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Pivot Chords

tonymiceli 22 February 2010
Pivot Chords are a great way to work on key stuff. I got the idea from Bill Evans. I liked the way he modulated different tunes and tried to make my own up. Here's how he changes key at the end of Here's that Rainy Day.

So Instead of going to G he puts what I call a pivot chord and modulates to Eb. I think of this as the Anti-Mack-The-Knife modulation. It fits with the melody and moves you to a new key seamlessly.

 

Look at this version of Blue Bossa. You know the melody, I'll pick it up at the end when I do the pivot chord modulation.

 

Here's the pivot chord. Instead of G7 I play Bmin7b5, E7! Those chords are very closely related. Stick an E7 on top of a G7 and you have a G7 13b9

I also adapted the melody a litte.

Comments

tifoo Sat, 07/11/2009 - 04:20

Working head (theme) in different keys made me find another way to modulate, by transforming the b9 in 11 or b13.

Here is an explanation and a sheet :

in the first case b9 of V becomes 11 of III7, and makes tonality split in 3
(by down Maj thirds ex : Cmin,Abmin,Emin), So that is a 3 keys turn around !

in the second case b9 of V becomes b13 of I7, and makes tonality turn in 5th
ex: Cmin,Fmin,Bbm, etc... So that is a 12 keys turn around

I'm practicing these 2 modulations on Blue Bossa (see sheet) but I guess it can work on standards finishing
with a II-V-I

tifoo

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