Tonality

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Key Words for Tonality:

• Major

• Minor

• Modal

• Tonal

• Modulation

• Dominant

• Tonic

• Relative Major

• Relative Minor

• Key Identification

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Exam questions

• An exam question about tonality may be as simple as:• “Describe the tonality of this piece” 1 mark

• So how do you do this? A 1 mark question is generally asking for a one word or phrase answer.

• Some words that may be the answer to your question….

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Major

• A piece that is in a major key sounds happy.

http://www.feedmechocolate.com/stuff/key/Jupiter.mp3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASB6hFUat4g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Oy2TpdTzU

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Minor

• A piece in a minor sounds sad

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whhAMSSexQ8

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Modal

• Modal music is in a mode. Modes are 7 note scales. They sound as if notes have been missed out of the scale.

• Modal music is hard to spot so be careful! Listen carefully. It’s often found in jazz, folk and pop music.

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Modulation

• Modulation means that you change the key of the piece. This happens a lot in pop songs, near the end, normally for a repeated chorus.

• The 3 most closely related keys are the relative major, the relative minor or the dominant. It is usually one of these that piece modulate into (especially in popular music).

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Dominant Key

• Changing to the dominant key

• If it was major before and major still it will most probably have modulated to the dominant key

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Modulation

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1_MydgRFZw&feature=relmfu

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps&ob=av3e

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