How To Transpose Chords to Play

Any Song in Any Key

One trick that is essential for musicians is knowing how to transpose chords.
Transposing is the process of changing a section of music to another key.
Sometimes this is done to make it more comfortable for the singer, sometimes
it is done for ease of playability, and sometimes it is just for personal tone
preference.

As with a lot of things in music, there is more than one way to do this. The first
way is to count the distance from the starting key to the destination key. This
is easier than the alternative at first, but it is time consuming and not
necessary once you learn the other way. The other way is to convert
everything to numbers. While this soundsharder and more time consuming, it
is eventually more efficient.

We'll start with the counting. Let's say that you are playing a song in C and
your friend wants to play it in A. You first pick whether you want to transpose
up or down. (Usually one way or the other is easier depending on the
instrument and what tone range you're starting with.) If you aren't sure, just
pick the one that seems closer for now. Count from the starting key (C) to the
destination key (A) in halfsteps. Let's say we are going down. C -> B -> Bb ->
A. It is down 3 halfsteps or 1 1/2 whole steps. Now you take every chord in the
song, and move it down 1 1/2 steps. So if your song is like this:

CFCG
C Dm G C

We take each of these and move them all down 1 1/2 steps.
 ADAE
A Bm E A

This wasn't too hard and it didn't take too long, but what if the song changes
keys the second time through? Then we have to do this whole process over
again. This is why it's helpful to know how to transpose chords the other way.

This time we're going to take that same song and convert it to numbers. To do
this, you have to have at least some knowledge of scales. We'll take the song
in its original key (C) and using that scale, we'll assign numbers to those
notes:

CFCG
C Dm G C

CDEFGABC
12345671

I IV I V
I ii V I

Now that we have the song converted to numbers we can put it in any key, as
long as we know that scale. So to convert it to A we take an A scale and
assign numbers to it:

A B C# D E F# G# A
12345671

And we fill in the numbers in the song with the numbers in the scale:

ADAE
A Bm E A

Now let's say the song changes to B the second time through:

B C# D# E F# G# A# B
12345671

If you already know a B scale, you just fill in the numbers from the scale:
 B E B F#
B C#m F# B

And now you know how to transpose chords with numbers. No counting
halfsteps is required. Once you have the song converted to numbers, they are
universal and can be applied to any key. The more you use this process and
the more scales you memorize, the easier this gets. Soon it will be instant and
thoughtless. Just remember to start with the scale of the key you want to play
in, and fill in the numbers.

Feel free to start out with the first method, just to get used to transposing, but
remember that it will always be slower in the end.

Return from How to Transpose Chords to Intermediate 

Return from How to Transpose Chords to Homepage

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Home

WELCOME
Where to Start?
The Blog
Newsletter
Search
Contact Me

EBOOKS
Circle of Fifths Ebook
Nashville Number System Ebook
Ebook Bundle

VIDEOS
Music Alphabet
Intervals
Pentatonics
 Increasing your Metronome SPEED!
Fine Tuning Using Your Ears

SECTIONS
Basics
Intermediate

TOPICS
Worksheets
Practice Tips
Number System
Circle of Fifths
Scales
Basic Chords
Reading Music
Intervals
Transpose
Chords
Arpeggios
Modes
[?]SUBSCRIBE TO THIS SITE

Sign up for the newsletter!

Email
First Name (optional)
I am at least 16 years of age.
I have read and accept the privacy policy.
I understand that you will use my information to send me a newsletter.
SUBSCRIBE
This site uses cookies, some of which are required for its operation. Privacy policy.

Agree and Continue