I totally agree with the ambiguity in the challenge… it might be logical if you’re going C-Bb that the shortest path between those keys is down, but which way do you read C-G, up or down? I tried to make sure the “downward” in mine was fulfilled as “downward” by making sure the lead vocal went down in pitch between the sections but what if I’d gone for an octave higher, same notes, same instrumentation?Cybronica wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 10:13 pmI wrote out a whole response to this, but my phone are it instead of posting, so here we try again:Pigfarmer Jr wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:35 pm.
Grumpy Mike -….
Challengewise: You said, "The transition back to C involves Adim -> D7 -> C. Which is downward. I hope you didn’t mean to specify something else that isn’t a technical definition of modulation!" Congratz. Your transition is downward. I just quoted the definition from the music dictionary but I'm gonna do it again. "1.The process of changing from one key to another." or "2. In electronic music, the term is applied to a change of frequency, amplitude, or other changes of similar nature possible through electronics." And you used a key change in your song so I'm inclined to think you knew a key change was a likely goal of the challenge. However, you establish the key of C and then go up to Gm in both chords and melody. That's an upward modulation in my book.
This comment is why I said earlier that the “downward” specification of the challenge is a do nothing modifier. C to Gm is up? On what basis? G is either a fifth above or a fourth below C, so going for the closer destination, you’d be going down. Also, going from a major key to a minor key would be agreed upon by many as having a ‘downward’ emotional trajectory. That aside, when looked at from a music theory standpoint the idea that one would modulate ‘up’ or ‘down’ is ridiculous because keys (unlike individual notes) have an absolute value in relationship to each other. Would going from C to Bb be considered a downward modulation? Ah, but what if the modulation went C C7 F F7 Bb? Same start and destination keys, but it would certainly feel like an upward direction. Keys are a circle, not a line as a piano might imply.
The only way I could take seriously a comment on the fulfillment of the challenge is if you said, “well, it changes keys, and it made me feel down,” because that’s all you can say about this challenge: it is 100% subjective, but pretends to be quantifiable. At least with subjective challenges (like, bridge your first two songs together) you know the judging is going to be subjective and you can plan for it. When a challenge is presented as objective (like, rondel), you know that there is a quantifiable list of qualities to include (like, number of stanzas, lines, repetitions, and the structure of a rhyme scheme).
Anyway, thanks for the reviews, everyone who’s posted them! I really appreciate the effort.