If I want to move from scale do major to another major/minor scale, what are my options?

Question

So? what are my options? knowing that I'm only dealing with major/minor scales, I need a detailed answer.

by major/minor I mean either a major scale or a minor scale...
in example, i can move to la minor, or fa major but that depends on specific cases...
so what are those cases?

Answer 1

If I understand your question, you want to move from one key to another key. You are correct that it is fairly easy to move from the key you are in to the relative minor (I to i) or to the sub-dominant key (I to IV).

To move to other keys you must use a modulation progression. The easiest way is to find a chord in your starting key that could be used as a pivot chord that will help to complete a dominant to tonic progression in your new key.

A rather simple example would be to modulate from C major to Bb major. C chord (CEG), to F chord (FAC), F7 chord (FACEb), to Bb chord (BbDF). In this case the F chord is the sub-dominant chord in C and the dominant chord in Bb. By adding the 7th (Eb) to the chord it becomes a pivot into the new key (dominant to tonic - V to I ).

To modulate to more distant keys you might have to string together several chords to arrive at your desired key. Sometimes it is easier to start where you want to go and work backwards towards your original key.

Also there are other altered chord types, such as diminished chords, that can help make the transition to a new key. Since all the intervals in the diminished or diminished seventh chords are equal, they give you several choices of what chord you are resolving to.

Modulation is a lengthy study, too long for this forum. Perhaps you would find this site helpful:

http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm
Check out section 31 - Key Centres.

Hope this helps.

Musician, composer, teacher.

Answer 2

The diminished 7 chord is good way of moving from one key/scale to another. If you are moving from X to Y then choose a diminished 7 chord which shares a note from both X and Y. Experiment until you find the right inversion ; one will always sound much better than the others.
I am not sure if this is what you want but I hope it helps.

Answer 3

What is a major/minor scale? it's either one or the other. It's the same key by key signature, but they don't sound even remotely the same. The major scale would sound happy and the minor scale would sound sad, and gloomy... So, your question is not viable.
check out wikipedia under "music composition"... maybe this will help you.

Answer 4

Your options depend on the context. What sort of composition is it? What is the style? Whereabouts in the composition are you? What effect are you attempting to achieve?

You see, by being so vague, you raise more questions than can be answered.

Answer 5

These days, anything goes.
***What is the style of your composition?
***Check out the Wikipedia article on Modulation here online.....just do a Yahoo search and you will find at least that as a basic reference
***Richard Strauss modulated quite freely to wherever he wished to go, luckily for us....it is quite liberating