Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 64 No. 3

9.5 Follow a distant key change

Study Chopin’s Waltz in A flat, Op. 64 No. 3. At bar 73 it leaves A flat for C major, a key a major third away that shares only one note of its tonic chord (a chromatic mediant), and it comes back to A flat at bar 109. Play the bars on either side of each change and hear the sudden brightening and the return. At the keyboard: improvise a bridge to a distant key.

Ideas

• Modulation
• Chromatic mediants

Theory cards

• Distant keys and chromatic mediants
• Modulating at the keyboard

Technique

• A-flat major scale, hands together, 4 octaves