A method for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) a first volume and a second volume spaced apart from the first volume is provided. The first volume is excited with a first linearly varying phase with respect to k-space. The second volume is excited with a second linearly varying phase with respect to k-space, wherein the first linearly varying phase has a different slope than the second linearly varying phase. Data in k-space is acquired line by line. The acquired data in k-space is Fourier transformed to image space. An image is formed with a first volume image and a second volume image from the transformed data. Use of phase modulation allows imaging with a reduced field-of-view, which can result in faster scan times or improved performance of parallel imaging acquisition strategies.