Modulation (music)

In music, modulation is the change from one tonality (tonic, or tonal center) to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature (a key change). Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest. Treatment of a chord as the tonic for less than a phrase is considered tonicization.

Example of modulation from the tonic to the dominant

Quotes about modulations in music

• Bon Jovi did it in "Livin' on a Prayer," Michael Jackson in "Man in the Mirror," and Celine Dion in "My Heart Will Go On." Taking a verse or a chorus up a notch by modulating the key was a way for pop stars to give their songs extra oomph for decades. We loved it because it made us feel things. And some of us are realizing just how much we miss the chills and thrills those modulations gave us.
  • Annie Reneau of Upworthy (February 15, 2025) [1]

• Over centuries of music, composers have used modulations and changes in the key of the music to express emotion, drama and excitement. In pop and rock music a shift up a semitone is always a memorable moment, as a song clicks into an upper gear.
  • Kyle Macdonald of Classic FM (September 29, 2023) [2]

• Many of the biggest hits in pop music used to have something in common: a key change, like the one you hear in Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody." But key changes have become harder to find in top hits.
  • Mallika Seshadri of NPR (November 30, 2022) [3]

• Someone killed the key change in pop music, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to find the perpetrator.
  • Joe Treble of Switched on Pop (April 25, 2023) [4]

• Changing the key – or shifting the base scale of a song – is a tool used across musical genres to "inject energy" into a pop number.
  • Mallika Seshadri of NPR (November 30, 2022) [5]

• Musically, one of the most interesting things about [Sabrina Carpenter's] "Please Please Please" is the key change at the start of the second verse - not a songwriting trick that’s often pulled.
  • Ben Rogerson of MusicRadar (October 3, 2024) [6]

• One thing I always encourage everyone to do is just try modulating in any direction. Just try it. Use the things you have - it’s so easy to just try and modulate. Even if it sounds like shit; even if you just do it really quickly just to see if you can pull yourself somewhere.
  • Jack Antonoff, as quoted by Ben Rogerson of MusicRadar (October 3, 2024) [7]