How do I transpose a song?
Transposing has nothing to do with transporting or transforming. It simply means changing the key.
What is transposing and what does “changing the key” mean?
In music, there are 12 keys. Each of these keys contains 7 chords. We have already looked at this in more detail in the theory of degrees. First of all, we need to find out the actual key. We have already looked at this in more detail: Finding the key of a song.
Why can’t I just use a capo for that?
Exactly! You can do that without any problems. If you know exactly how it works when you put it where, then you can play any other key with the normal C major key chords. It only gets tedious when you have to clamp the capo on the 11th fret because you are transposing down instead of up.
Ultimately, it is up to each person to decide whether they shift the key with a capo or with barre chords.
Why do I need to change the key?
There can actually be many reasons for this. One of them could be, for example, that the singer cannot reach high enough or low enough notes and therefore the whole song has to be adjusted. Let’s leave it at this one reason and spare ourselves the other possible reasons. 😛
Ultimately, you should be able to transpose anyway. Preferably in real time. This means that you can look at and play sheet music even though it is in a different key. So, basically, in real time. However, it is not a must at all. It is enough if you understand the principle behind it.
We can see all the different keys in the circle of fifths.
Let’s look at the first line of a song that is in C major. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga.
Instead of naming the chords (C major, A minor, etc.), we now name the chords with their degrees. So C major would now be the first degree (= I). Am is therefore the sixth degree (= VI). F would accordingly be the fourth degree (= IV). etc.
It would then look something like this: I — VI — IV — V (1–6–4–5)
Of course, it is not always so clear which degree a chord is. With certain substitute chords or other funny shifts, it is therefore a bit more difficult to figure out how to name the degree now. However, it is up to each person how they remember the degrees. In the end, it wouldn’t even matter if you remember the degrees as colors or whatever. The main thing is that you can memorize them and also recall them quickly. 😛
A good book to learn all this degree stuff and also chords, scales and so on is “The Chord Scale Theory”.
The G major key
Now we transpose this first line into the key of G major. There is no particular reason why I am transposing it to G. It was simply the first one that came to mind.
The degrees of the G major scale are as follows:
Earlier we “renamed” the first line from chords to degrees. Now we can “rename” the degrees back into chords.
The degrees were: I — VI — IV — V.
Accordingly, the chords in the new key are now: G major — E minor — C major — D major.
Now this can be done with all possible keys. So the song can also be transposed to the key of G major.
All chords in all keys
Now of course the question is, where do I find all the keys and their chords?
Here: :P
I personally practice transposing unconsciously with my students. Many songs — especially pop songs — require a capo to transpose the key a few half or whole notes up. If you simply leave it out, you have to convert the new key in real time while playing to play in the same key as the person opposite you.
