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| INTRODUCTION | CHORD DIAGRAMS | SONGS | MUSICAL THEORY | TRANSPOSING |
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Translate this page into:
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| INTRODUCTION | CHORD DIAGRAMS | SONGS | MUSICAL THEORY | TRANSPOSING |
Transposing a song from one key to another is the easiest thing in the world, and an invaluable aid for the beginning guitar player. It allows someone who only knows three or four chords to play virtually any popular song, no matter what key the song was originally written in. Even if you know lots of chords, your voice may have a limited range (most do), and a song may have to be transposed into a key your voice is comfortable with. If you want to know more about how and why transposing works, read about the fundamentals of musical theory.
The first step in transposing is to know the list of twelve musical notes, listed below.
The second step is to count the number of notes between the original key of the song, and the key you wish it play it in. If the song is written in the key of "C#", and you want to play it in the key of "E", you will be raising the key of the song by three notes.
The third and final step is to change all the chords of the song by that same number. In other words, to change a song from "C#" to "E", you simply increase all the chords in the song by three notes. You could take it further and change every note on the most complicated piece of sheet music by the exact same amount (up or down), and the key would change accordingly.
Transposing allows you to do the most with the least. Not everyone has the time to become a virtuoso. Most of us have to work for a living. Fortunately, the fact that most popular songs only contain three or four chords (or less!), and the ability to easily transpose a song from one key to another means that virtually anyone can have one hell of good time playing a guitar, whether it be with family and friends or just solo, by learning only three (count them - three!) chords.
As explained in the fundamentals of musical theory, most popular songs are written with a 1-4-5 chord sequence. The three easiest 1-4-5 chords to learn are "G"-"C"-"D". Using the list of notes above, you can easily transpose any 1-4-5 song into the key of "G", and use the three chords you learned.
The number "1" chord in the 1-4-5 sequence is, of course, the root chord, and represents the "key" of the song. It is almost always the chord (or note) the song ends on. If you have a song with the chord sequence "E"-"A"-"B", for example, you simply replace every "E" chord with a "G", every "A" chord with a "C", and every "B" chord with a "D", and presto - you have a song in the key of "G", and you're off to the races!
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