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?
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.
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!
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.
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
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)
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
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!
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
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'.
"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!
Key changes and chord progressions like this are common in the Romanticism overall. It is called "Terzverwandtschaft" in German. Riemann's principle of "Parallel- und Gegenklänge" has been expanded: in any major key, I-vi is T-Tp (tonic and its parallel). This may become I-VI = T-TP (VI with a major third). The same also works in the opposite direction which happens exactly in the case of "Disney modulations": C:I = Eb:VI then I, or, using German terminology, C: T = Eb: TP then I. Hungarian terminology also knows the "inverse Neapolitan" or "counter-Neapolitan" chord which is a major or minor chord based on the leading tone(!). This occurs in Wagner's Tannhäuser Ouverture, for example, as a dominant seventh chord. Taking this into account, the "truck driver's modulation" at 1:31 can also be explained. In these cases, the Db chord does _not_ act as a Neapolitan chord but the C chord acts as the inverse Neapolitan because we hear the whole thing as a "brightening of 7 fifths" and not as a "darkening of 5 fifths" on the Circle of Fifths. This is C: I = Db: VII then I, or in German, C: T = Db: DG T. g and G is Gegenklang (counter-parallel), minor and major chord respectively. N stands for the bII chord (Neapolitan) while the the bVII subtonic chord can either be a NP or a dP... yes it is a chameleon chord.
I think it work's so well because the chromatic mediant shares a key signature with the parallel minor. C major to Eb major would be the same key signature as C major to C minor.
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.
Awesome editing, Jeff! I wonder if this works so well because the new key is the relative major of the parallel minor so we’re used to hearing these chords when “borrowing”? Thanks for the video.
I also thought of that. Go one step further: It could be a Tritone Sub Modulation of the relative minor. B minor is the relative minor of D Major and a tritone away is F Major.
@@seanperkinsmusic interesting 🤔 But I think the simplest explanation is that it's using modal mixture. Or as Michael said, the relative major of parallel minor
McAlmont and Butler’s song “Yes” does this brilliantly having the verses in G-flat Major and the chorus in A. Not sure of any other examples of this outside of Menken’s work though.
There's some wrong information in this video. It's not called a chromatic Mediant because of the reason you presented here. A Mediant is either a major or a minor third from the root of the given chord. There's the diatonic Mediant, the chromatic Mediant, and the double chromatic Mediant. Two chord that have a diatonic Mediant relationship are either a M3 or a m3 apart, share two common tones, and have contrasting chord qualities e.g. major -> minor and vice versa. So for example Dmaj and F#min have a Mediant relationship. Two chord that have a chromatic mediant relationship are again either a M3 or a m3 apart, share *ONE* common tone, and have the *SAME* chord quality. So major -> major. So it's not of the F instead of the F# sharp that makes it a chromatic mediant modulation. It's because they share one common tone (the A) and have the same chord quality (Dmaj -> Fmaj). Following this logic we can also have a chromatic mediant relationship between two chords a major third apart. In this case a D chord and an F# chord, like the example presented in the video. Dmaj and F#min have a diatonic mediant relationship. By simply switching the F#min to an F#maj we have changed the relationship from diatonic mediant to chromatic mediant. Dmaj and F#maj share *ONE* common tone (F#) and also have the *SAME* chord quality (maj -> maj).
I once emailed you about wanting to master theory for neo soul and rnb at the time you told me to do some functional harmony analysis which I did. I definitely trust you on your new course that I will purchase when the time will be right!!!
I think it's a down to earth kind of a sound...a folky sound to go to the b3....its not fantastical like a Lydia thing...its bluesy working class kind of a sound if that makes sense its relatable
Interesting video, but you've put the wrong poster for the Lion King. Please use the 1994 original instead of the 2019 remake version next time, thanks.
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 :)
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
For it to harmonically work properly the b7 chord needs to be dominant though…it’s a transition from major into minor harmony in the original key. Even better when preceded by a IVmin6 so the sequence would be Cmaj7 Fmin6 Bb9 Ebmaj7
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.
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!!!
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.
John Williams used Chromatic Mediant relationships in the Star Wars Soundtracks. This chord relationship also shows up in _Linus and Lucy_ and in the original Thomas the Tank Engine theme.
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.
How in the wide, wide, world of lawyers did you manage to get this past the Content ID system? If I tried this, not only would my video be blocked, but there'd be 12 Disney lawyers in suits swinging through my front window SWAT-style. Ahd yes, it's plainly fair use, but Disney doesn't care about that. So spill the beans, how'd you do 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!
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" ;-)
That E7 in Reflection has the b6 in the key of F#, which makes it related to the minor 4 chord. One of the reasons it seems to work so well and sounds so poignant in the first key.
It works smoothly because of the tertiary relationships between the key areas. There is always a common tone between the two chords. In the first example it's the A. ( Fifth of D and third of A).
I think it’s more useful to use the terms modulation and key change differently. In my opinion, a modulation should be used to describe what happens in a lot of classical music (Bach fugues, chorale hymns, and binary/ternary forms, etc) and jazz, where you change tonal center in the middle of a piece as part of the progressing musical idea, but almost always return to the original “home base” for the final phrase(s). Modulations could also be considered sort of transitory key changes that don’t actually change the key signature. Chromatic harmony that leads to a new tonal center (“I” or “i” in Roman numerals) does not and (IMO) should not see a written out change in the key signature. A real and complete key change would include a change in key signature, often for a verse in song or instrumental music that repeats, and the piece might conclude in a different key than it started in. Another example of a real key change would be in a lot of Marches, where the music goes up a fourth, the key signature changes, and it stays in that new key, even though there is new musical ideas being presented. Like I said before, I think it would be most effective in education and communication of music to not use modulation and key change interchangeably.
I don't think this key change is that adventurous. The chromatic mediant modulation is just the relative major of the parallel minor. They are blood relatives.
1:32 No such thing as one half step. You can't have half a step any more than you can have half a haystack. Your examples are of a minor second (C to Db) and a chromatic unison (Db to D).
1:55 Yes, it's a pop cliché (some call it the truck driver's key-change). But the most common kind of key change? No way. I think you're not using enough real music as a basis for that statement. (And I'm including film music in this!) Modulating from a major key to the dominant, or shifting to its subdominant, are much more common key changes from a major key.
I think of it as F major having D minor as its relative minor. But instead of using D minor you can use D major. And you can put D major first. Alot of key changes and tonicizations work this way. You can use the major or minor version of either a nearby key on the circle of fifths or their relative minors. So if you start in C major, then you can go to F major OR F minor, or D minor (relative minor of F) or Ab major (relative major of F minor).
Why is pointing out that Love on Top only modulates in steps or half-steps significant? There are plenty of songs that modulate all over the place, including further than a minor third. And anyway, it still remains a case of so what. This is the lamest kind of theory video. “Here’s a song, with some characteristics, and if I describe the theory then it’s like finding the secret to why everyone loves it!” Except no, it isn’t.
Menken could not have possibly plagerized Whitney Houston for the song "Didn't We Almost Have it All?" because she did not write the song. I think that it very important to give credit for a song's key changes to the person who wrote the music, instead of crediting the singer for music that they did not write.
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 🎉
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
I remember Alan Menken telling in some interview that he is a fan of Beethoven and the 6th symphony.
Brilliant video, Jeff! Came back to watch this another time. I love the animations, and the examples you chose!
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.
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 👏🏼
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.
Holy editing! Jeff, this is fantastic. What an upgrade to your already stellar content.
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
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Also films like Waking Sleeping Beauty and Howard's documenter film in Disney+ could really help you to know more about him
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He is talking about music, not about lyrics. The genius behind music is Alan Menken.
I really missed your videos, and this one's another banger! Great visuals and great explanations :D
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
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
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!
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
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'.
Beautifully taught and thoroughly researched! Bravo!
"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!
I can't unhear key changes now; I'll be sure to pay attention whenever a great song comes on from now onwards :D
Oh man, finally you're back. Nice. Please upload regularly. Your content is great.
Fantastic, Jeff. This soooo interesting and fun! Just love it when you talk theory!
Please keep making these videos, this stuff is important!!
Key changes and chord progressions like this are common in the Romanticism overall. It is called "Terzverwandtschaft" in German. Riemann's principle of "Parallel- und Gegenklänge" has been expanded: in any major key, I-vi is T-Tp (tonic and its parallel). This may become I-VI = T-TP (VI with a major third). The same also works in the opposite direction which happens exactly in the case of "Disney modulations": C:I = Eb:VI then I, or, using German terminology, C: T = Eb: TP then I.
Hungarian terminology also knows the "inverse Neapolitan" or "counter-Neapolitan" chord which is a major or minor chord based on the leading tone(!). This occurs in Wagner's Tannhäuser Ouverture, for example, as a dominant seventh chord.
Taking this into account, the "truck driver's modulation" at 1:31 can also be explained. In these cases, the Db chord does _not_ act as a Neapolitan chord but the C chord acts as the inverse Neapolitan because we hear the whole thing as a "brightening of 7 fifths" and not as a "darkening of 5 fifths" on the Circle of Fifths.
This is C: I = Db: VII then I, or in German, C: T = Db: DG T. g and G is Gegenklang (counter-parallel), minor and major chord respectively.
N stands for the bII chord (Neapolitan) while the the bVII subtonic chord can either be a NP or a dP... yes it is a chameleon chord.
I think it work's so well because the chromatic mediant shares a key signature with the parallel minor. C major to Eb major would be the same key signature as C major to C minor.
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.
Awesome editing, Jeff! I wonder if this works so well because the new key is the relative major of the parallel minor so we’re used to hearing these chords when “borrowing”? Thanks for the video.
I also thought of that. Go one step further:
It could be a Tritone Sub Modulation of the relative minor. B minor is the relative minor of D Major and a tritone away is F Major.
@@seanperkinsmusic interesting 🤔
But I think the simplest explanation is that it's using modal mixture. Or as Michael said, the relative major of parallel minor
You should do a video about key changes with Earth Wind and Fire!
Thanks so much, this is the missing link Ive been looking for, now I understand why
McAlmont and Butler’s song “Yes” does this brilliantly having the verses in G-flat Major and the chorus in A.
Not sure of any other examples of this outside of Menken’s work though.
Makes twinkle twinkle little star sound like a diva song instead of baby song.
Jazz songs like "All the Things you Are" also have this modulation. I wonder who snitched on who haha
Wow, this video was a notch up. Not just in practical chord theory, but in great graphical work and interesting/dramatic commentary! 👍 thanks
Again, why I love Jeff 😌
love this vid/tut. I've watched it like 4 times in a row (Thanks Jeff) - really helpfull!
Glad you liked it!
also happens in "Stars" and "In My Life" from Les Mis!
a good example is “Is it anybody listening”, by Queensryche. Right at the start
The minor 3rd modulation is known as "The Spring Modulation" to my generation ( Very Old).
There's some wrong information in this video. It's not called a chromatic Mediant because of the reason you presented here.
A Mediant is either a major or a minor third from the root of the given chord. There's the diatonic Mediant, the chromatic Mediant, and the double chromatic Mediant.
Two chord that have a diatonic Mediant relationship are either a M3 or a m3 apart, share two common tones, and have contrasting chord qualities e.g. major -> minor and vice versa. So for example Dmaj and F#min have a Mediant relationship.
Two chord that have a chromatic mediant relationship are again either a M3 or a m3 apart, share *ONE* common tone, and have the *SAME* chord quality. So major -> major.
So it's not of the F instead of the F# sharp that makes it a chromatic mediant modulation. It's because they share one common tone (the A) and have the same chord quality (Dmaj -> Fmaj).
Following this logic we can also have a chromatic mediant relationship between two chords a major third apart. In this case a D chord and an F# chord, like the example presented in the video. Dmaj and F#min have a diatonic mediant relationship. By simply switching the F#min to an F#maj we have changed the relationship from diatonic mediant to chromatic mediant. Dmaj and F#maj share *ONE* common tone (F#) and also have the *SAME* chord quality (maj -> maj).
Exactly.
David Bowie also does the minor 3rd key change in many songs!
This key change is fairly common in Film music. Actually all Mediant modulations are.
The reason they use that key change...it's simply a powerful way to make things sound BIG and ADVENTUROUS.
Silk sonic’s C->Eb modulation in leave the door open
Nice work Jeff !! very interesting !
awesome video, love the editing!
I once emailed you about wanting to master theory for neo soul and rnb at the time you told me to do some functional harmony analysis which I did. I definitely trust you on your new course that I will purchase when the time will be right!!!
Same exact change actually happens in the bridge of Closing Time by Semisonic!
I think it's a down to earth kind of a sound...a folky sound to go to the b3....its not fantastical like a Lydia thing...its bluesy working class kind of a sound if that makes sense its relatable
Interesting video, but you've put the wrong poster for the Lion King. Please use the 1994 original instead of the 2019 remake version next time, thanks.
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 :)
I will gladly expand my music theory knowledge from the guy that shrunk the kids. Cool lesson.
Alright, I now know what key change I'm going to use for my song hahah
Love on top sounds more like it has chromatic steps up than anything else
Great video Jeff. Fantastic production values and brilliant presentation. The very best of what we creators strive for on RUclips. 👍🏻
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
I see the light! It modulates from C major to Eb major by throwing the flat 7 (Bb) in between em
For it to harmonically work properly the b7 chord needs to be dominant though…it’s a transition from major into minor harmony in the original key. Even better when preceded by a IVmin6
so the sequence would be Cmaj7 Fmin6 Bb9 Ebmaj7
Wrong chord notation at 9:39
Should be F/G
I love the use of the minor7(b5) as the 2 chord!!
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.
3:51 - yeah Beethoven takes the 6-2-5-1 !!
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!!!
What a great video! Great content, presentation, and editing. Newly subscribed!
You missed us and I fiiiiiinally understood what gospel/neo soul musicians talk about when they talk about the b7 chord and using a chromatic mediant
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.
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
This is a wonderful video. :-)
John Williams used Chromatic Mediant relationships in the Star Wars Soundtracks. This chord relationship also shows up in _Linus and Lucy_ and in the original Thomas the Tank Engine theme.
Hehe, “Beethoven takes the scenic route, and Menkin flies direct” made me chuckle, fabulous!
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.
9:27 Love the voice leading. Learning a lot
Awesome - thanks!
How in the wide, wide, world of lawyers did you manage to get this past the Content ID system? If I tried this, not only would my video be blocked, but there'd be 12 Disney lawyers in suits swinging through my front window SWAT-style. Ahd yes, it's plainly fair use, but Disney doesn't care about that. So spill the beans, how'd you do it?
Love this video❤️ easy to understand for a beginner like me😆👍
Your editing is SOOOO good! Really enjoyed your video
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!
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" ;-)
How about the song Summer of 69 by Brian Adams? The C part , starts with the Fmajor followed by Bb major etc… the song is in Dmajor🤩❤️🇦🇺
From now on Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star is my favorite song ever... just discover the channel, inmediatly suscribed!!!
I think nightwish use 3rd key changes in some of their epic scores.
As soon as I saw the video title I thought I bet it’s up a minor third lol
That E7 in Reflection has the b6 in the key of F#, which makes it related to the minor 4 chord. One of the reasons it seems to work so well and sounds so poignant in the first key.
More stuff like this pls…. Tricks on commercial tracks that are outside of classical theory. SO helpful! Thank you
It works smoothly because of the tertiary relationships between the key areas. There is always a common tone between the two chords. In the first example it's the A. ( Fifth of D and third of A).
I think it’s more useful to use the terms modulation and key change differently. In my opinion, a modulation should be used to describe what happens in a lot of classical music (Bach fugues, chorale hymns, and binary/ternary forms, etc) and jazz, where you change tonal center in the middle of a piece as part of the progressing musical idea, but almost always return to the original “home base” for the final phrase(s). Modulations could also be considered sort of transitory key changes that don’t actually change the key signature. Chromatic harmony that leads to a new tonal center (“I” or “i” in Roman numerals) does not and (IMO) should not see a written out change in the key signature. A real and complete key change would include a change in key signature, often for a verse in song or instrumental music that repeats, and the piece might conclude in a different key than it started in. Another example of a real key change would be in a lot of Marches, where the music goes up a fourth, the key signature changes, and it stays in that new key, even though there is new musical ideas being presented. Like I said before, I think it would be most effective in education and communication of music to not use modulation and key change interchangeably.
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.
I don't think this key change is that adventurous. The chromatic mediant modulation is just the relative major of the parallel minor. They are blood relatives.
By the way.... 1959 (Well Three Penny Opera) Bobby Darin .... Mack the Knife.... Key change every verse !!!
1:32 No such thing as one half step. You can't have half a step any more than you can have half a haystack. Your examples are of a minor second (C to Db) and a chromatic unison (Db to D).
So glad to have you back.👍
Always great content and I learned a lot.
Video game music key change is by a half step (Super Mario World ending theme and super Mario 64 ending theme moves from C major to Db major)
1:55 Yes, it's a pop cliché (some call it the truck driver's key-change). But the most common kind of key change? No way. I think you're not using enough real music as a basis for that statement. (And I'm including film music in this!) Modulating from a major key to the dominant, or shifting to its subdominant, are much more common key changes from a major key.
Amazing lesson, great production quality.. thanks!
The beatles used this key change alot....think about something...your asking me if my love...etc...that change is a minor 3rd too
Menken method…👍🏿 I approve.
Ohhhh. How is it possible that your rendition of TTLS almost made mw weep openly? 🤣. The progression is soo beautiful. 🎉🎉
I think of it as F major having D minor as its relative minor. But instead of using D minor you can use D major. And you can put D major first. Alot of key changes and tonicizations work this way. You can use the major or minor version of either a nearby key on the circle of fifths or their relative minors. So if you start in C major, then you can go to F major OR F minor, or D minor (relative minor of F) or Ab major (relative major of F minor).
Why is pointing out that Love on Top only modulates in steps or half-steps significant? There are plenty of songs that modulate all over the place, including further than a minor third. And anyway, it still remains a case of so what.
This is the lamest kind of theory video. “Here’s a song, with some characteristics, and if I describe the theory then it’s like finding the secret to why everyone loves it!” Except no, it isn’t.
Menken could not have possibly plagerized Whitney Houston for the song "Didn't We Almost Have it All?" because she did not write the song. I think that it very important to give credit for a song's key changes to the person who wrote the music, instead of crediting the singer for music that they did not write.
wow. so Beethoven was using a II V progression to set up that G. that's like, jazz 101. just, ya know, 150 years or so before jazz.
You don’t know how helpful this was. Maybe my baby nephew will be the next Meken or Schwartz.
Love the production value upgrade! Hope to see more soon.