Intermediate Music - How To Transpose A Song
Transposing a song on guitar or any other instrument to a new key is a very simple process
. A couple of quick tips and you'll be able to transpose to your heart's content. We'll start with changing your chord progression to a new key, then look at how to work with a melody.
The first obvious question is, why bother? Why not just leave the song in the key it's in? Certain instruments like horns and harmonica have keys that are easier to play in than others. On piano or guitar we pretty much have equal access to all the keys, but no all instruments are so lucky. Another reason is that singers have a particular range and set of keys that are comfortable to sing in. The key of C major may be too high for your singer. Drop to A major and you'll get a better performance.
Some composers and songwriters (myself included) feel that different keys carry a different feeling or connotation past the basic major or minor. To me D minor is mournful, while E minor is angry. G major is happy and laid back while A major has an energetic edge to it. You may or may not feel the same. But as you try transposing your songs to different keys take note of whether it changes the feel of the music at all.
Let's start with transposing a chord progression. Here's a typical chord progression in the key of C major. C Am F G7 And we'll say we want to change that to the key A major.
If you're not sure what key your song is, listen for the chord that is the "tonal center". That's the chord that sounds like the song comes to a rest and wouldn't need to go further if you stopped there.
Now, let' line up our chord progression against a C major scale and number the off one through seven.
C D E F G A B C
I ii iii IV V vi viidim I
A B C# D E F# G# A
The top line is a C major scale. The second line is the numbering. An uppercase roman numeral means that chord is major. Lowercase is minor. The lower line is an A major scale.
Our initial chord progression uses I (C), vi (Am), IV (F), and V (G7). To find their counterparts in A major simply use the same number and quality (major, minor, etc) in the new scale.
Our new chord progression is I vi IV V or A F#m D E7 .
Transposing a melody is essentially the same thing, but you don't have to deal with qualities, just single notes. We'll take the same two keys. Here's a melody:
C D F A E G C
Line those up against the same numbers from above and we'll get:
1 2 4 6 3 5 1
In general we use the Roman numerals for chords and standard Arabic numerals for single notes.
The line up those numbers with the notes on the new scale and we get:
A B D F# C# E A
If there's an altered note in your original melody, say a Bb accidental, just use the same numbering system and apply the same accidental to the note. In C major Bb is a flatted 7th note. So in A major you flat your G# making it G natural.
That's the simplest way to transposing. As you get more comfortable with these ideas and with intervals you can start to transpose that way as well. A major is a minor 3rd below C major. So you could just lower every note and chord by a minor 3rd and get the same result.
So if you're writing that new song and can't quite hit the high notes with your voice, try changing the key and make it work better!
Intermediate Music - How To Transpose A Song
By: Phil Johnson
How To Use The Dorian Mode On Guitar How To Use The Melodic Minor Scale On Guitar How To Use Tritone Substitution For Jazz Guitar How Your Guitar Heroes Learned To Play So Fast How To Play Eighth Notes On Guitar Making The Most Of Guitar Practice Time Get Better At Guitar By Avoiding Memorization Anchoring Your Right Hand On Guitar Stretching Exercises For Guitarists Tips For Mastering Tricky Chord Progressions On Guitar Tips For Memorizing Guitar Scales A Good Time to Learn To Play Piano Learning how to play easy songs on the guitar