Theory posse: ok guys… I know that some of you have struggled with modulation a little so here is a mock situation that you could be faced with when writing a song…….
Picture this: You and your singer are sitting together writing a song. The lyrics and a melody worked out already. It’s an atmospheric ballad [called ‘I Love You So Much I Could Shit’] as the melody is being sung to you, you can here a vibe in your head not unlike Satch’s ‘Crying’ as being a very nice setting to the tune. Your singer sings it in a key that is most comfortable to the vocal range… You noodle a few chords and figure that it’s in the key of A major. So together you mess with it until you arrive at a nice chord progression to complement the melody….
Note: To show the fingering of the chords I’ll write them 1st string [skinny E], then 2nd string [B] and so on. ‘O’ = open. ‘X’ = mute [don’t play it] and the number represents the fret.
Example using an E chord. I’ll write it: - E [O,O,1,2,2,O] - a pretty familiar chord yes?
Also I can’t make a little ‘triangle’ shape to show a ‘major 7’ chord so I’ll use ‘^’ instead… Therefore E^7 = E major 7.
Back to the story. So you are playing it as an arpeggio on your neck pick-up, clean with a nice gentle chorus effect and a pile of reverb. Each chord lasts for one bar. You are playing nice and slow on 16th notes so you can play the bass note of the 1st and 3rd beats of the bar. This pretty little chord progression goes something like this:
In the key of A:
A^7 [9,9,9,11,O,X] ¦ D^7 [9,10,11,12,O,X] ¦ A^7 [9,9,9,11,O,X] ¦ D^7 [9,10,11,12,O,X] ¦
Bm add9 [7,7,7,11,X,7] ¦ E11 [7,7,7,7,7,O] and repeat progression…….
Cute or what!!!
So the writing is going pretty well… your singer is gob-smacked ‘cos you’ve just plucked another killer progression out of nowhere… and then breezes off to the kitchen to make some coffee….
You’re sitting there thinking “this is all pretty nice but there’s a little something missing”… And being a mindless shredder like me it dawns on you “I need a solo….”
But you want a contrast to the mushy major7 chords… you need to move it up a gear to get the song to climax…. And Crying does this too bang in the middle of the track.. so your next thought is “good enough for Satch… so it’s good enough for me”…
You think back and recall an awesome idea you was messing with a few weeks ago and this is just what the song needs…. It’ll fit great… a real master stroke…. but it was in Em… and the killer lick at the end uses open E and B strings so if you transpose it you’ll lose the effect…. Ah ha… time to have your cake and eat it…. Modulate… so you look at the chords your monster solo worked over..
Em [O,8,9,9,X,O] ¦ C^7 [O,8,9,9,X,8] ¦ Em [O,8,9,9,X,O] ¦ C^7 [O,8,9,9,X,8] ¦
Am add9 [O,O,9,10,O,X] ¦ B7 add11 3rd inversion [O,O,8,9,O,X]
Am add9 [O,O,9,10,O,X] ¦ B add11 [O,O,8,9,X,7] and repeat progression loads of times ‘cos it’s so much fun to tear up over…and it is after all your band right.. what you say goes....
So all you have to do is to build a little ‘bridge’ from the key of A to Em to get there and another from Em to A to get back to the song… You’ll be looking for the dominant 7 chords of Em and A to use as a springboard to get into the solo and then back to the song….
To get there you insert:
A^7 [9,9,9,11,O,X] ¦ D^7 [9,10,11,12,O,X] ¦
<2 chords per bar> Bm add9 [7,7,7,11,X,7] - A 1st inversion [9,10,9,11,X9] ¦
<2 chords per bar> D^7 [5,7,6,7,5,X] – B7 1st inversion [5,4,4,4,6,X] ¦
And to get back to A:
<2 chords per bar> Em [X,8,9,9,7,X] - E7 3rd inversion [X,9,9,9,X,10]
[br <2 chords per bar> A [X,10,9,11,X,9] - E7 2nd inversion [X,9,7,9,X,7]