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Symmetrical modulations are most often found to ke a series of key changes, usually in a descending and symmeterical order, and generally accomplished by utilizing the II-V- I progression once in each key.

To refer to such modulations as transient is an understatement, as the average durations of each key is two measures, four at most.

The most frequently- used interval between key centers ( I's) is descending whole- steps, sometimes referred to as "downstep modulations.

The number of successive downstep modulations in a given tune will vary, from one (involving two keys) to the more common number of two (involving three keys, as shown in Fig. 2-A).

Successive downstep modulations create an interesting drama of changing moods. Because it has been a part of our social and cultural ingraining, we tend to regard a major chord or a major key as happy, up-lifting, and a minor chord or key as sad, depressing.

With this in mind, look at Figure 2-A, noting the intersection of the modulations, where a major chord (I) is immediately followed by a minor chord with the same root (i.e., C to Cm7).

The minor seventh chords are really functioning as IIm7 of the next key, but

momentarily they sound like Im of the previous key, simulating a succession of rises (I) and falls (Im), emotionally.

The musical effect imitates the ups and downs of human existence... we solve a problem, only to encounter another one; we move to a great, new location, only to be forced to move again; we find love, but lose it, and so on.

Fortunately, songwriters generally choose to end the sequence on a positive note! The important thing to note here, is that we eventually learn to recognize the sound of downstep modulations by noticing how it makes us feel, even at those times when the progression is not provided in a written form!

This is but one of the ways we can learn to aurally recognize a segment of a tune's progression... by association (with our emotional response).

Figure 2-A

Another way to aurally recognize a progression we're hearing, but not seeing, is to match the sound with the sound of a progression we do know.

Again, we're using the associative principal, but this time from the perspective of "aural memory".

For example, if we already know, hear, and play HOW HIGH THE MOON, then when we hear, for the first time, AFTERNOON IN PARIS, our aural memory can enable us to make the association between two tunes, both of which use the downstep progression. The fact that the two tunes are in different keys (G and C, respectively), or that their harmonic rhythms are different (MOON taking nine measures to accomplish its 3-key sequence, PARIS consuming only five measures to complete the same modulatory

series) is immaterial.

What the ear and aural memory are matching is the downstep progression of both tunes. When the entire progressions of two tunes are found to be identical (or very nearly so), one is usually based upon the other, knowingly.

The "copy-cat" (or plagaristic) version is referred to as a "contrafact." The contrafact will, of course, have a different and original melody, but the progression is the same as a tune of prior existence.

Such events have sometimes taken place unknowingly, unconsciously, by habit, etc. For example, it is very unlikely that Frank Sinatra was aware, when he composed NANCY WITH THE LAUGHING FACE, that the entire A section (8 measures long, played three times in an AABA, 32- measure length) is identical to the chord

progression used earlier by John Green in BODY AND SOUL, which has the same form and length as NANCY.

Sinatra undoubtedly knew, performed, and probably loved Green's tune, but any allusion to the latter's tune was most likely an unconscious event.

Many folk and country tunes share similar or identical progressions, partly because many of the composers are primarily singers and lyricists, rather than trained,

sophisticated instrumentalists, but also because the nature of those styles is not what one would term "harmonically adventurous."

Starting in the Bebop Era (ca.1945) and continuing to the present, very deliberate and conscious contrafacts have and do abound.

The writing of contrafacts is considered to be a part of the learning process for young jazz musicians/composers, and the more-seasoned players/composers consider it a tribute to the composers from whom they borrow progressions (as was the case in Freddie Hubbard's contrafact of John Coltrane's GIANT STEPS, which Hubbard lovingly titled DEAR JOHN).

The point of all this is that if you already know the tune from which a contrafact has sprung, your aural memory can make the association, making it unnecessary to see the written form of the progression.

Often the method of confirming the correctness of an associative guess is to hear, play, sing, or whistle the melody of the original tune with its new contrafact.

Therefore, if you successfully perform or hear the melody of GIANT STEPS (which you already know) against a performance of DEAR JOHN, then you can confirm that the latter is indeed a contrafact, and so you already know the progression to that contrafact.

Or, if you already know HOW HIGH THE MOON, then you can not only relate the progression's downstep modulations to those of AFTERNOON IN PARIS, but also relate the entire progression of MOON to Charles Parker's ORNITHOLOGY, since the latter is contrafactual to How HIGH THE MOON.

In other words, hearing the melodies and/or progressions of already-digested tunes against "new" tunes should be a regular part of the disciplines leading to aural recognition of chord progressions or segments of chord progressions.

The following tunes use downstep modulation: ?? Afternoon In Paris (m.2)

?? Tune-Up (m.5)

?? How High The Moon (m.3) ?? Joy Spring (B2)

?? Watch What Happens (B3) ?? Recordame (m.10)

?? Ornithology (m.3) ?? Solar (m.7)

?? New York State Of Mind (m.18) ?? Bluesette (m.11)

?? Laura (m.5)

?? One Note Samba (B5) ?? Cherokee (B5)

?? Star Eyes (mm.4, 7 & B3) ?? The Maestro (m.48) ?? April Mist

?? Joshua (B2)

?? Once I Loved (mm.9 & 33)

The tune, INVITATION, was omitted from the above list, though the bridge of that tune very closely resembles downstep modulation.

The problem with including it in the list owes to the nature of the resolution to I, which is not major, nor is it a minor- major seventh or a minor sixth.

It is instead a minor seventh chord that is used both as a Im7, then as IIm7 of the next key.

Yet the chord durations, chord sequence, and the altered dominants certainly cause it to feel like downstep modulations:

Modulations Downward In Half Steps