Unit 8, Lesson 1 of 3
Brainlag Plus Music

Related keys and pivot chords

Music theory, Modulation and melody writing, 15 minutes

The keys a Grade 6 melody may move to, and how a chord that belongs to both keys makes the move smooth.

Related keys

Question 3 may ask your melody to move to the dominant, the subdominant or the relative key. They are "related" because they share all but one note with the home key (the relative shares every note of the key signature).

  • Dominant: the key a 5th up: one more sharp, or one flat fewer.
  • Subdominant: the key a 5th down: one sharp fewer, or one more flat.
  • Relative: the same key signature, the other mode (C major and A minor).
From C major: the tonic chords of its dominant (G major), subdominant (F major) and relative (A minor) keys are all chords of C major too

The rest of this lesson and its 5 practice questions are in Plus Music.

Screen 1 of 3, free to read.

  • 5 exam-style questions, marked as you go, each with a worked solution
  • Anything you get wrong is saved to your flashcards
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