mermaid is actually his first score yet he can bring the magic with that scores. You can said that Part of Your World orchestra in the opening scene is the best choir you have ever seen and heard. Have you ever heard about the quote "There are three kinds of pianists: Jewish pianists, homosexual pianists, and bad pianists." -Vladimir Horowitz That quote actually referring to Ashman because he was Jewish and gay but still doesnt changed the fact that he really putted his care and love the the movies It's hard not to hear the parallels to his own life. To be a gay man in that day and age (and to be literally dying of AIDS) and to wrestle with that kind of longing, that kind of loneliness, that kind of confusion, that kind of self-hatred... The message comes loud and clear even when it's not sung by a mermaid. Tremendous achievement, brilliant man. RIP. I can't imagine how much more greater and better Disney would have been doing today if this great man was still alive. It hurts to actually wonder. I greatly recommend you to watch these videos ruclips.net/video/QVHgdI8OyxA/видео.html ruclips.net/video/y04xePQaDgA/видео.html ruclips.net/video/sr3a69Ym5t8/видео.html ruclips.net/video/YtnsSnMIzZw/видео.html ruclips.net/video/JX0gZY9VKlM/видео.html ruclips.net/video/egCo5Qb_fs4/видео.html Also films like Waking Sleeping Beauty and Howard's documenter film in Disney+ could really help you to know more about him
I've been using this in jazz. For example Fm7 to Bb7 is a really nice to backdoor to Cmaj7. So you can backdoor to every single key in their respective dim7 chord ( C Eb Gb A). Anime music does this a lot too they work so well with their famous IV V vi.
Great video, thanks. I think/thought that the most common modulation, at least in classical, was to the dominant. But this one has a very interesting quality. Worthy of further investigations and experimentation, for sure.
Brilliant video. Love a key change and have always wondered about those in the Disney examples you gave. My fave is the lion king also. Twinkle Twinkle has never sounded better
Interesting that in “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”, before the modulation it goes to an Eb chord and then goes to Bb. Ordinarily a singer would here the Eb as the 5th of the next key which would be Ab. That’s the typical run of the mill technique. I wonder if you could discuss that a little. Thanks
I have absolute pitch so it blew my mind that the contour of Belle and the Beethoven start out the same...because unfortunately absolute pitch and relative pitch are separate skills and if you have absolute pitch it's pretty difficult to have any sense of relative pitch, i.e. of hearing the intervals between notes instead of hearing a string of "absolutely" defined pitches
When songs modulate to a key that's that one chromatic tone higher, it's called, 'an upwards keychange', and as one can hear, they sound very bright and uplifting, almost powerful, which is why some songs use it when repeating the chorus. David Bennett Piano has an amazing video covering the brother of the upwards keychange and it's called, 'Songs that use downwards keychange'.
1. Really nice video recalled my childhood memory about Disney! 2. Key change is always more about how the melody shapes and the timing of change. Put a pivot chord or change to which key is not that important cuz theoratically speaking u can change to any key u want but u have to take the whole image of music into account. For example, the Twinkle Star u changed the key right after finished a phrase then led to a sense of dramatic scene-change naturally. It was just a natural phase of someone’s emotion went down and up, or exhaled and inhaled. And that’s why sometimes we play the music a bit slower when it comes to a key change - to get a more natural modulation. 3. I guess we have less key change bcuz of the contents that our songs express. It’s just like u basically can’t use wah-wah effect in death metal music, key change can be a bad thing if it didn’t use in an appropriate way. I feel like key change relates to somthing dreamy and enthusiastic requiring longer song structure(think about Hey Jude&Bohemian Rhapsody) while the song today is relatively short and more introverted maybe. That’s why we still hear a lot of key change in film music. But this really depends on what kind of sub-genre or which song we’re talking about. I’m not a English speaker so it’s just a guess. Maybe we can do more research on this. 4. Another possible reason why we have less key change is that the pop music, or u may say that music in many areas has become increasingly focused on timbre rather than melody and harmony over the past decade(such as Hans Zimmer’s music). So when the timbre changes fastly in music there’s not much space for the tonal and chords change otherwise the music could be redundantly complex. 5. I really like the style when u present the notation and keyboard. Is there any chance to tell us how did u make it? Thanks!
The absolute BEST part of the modulation in the Lion King is how the chord progression contextualizes its two keys. The progression in the second half of the chorus is I-V/ii-ii-iv, which in the key of BbM was BbM-GM-Cm-Ebm. BbM is the I and Ebm is the iv, which is already such a potent chord change. When the song switches keys to DbM, the chords in the progression become DbM-BbM-Ebm-Gbm, where DbM is the I and Gbm is the iv. BUT stuffed inside the I-iv of our new key is the I-iv OF OUR OLD KEY! It makes for a super dramatic "double I-iv" chord progression of sorts and it's so emotional and fantastic!!!
Love the format of this video, as well as bringing Beethoven into it ;) haha. Amazing job pulling those 2 songs together. I would've never caught that!
From the last example, it seems that we're moving from C to Eb but with a flavour of Cm. So it's a kind of Major / minor modulation. We can hear it in the final key because we would expect to end on Cm like if we were in a minor version of the theme (but instead you go to Csus which is neither major or minor to conclude back in C).
Super great video! P.s. in your transcription of your own version of the song at the end, it should be F/G as second chord in the first bar of the second line.
wonderful analysis. it seems to be used to create an abrupt but not violent change of emotional tone, kind of a rush forward, to say 'more authenticity from another point of view'
Can you think of any other songs that have a chromatic mediant key change? (Doesn't have to be Disney.)
Staying within Disney, in When will my life begin from Tangled (awesome song), during the verse - which is in E - it modulates to G (which is a 3rd minor up) landing on C major (IV of G), ending the modulation on G major, and then going back to E (starting from B major which is the V of E). Hope this makes sense
Night and Day / Cole Porter …Here There and Everywhere / Lennon McCartney
Also from Disney, "Go the distance" from Hercules, as sung by Michael Bolton, is in D (verses and choruses), but the bridge jumps straight to F
So, not so secret after all. I guess a standard question at the interviews for the soundtrack job is "can you jump one and a half tones?"
It also happens in the song "See the light" in Tangled (C to Eb), between the first chorus and the second verse. No surprise there tho, the music's also by Alan Menken haha
Can we just appreciate how beautiful you made "Twinkle Twinkle" for a second pls 😭
😭😭😭
it's so good
Amazing ❤
This is also known as the "flying modulation", this beautiful effect comes from chords borrowed from the parallel minor key, most commonly the bIIIMaj7, IVmin6 and bVII Dominant ("backdoor dominant")chords. All chords from the parallel minor key sound great as substitutes for the V chord of the context key. Try them, they are beautiful. Enjoy!
Jeff, Your harmony for "Twinkle" is awesome, I'm going to use it with my students. They will dig it, thank you!
Exactly what I came here to say! This key change works so well because underneath it’s playing with the major/minor substitution thing. At least how I think of it. It really does feel joyous when it happens.
Another nice thing is how surprisingly easy it is to modulate thanks to the movement of fourths, as the video elabourated on the Beethoven excerpt.
Brilliant 🎉
I remember Alan Menken telling in some interview that he is a fan of Beethoven and the 6th symphony.
Finally jeff remembered that he has a RUclips channel!!!
Great to see you again, Ser Jeff! Excellent tutorial. But tell me this: are you greenscreening it now or is this what your living room actually looks like?
Haha not a green screen. Thank my wife
Brilliant video, Jeff! Came back to watch this another time. I love the animations, and the examples you chose!
"Beethoven takes the scenic route, and Menken flies direct." -- that is just brilliant. Awesome video Jeff - very grateful you exist in the world out there!
Love the style of editing in this video Jeff! A great newer tune with a chromatic mediant is 'Leave the Door Open' by Silk Sonic - most of it is in C, and it does that half-step modulation into the final chorus HOWEVER the bridge modulates to Ab.
David Bennet talks a little more about why this key change works so well. One explanation I really like is that this modulation is basically like moving to the parallel minor key. (F major is the same key as D minor, which is the parallel minor to D major)
Thank you
That makes sense! The Whitney Houston example here felt to me more like going to a minor key than a major key actually
in the case of aladdin and im sure many others, i believe this key change possibly evolved for the sake of accommodating the higher range of the female vocal which typically enters there. so now i know where you have been all this time... learning fancy video editing techniques!
This is the comment I was going to leave 👏🏼
Holy editing! Jeff, this is fantastic. What an upgrade to your already stellar content.
I really missed your videos, and this one's another banger! Great visuals and great explanations :D
Hell yes! Thank for for making a chromatic mediant video that actually has context. A lot of videos on the subject use examples of either just adding a chromatic mediant to a chord progression, without actually staying in the new key. It's a different effect. In the Disney examples, it still sounds like sort of step up modulation, but definitely is more dramatic and noticeable than just transposing up a half or whole step. Also, I can also hear the power of the fill coming into play here. Literally just adding a drum fill can be enough to set us up for a distant key change, as long as the moment calls for something uplifting and dramatic this is a great device.
Beautifully taught and thoroughly researched! Bravo!
Yebba is an amazing artist and she has a 2 of this really good modulation in her cover of ‘age of worry’
The harmony that takes you there is spectacular too - amazing singing by her, amazing arranging by james francies, and amazing playing by everyone
Your editing is SOOOO good! Really enjoyed your video
Love the production value upgrade! Hope to see more soon.
Wow, this video was a notch up. Not just in practical chord theory, but in great graphical work and interesting/dramatic commentary! 👍 thanks
also happens in "Stars" and "In My Life" from Les Mis!
Fantastic, Jeff. This soooo interesting and fun! Just love it when you talk theory!
So glad to have you back.👍
Always great content and I learned a lot.
It feels like this (menkan modulation) is also used a lot in some Japanese anime opening when they do such key change before going into the chorus (Komi-san(Cinderella girl), K-on(go go maniac), Bakemonogatari(Sweet Slubmer)... etc.) . I was wondering some of the reasons or theory behind this. Thank you for this explanation.
That reminds me of Pokemon Johto's Japanese theme song "OK!", which is mainly in A minor but has a brief modulation to F# minor before returning to the main key in the chorus. Or the very first theme song in the entire anime history "Mezase Pokemon Master!", also which has an A minor intro, lyrics, and coda, but with an ambiguous F# minor transition into an A major chorus.
Great video Jeff. Fantastic production values and brilliant presentation. The very best of what we creators strive for on RUclips. 👍🏻
I saw an interview where they asked Alan Menken, "What's the Alan Menken chord?" And he wasn't sure what they meant exactly, but his first thought was to modulate up a minor third. So he's definitely aware that that's something he likes to do.
yoo, Jeff welcome back! I remember watching all of your videos in high school when I was in jazz ensemble but sadly have not done any practicing as im in college now and didn't bring my sax. It's still fun watching your music theory videos tho :)
Hehe, “Beethoven takes the scenic route, and Menkin flies direct” made me chuckle, fabulous!
Have been watching your videos since you started and they have come alooooong way. Awesome job. And the content is just as good. Thank you. fs
Please keep making these videos, this stuff is important!!
Love it! So nicely produced!
Oh man, finally you're back. Nice. Please upload regularly. Your content is great.
great video! love the editing on this one! very consumable
Thanks a lot for the effort! Such a great job
Amazing lesson, great production quality.. thanks!
welcome back!! this is quality video and very informative :D
9:27 Love the voice leading. Learning a lot
The new editing looks great!
First time viewer here and as a result of this video, new subscriber!
I was so hoping you were going to address Circle Of Life... That's got my FAVOURITE key change of all the Disney films! It just tugs on my heart strings and makes me cry! Love your content Jeff, keep it up!
Thank you for coming back.
Great to have you back!
Thanks for a very well made video. It seems a very emotive change. Well found!
Great to see you again Jeff, stay safe and keep going 🤟
Nice work Jeff !! very interesting !
awesome video, love the editing!
More stuff like this pls…. Tricks on commercial tracks that are outside of classical theory. SO helpful! Thank you
Fascinating. Thank you for a great video and food for thought!
Brilliantly done!
TOTALLY LOVE your videos. I gotta have the R&B course! You open doors that I never even saw before discovering your videos. Thank you! "A Whole New World" ;-)
Fantastic lesson, Jeff!
Excellently explained! I just suscribed!
Somewhere around 1990 I got hung up on writing music that constantly jumped up by minor thirds. You go up four minor third key changes and pretty soon you’re back where you started. Mix that up with a few chord substitutions and you got some pretty cool stuff going on. You would think I’d be a star by now.
Love the video wow, instant subscribe!
sounds cool, adds tension and anticipation
love this vid/tut. I've watched it like 4 times in a row (Thanks Jeff) - really helpfull!
Glad you liked it!
Great video man !
Amazing video!
Great Analysis ! 🌷And love the Twinkle arrangement! 👍 Thank you 🙏🌷
I had never figured out about this kind of key change. Amazing.
I can attest: Jeff's RnB Chord theory is awesome!
The minor 3rd modulation is known as "The Spring Modulation" to my generation ( Very Old).
You rock Jeff! Great teacher! Thank you for showing us "The Menkin Mediant Magic Mood" taking the chorus to "A Whole New...' payoff! Yaaaay! 🙂
Thanks so much, this is the missing link Ive been looking for, now I understand why
2:57 I totally disagree. The man besides him is the true disney legend. Mad respect for Howard! Disney always had "I want" songs since Snow White but it's only after The Little Mermaid and "Part of Your World" that that's been the formula ever since, thanks to Howard Ashman. The little mermaid, beauty and the beast and Aladdin's songs was written by Howard Ashman. Alan Menken is the one who composed the music. It's a shame that you're explaining about disney renaissance but you dont even mention Howard. Sadly just few of disney fans that recognize and talked about him. He is literally the reason why disney is still exist now. Howard Ashman is a legendary lyricist who made Disney rise from its downfall and started the renaissance era of Disney, who recently returned from his huge career in musical broadway theater world that time. He is the one who directing Jodi Benson to sing Part of Your World. We all know that the original Part of Your World will always be the best "I Want" song in the entire disney universe. Not just because the nostalgia vibe but also Jodi Benson was really well and carefully directed by Howard Ashman, that even her breaths, stress and pause on each syllable are really well and gently cared for. When he directed Jodi, he always said "don't focus to the song, now you're telling a story". Howard isn't focusing of the song and what makes the song sounds good or what makes it a song but how it tells a story. That's why there are many imperfections in his song, because it's the main part of it. An important part of maintaining that type of reserved passion is also that Part of Your World does not change key. In the worlds of pop music and musical theater finishing off with a key change is a helpful tool for bringing songs to a heightened emotional level and when covering Part of Your World, some people have done exactly that but I don't really think that a key change is necessary because that wasn't the intent of the songwriters. Howard said that intensity is better than enormous in this song. In fact I think that's staying in the same key the whole time is what makes it work so well having it push and pull and eventually bring Ariel back down to where she started tells a story effectively it even ends with the same motif it began with showing the audience the life that she wants but then going back to the life that she has. You can know that Howard Ashman was a great lyricist that he can even tell a story from a song. He also made the song dynamically switching from singing to talking and vice versa but the transition between them is still unnoticeable. And it didn't happen once, literally he directed every songs in those 3 films. If you really search on youtube, there are many videos that show behind the scene of the songs making. Like in beauty and the beast, he directed Paige O'Hara the same way too. Just search "Howard Ashman demo" on youtube, you can see how may songs he sung really containt much emotion than current disney songs.
Hard to believe that this beautiful song, Part of Your World, was almost cut from the movie. Jeffrey Katzenberg hated it and thought that it not only slowed down the movie but was boring. Howard fought hard to convince Katzenberg that this song belonged in the movie. And I'm glad he did. Disney renaissance is mostly known by their songs. Before the little mermaid project, Howard gathered the whole disney crew for a meeting. He tell about broadway history to all the crew and they all were impressed at him. Fun fact: Howard did much more than write the songs on this movie, he also brought on board Jodi Benson, directed her during this song, changed an English butler crab named Clarence to be a Jamaican crab named Sebastien, wrote the dialog in the scene where Triton gives Ariel her legs, and also produced the movie with John Musker.
This is how Jodi's said to him
ruclips.net/video/itaEZeJoqK0/видео.html
After The Little Mermaid released and became a biggest success in box office, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken was going to make movie called Aladdin. They've come up with several of ideas and musical numbers but Jeffrey Katzenberg then dragging them to a new project, Beauty and The Beast. Unfortunately, Ashman passed away 6 month before beauty and the beast was released and that movie was dedicated to him that even in the credit scene you can see that they gaved him credit to honor him because of how important he was. After beauty and the beast released, Jeffrey then took away all of Ashman's idea and script, almost 99% of them. But sadly some of the songs were removed in the final film
He is the one who bring the new element broadway musical to the movie. This is the bright spot where everyone started to watching to animated movies again, previously no one was at all interested in animated movies. That's why every single disney movie now has a song in it. Disney keep using this formula until now (but not as effective as in the renaissance) because it's Howard's legacy. You can tell how they respect Ashman that even in Beauty and The Beast credit scene, there's a statement to honor him
"To our friend, Howard,
who gave a mermaid her voice
and a beast his soul,
we will be forever grateful."
Howard Ashman
1950-1991
No wonder why The Little Mermaid be the first disney animated classic who get an oscar nomination. Also Beauty and the Beast is Disney's 30th animated motion picture, a dedication to Howard Ashman before he had passed away and the only classic movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Best Picture.
He was the one who brought “I Want” song to another level! I Want song is literally every disney movies now. "In almost every musical ever written... the leading lady usually sits down on something... and sings about what she wants in life, and the audience falls in love with her and roots for her to get for the rest of the night." - Howard Ashman.
He and his partner, Alan Menken, is the greatest duo that anyone have ever recognized in animated movie history. Also gain respect to Alan Menken, The little mermaid is actually his first score yet he can bring the magic with that scores. You can said that Part of Your World orchestra in the opening scene is the best choir you have ever seen and heard.
Have you ever heard about the quote
"There are three kinds of pianists: Jewish pianists, homosexual pianists, and bad pianists."
-Vladimir Horowitz
That quote actually referring to Ashman because he was Jewish and gay but still doesnt changed the fact that he really putted his care and love the the movies
It's hard not to hear the parallels to his own life. To be a gay man in that day and age (and to be literally dying of AIDS) and to wrestle with that kind of longing, that kind of loneliness, that kind of confusion, that kind of self-hatred... The message comes loud and clear even when it's not sung by a mermaid. Tremendous achievement, brilliant man. RIP.
I can't imagine how much more greater and better Disney would have been doing today if this great man was still alive. It hurts to actually wonder.
I greatly recommend you to watch these videos
ruclips.net/video/QVHgdI8OyxA/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/y04xePQaDgA/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/sr3a69Ym5t8/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/YtnsSnMIzZw/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/JX0gZY9VKlM/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/egCo5Qb_fs4/видео.html
Also films like Waking Sleeping Beauty and Howard's documenter film in Disney+ could really help you to know more about him
.
Just what I needed
Love this video Jeff 🤘
Thanks, Jake :)
Menken Modulation - love it - I've heard it for years in Disney but didn't know the theory - thank you !
I've been using this in jazz. For example Fm7 to Bb7 is a really nice to backdoor to Cmaj7. So you can backdoor to every single key in their respective dim7 chord ( C Eb Gb A). Anime music does this a lot too they work so well with their famous IV V vi.
This Is excellent, thank you..
Great video, thanks. I think/thought that the most common modulation, at least in classical, was to the dominant. But this one has a very interesting quality. Worthy of further investigations and experimentation, for sure.
Brilliant video. Love a key change and have always wondered about those in the Disney examples you gave. My fave is the lion king also. Twinkle Twinkle has never sounded better
Again, why I love Jeff 😌
Interesting that in “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”, before the modulation it goes to an Eb chord and then goes to Bb.
Ordinarily a singer would here the Eb as the 5th of the next key which would be Ab. That’s the typical run of the mill technique.
I wonder if you could discuss that a little. Thanks
What a great video! Great content, presentation, and editing. Newly subscribed!
I have absolute pitch so it blew my mind that the contour of Belle and the Beethoven start out the same...because unfortunately absolute pitch and relative pitch are separate skills and if you have absolute pitch it's pretty difficult to have any sense of relative pitch, i.e. of hearing the intervals between notes instead of hearing a string of "absolutely" defined pitches
This is a wonderful video. :-)
Dude! You are a passionate genius! the Best Kind!
Ohhhh. How is it possible that your rendition of TTLS almost made mw weep openly? 🤣. The progression is soo beautiful. 🎉🎉
When songs modulate to a key that's that one chromatic tone higher, it's called, 'an upwards keychange', and as one can hear, they sound very bright and uplifting, almost powerful, which is why some songs use it when repeating the chorus. David Bennett Piano has an amazing video covering the brother of the upwards keychange and it's called, 'Songs that use downwards keychange'.
Great video! Thanks for the upload. Comment for the algorithm!
Great video!
Yes! Been thinking about this, I recognized this from I See The Light from Tangled as a way to accommodate male and female singers.
Great insight !
Brilliant video!
Glad you liked it!
1. Really nice video recalled my childhood memory about Disney!
2. Key change is always more about how the melody shapes and the timing of change. Put a pivot chord or change to which key is not that important cuz theoratically speaking u can change to any key u want but u have to take the whole image of music into account. For example, the Twinkle Star u changed the key right after finished a phrase then led to a sense of dramatic scene-change naturally. It was just a natural phase of someone’s emotion went down and up, or exhaled and inhaled. And that’s why sometimes we play the music a bit slower when it comes to a key change - to get a more natural modulation.
3. I guess we have less key change bcuz of the contents that our songs express. It’s just like u basically can’t use wah-wah effect in death metal music, key change can be a bad thing if it didn’t use in an appropriate way. I feel like key change relates to somthing dreamy and enthusiastic requiring longer song structure(think about Hey Jude&Bohemian Rhapsody) while the song today is relatively short and more introverted maybe. That’s why we still hear a lot of key change in film music. But this really depends on what kind of sub-genre or which song we’re talking about. I’m not a English speaker so it’s just a guess. Maybe we can do more research on this.
4. Another possible reason why we have less key change is that the pop music, or u may say that music in many areas has become increasingly focused on timbre rather than melody and harmony over the past decade(such as Hans Zimmer’s music). So when the timbre changes fastly in music there’s not much space for the tonal and chords change otherwise the music could be redundantly complex.
5. I really like the style when u present the notation and keyboard. Is there any chance to tell us how did u make it? Thanks!
Amazing tnx ❤
Neat, thanks Jeff!
The absolute BEST part of the modulation in the Lion King is how the chord progression contextualizes its two keys. The progression in the second half of the chorus is I-V/ii-ii-iv, which in the key of BbM was BbM-GM-Cm-Ebm. BbM is the I and Ebm is the iv, which is already such a potent chord change. When the song switches keys to DbM, the chords in the progression become DbM-BbM-Ebm-Gbm, where DbM is the I and Gbm is the iv. BUT stuffed inside the I-iv of our new key is the I-iv OF OUR OLD KEY! It makes for a super dramatic "double I-iv" chord progression of sorts and it's so emotional and fantastic!!!
Awesome - thanks!
Middle of “at last I see the light” c to Eb 👌
Good one! Thanks!
Thank you, Sir
Love the format of this video, as well as bringing Beethoven into it ;) haha. Amazing job pulling those 2 songs together. I would've never caught that!
From the last example, it seems that we're moving from C to Eb but with a flavour of Cm. So it's a kind of Major / minor modulation. We can hear it in the final key because we would expect to end on Cm like if we were in a minor version of the theme (but instead you go to Csus which is neither major or minor to conclude back in C).
Super great video!
P.s. in your transcription of your own version of the song at the end, it should be F/G as second chord in the first bar of the second line.
Love this video❤️ easy to understand for a beginner like me😆👍
Love your explanation and the Little Star example! So amazing!! I'll try it in my songs soon~
BTW, the 2nd chord 9:34 C/G -> F/C should be C/G -> F/G.
Happy you and this cideo exist
Alan Menken's "I See The Light" in the movie Tangled also has this key change.
Great vid
Great video! Bill evans does it in days of wine and roses going from F to Ab in 2nd A 😀
wonderful analysis. it seems to be used to create an abrupt but not violent change of emotional tone, kind of a rush forward, to say 'more authenticity from another point of view'