The Pivot Chord: The Easy Way to Change Key
1. Why Change Key?
Every piece of music (besides the weird contemporary stuff), uses a key, and not just any key, but a major or a minor key. This is because the notes in a key all have a particular relationships to one another that allow us to form chords and melodies easily without too much dissonance.
Let’s take G major for example, the notes in a G major scale are: G A B C D E F#. Using this scale we can form chords by playing alternating notes, we can also play a melody using these notes and it will sound pretty good!
However, sometimes playing in one key can start to sound too predictable and boring. It’s like painting a picture using only 1 colour; yes, you can paint a beautiful picture…but imagine what you could do if you could use the full palette (excellent metaphor Matt).
This is what changing key can do! Music (along with any form of story telling) is about starting somewhere, going on a journey and returning back home with a fresh perspective. We can make that journey much more distant and interesting by changing key within the piece of music and moving to a new landscape and a new set of notes and chords.
2. What Are Pivot Chords?
One of the easiest and most satisfying ways you can do this is by using a pivot chord. A pivot chord is a chord that is shared between two keys. Playing a pivot chord means that you can use that chord as a kind of transition point from one scale to another.
Let’s say we are in C major (C D E F G A B), if we play chord 3 (E G B - alternating notes starting on note 3 of the scale), we can use this chord as a way of transitioning to G major (G A B C D E F#). This is because this exact same chord is chord number 6 in G major (E G B). This means that this chord can pivot us between the two keys.
The interesting thing about pivot chords is that any chord can be a pivot chord. Every single chord appears in multiple scales and therefore can be used to transition the piece of music. So we actually have many options of how and when we move to a different key.
However, once you have decided that your chord is going to be a pivot chords, it’s very typical to confirm the new key by playing chord 5 followed by chord 1 in the new scale. This is called a “perfect cadence” and it is a way of punctuating the music and telling us that we are now firmly using the new scale.
So a chord progression travelling from C major to (C D E F G A B) to G major (G A B C D E F#), might look something like this:
C MAJOR:
Chord 1 (C E G) - Chord 6 (A C E) - Chord 2 (D F A) - Chord 5 (G B D)
PIVOT CHORD:
Chord 3 in C OR Chord 6 in G (E G B)
G MAJOR:
Chord 2 (A C E) - Chord 5 (D F# A) - Chord 1 (G B D)
3. How To Know!
One of the most difficult things about using pivot chords is knowing which chords appear in which scales.
Each major chord appears in 3 major scales, it can be seen as chord 1, chord 4 or chord 5. Each minor chord also appears in 3 different scales as chord 2, chord 3 or chord 6.
Let’s take a C major chord for example (C E G). This chord appears as chord 1 in a C major scale, chord 4 in a G major scale and chord 5 in an F major scale. Another example would be an E major chord (E G# B). This chord appears as chord 1 in E major, chord 4 in B major and chord 5 in A major.
If we take a minor chord as an example, a D minor chord (D F A) appears as chord 2 in C major, chord 3 in Bb major and chord 6 in F major. Another example would be an F minor chord (F Ab C), this appears as chord 2 in Eb major, chord 3 in Db major and chord 6 in Ab major.
Although this is a great way of quickly working out which other keys your chord will appear in, the best way of becoming incredibly familiar with the chords that are in each scale is by improvising and playing around with the chords in one scale. By doing this, when you play using another scale, you will notice which chords appear that you have seen before and what scale you saw that chord in.
Using pivot chords to travel to new keys is a great way of making music sound exciting and it is also used frequently throughout many genres of music, so being able to identify when its happening will greatly improve your understanding of music!
Matthew Cawood
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