the.com/modulation
Changing key without the listener noticing you left the room.
means The act of smoothly shifting from one musical key (or, more generally, one state or frequency) to another.
from From Latin 'modulatio' (a measuring, a rhythmic regulating), built on 'modus' (measure, manner, way) — the same root that gives us 'mode' and 'moderate.' The Latin verb 'modulari' meant to regulate by measure, especially to sing or play in proper rhythm. English borrowed the word in the 1300s-1400s for the general sense of adjusting or regulating, and it later settled into its musical specialty — the controlled, measured passage from one key to another — before being borrowed again by radio engineers for varying a wave's amplitude or frequency.
- music trick
- shifts the tonal center mid-song, builds drama
- radio use
- encodes sound onto carrier waves, AM and FM style
- pop cliche
- the key change before the final chorus
- biology sense
- cells tune gene activity up or down, not on-off