🔊 To adjust sound 📡 To change signal 🎶 To change key

to modulate

1 7.4

Change a piece of music from one key to another

verb
/ˈmɒdʒʊleɪt/

Specialized

: modular

The excerpt began in the key of D major and modulated to the key of A major.

Examples

Now I'm going to modulate, go to a different key.
The music modulated once, then twice.

Fiction book (2002)
I can't improvise, modulate, or move up a scale or whatever these musical types do.

Blog text (14)
He played two choruses and, getting a little bored with his own rendition, modulated into "Me and My Shadow."

Fiction book (1997)
As the church doors opened, she modulated into a rhapsody, half Chopin and half her own dreamy benediction.

Fiction book (1991)
The excerpt began in the key of D major and modulated to the key of A major.
Now I'm going to modulate, go to a different key.
The violins get louder, finally modulate into the major key, and are joined by cellos, violas, and a harp.

Synonyms

to transpose

vsto modulate

Specialized

1 7.2

Change the key of a song to make it higher or lower

is a change inside a piece that moves between keys during the music

to rekey

vsto modulate

Specialized

7.1

To change a song's key to make it higher or lower

is a change inside a piece that moves from one key to another

Surface Forms

modulate infinitive

modulated past

modulated past participle

modulating present participle

modulates third person singular

Morphology

modulate = modul + ate

Same morphological build as sense 1 ('modul-' + '-ate'); the root is a combining form rather than a familiar standalone word, so the sense 'change key' is related but not transparently predictable for all learners.

Etymology

The word modulate comes from the Latin root modus, meaning 'measure', and shares the same root as mode and moderate. In music this gives a simple picture: you move the melody into a different 'mode' or place, so to modulate is to change key.