Today as part of my IDS project, I wrote a draft song with 3 different rotating key signatures, exploring the use of key signatures and changing key signatures in music.

The song is inspired from Eastern European folk songs, and the main riff shifts through D Harmonic Minor, G Harmonic Minor, and C Harmonic Minor, ending on a C# accidental to create tension. The left hand, meanwhile, plays broken triads for each key before following the last few notes of the riff in a syncopated rhythm. The song is currently instrumented for piano.

The song began with me experimenting with melodies on D Minor, and then deciding to move key signatures by a fourth each time, or moving to the left in the circle of fifths. Then I came up with a similar melody on each new key and connected them together using common notes from each key.

This is one of the first song drafts for my final presentation, and may evolve into a full song later.

(This post is part of a series of entries into my Learning Journey for my IDS project in Music Composition.)

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