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What is Modulation in Music?
Modulation enables a songwriter to slip through tonal doorways into the parallel universes of other keys. It’s one of the most powerful ways to create interesting, compelling music. Most songwriters don’t use modulation simply because they don’t know how. It’s not difficult to learn, and you certainly don’t need to know anything about music notation to make full use of modulation.
Each of the 12 major and minor keys has a unique set of notes. Think of each key as its own musical universe. If you write a song that stays in one key throughout the song, you effectively stay within one musical universe—even though there’s nothing stopping you from travelling to any of 23 other musical universes using modulation.
For example, you could start off in the key of C Major. You compose a tune using the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Then, you could switch to the key of E♭ major, and continue the tune using the notes E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, and D (see Table 24 above). When you do this (modulate), the tune suddenly takes on new life, because the key of E♭ introduces a parallel universe of notes.