switching keys (kind of cheating here…)

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Hi guys,

Some of you may already know me or my situation but I’ll remind you anyway..

I’ve been playing harp for just over a year. I fell in love as soon as I laid my hands on it but unfortunately I was only able to afford a handful of lessons before I fell into some financial issues and had to temporarily quit lessons.
While I’m not able to go take lessons, I’ve been focusing on writing my own music for the last year. Only problem, I severely lack in theory and its killing me right now.

I’ve always got my harp in eflat and so far I’ve written a lot in this key but its really cramping my inspiration lately. I’ve received wonderful advice on this forum about researching theory and buying books etc… except its really hard for me to understand and apply it to harp when I don’t have someone explaining or showing it to me :/

Basically, I’m just wondering if anyone can point me to some key changes that are easy to switch to from eflat? (besides C major) I know it might sound like cheating but really, I’m just dying here without being able to afford a teacher and I want to write more music but I’m so bored with eflat right now lol. I promise I’ll learn proper theory when I do resume lessons again 🙂

[tracey-kjonegaard]

sorry, I suppose I should mention I play on a lever harp (in case it weren’t obvious :P)

[Sam Karlinski]

Hi Tracey,
Here are the following keys your harp can play, and how to set the levers. I’m going to assume your harp has levers on all strings.

Eb major/c minor – all levers down
Bb major/g minor – A levers up
F major/d minor – A and E levers up
C major/a minor – A, E, and B levers up
G major/e minor – A, E, B, and F levers up
D major/b minor – A, E, B, F, and C levers up
A major/f minor – A, E, B, F, C, G levers up
E major/c# minor – all levers up.

There are some other minor scales that I could talk to you about if you don’t think these minor scales (which are “standard” and called the natural minor scales) are the sound you’re looking for.

If you have any more questions I’m happy to help – I’ll be graduating soon with a academic degree in music.

I hope that helps!

[Tacye]

The easiest keys to use with Eb major in the same piece, as a middle section for instance, are going to be C minor (some of the Bs natural – I suggest you start with all the Bs in the base natural and are guided by ear for the melody) or Bb major (all As natural).

[tracey-kjonegaard]

You both are wonderful, thank you so much!
Sam, I may definitely be emailing you if I have other questions, thanks for reaching out 🙂
Tayce, I will try your suggestion as well cause thats definitely something new for me 🙂 Thank you!!

[Sam Karlinski]

Tacye has a good point I forgot to mention. If you’re going to use a second key in your piece, the keys that are easiest to use both from a theory and performance standpoint (and will sound great!) are the keys that are one above or below (particularly below) your starting key in the chart I provided.

A reliable way to modulate keys (that’s the term that means changing keys) is to use what’s called a dominant seventh chord. Keeping things simple, there is one dominant seventh chord per key. You can find it by counting five notes up from the key note. For instance, if you’re in D, you count five notes up (D, E, F(#), G, A) and you find an A. This is called the root of the chord. Make a seventh chord with that note on the bottom – that makes (A, C(#), E, G) – and you have your dominant seventh chord for the key of D.

Note that this chord leads you INTO the new key. That is, the dominant seventh chord in the key of D will lead you INTO the key of D. Therefore, decide on a key you’d like to go to. The dominant seventh chord of that new key will be a great way to smoothly lead your music into the new key.

Hopefully that wasn’t too much information. There are a lot of great resources a quick internet search away that can help you understand this subject matter if you’re having problems understanding.

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Sam you’re amazing!!!
Thanks so much! I think I understand exactly what you’re saying but I’ll have to try and apply that in a piece that I write and hopefully it’ll make sense.

Thanks so much again, both of you!!

[Sherri Matthew]

Hey Tracey,

I hear you about needing somebody to actually show you the theory in practice and on the harp at that, but if I may recommend one book – it’s a workbook actually – I used it when I went back to school to finish my degree and I used the second volume in my independent study: no teacher. Very easy to work through and it’s self correcting. See if you can find this: it’s called Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music: A Programed Course, by Greg A Steinke. Not hard or pedantic like a lot of theory books. Just work your way through one self-teaching exercise at a time. My two cents anyway. Best of luck to you and hope this helps!

[katy-newsome]

Hi Sherri,

Thanks so much for your response. The workbook sounds like it might really help me in trying to teach myself. I’m having a hard time finding it though. I’m finding a lot of different editions and some w/ audio CDs, part I, part II. Is there anything more specific I should look for?

http://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Materials-Tonal-Music-Programed/dp/0130910732/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397178101&sr=1-1&keywords=harmonic+materials+in+tonal+music

is this it?

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi Katy,

That’s it. My copy didn’t come with a CD. I used a pencil as I worked through the questions so I could erase any mistakes. If you buy the used copy on Amazon, no telling if the former owner wrote in it with a pen!

I remember having an 8″ x 11″ sheet of paper with the circle of fifths printed on it, that I folded in half to cover the answer key side as I went through the exercises, and I wrote down the really important gotta-remember-this notes on it so I had a reference bookmark to help me solve the tougher problems as I got deeper into the book. And that was good because I kept looking at my earlier notes all the time, so the material got imprinted on my brain with all the repetition.

I don’t remember any typos in the book either. If there were any errors there were like maybe one or two in the whole thing, and it was part of the fun to catch them!

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Thanks Sherri, I’ll be sure to check that out! 🙂

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