From: asf0@comcast.net Alice Franceschini (new email August 5, 2006)
Date: October 22, 1997 Revised Sept 13, 1998
Subject: Transposing Songs (Changing the key)
This information was learned, gathered, compiled by me
Questions\Comments
How To Transpose (Change the key of song)
Update:April 24, 2003
Get a free Transpositional Wheel. It's a low tech device
that you make yourself. Takes about 10 minutes to make.
Full instructions and all the graphics you need can be found
HERE. (Click Here)
or click on the menu button to your left marked "Tranpose Wheel"
End of update:
What's transposing a song?
You want to do this to a song when you don't like the chords.
Either they are too high to sing or your hate Eb and want something
you can play more easily.
This process is done by knowing the math relationship of each chord
to another. Let's say you have a song in the key of C and you would
like it to be in the key of D.
Here's the key of C
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
You must remember that the key of D has two sharps and they must be
included. See sharps and flats table below.
Here's the key of D with it's two sharps.
D E F#G A B C#D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Notice how the numbers match up.
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
D E F#G A B C#D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Now everywhere you see a C in the song you want to change, you write above it a D.
Everywhere you see a D you write above it an E. What you are doing is matching up
the numbers underneath these two keys. Unless you have a photogenic memory, writing
them down really helps.
Let's do one more example.
You have a song in the key of Eb and you hate that key. You want to change it to
the key of A. Do the same thing as you did with C to D.
(See the sharp\flat table below)
EbF G AbBbC D Eb
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
A B C#D E F#G#A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Say you are jamming at a friend's house and you don't have this paper with you but you
still want to transpose a song. Here's how I do it.
Let's say I have a song in C and I want it in F. Counting on my fingers and starting
with C - Must start with C - count C D E F the math relationship of C to F is four. That
math relationship will be true for any of the chords in the key of C being transposed to
the key of F. Now the only draw back to this is, if you don't know by heart your sharps
and flats. What I do, is I try the chord if it sounds off I flat it if it still sounds off
then I sharp it.
So I have a song, in the key of C and I want it in the key of F
F
C
From this valley they say you are leaving.
C7
G7
Do not hastin' to bid us adiue
F B
C F
Just remember the Red River Valley
F C7 F
C G7 C
And the one that loves you so true
Well that B sure didn't make it, huh? It needs to be Bb. Make the correction
and there is how you do it.
This is it. Any questions, please E mail. asf@pon.net
Please note that I do not go along with the today's concept of invisible notes.
There is no such thing as a Cb B# Fb E# but there is a verb.
You can flat the C note but when you get there it is a B it doesn't
become a Cb. Just like when you double sharp a note, C## which
now makes that note D doesn't make C## a key nor a note.
The reason these are non-existence notes is because they do not have
a proper chromatic scale from Cb to Cb. You can flat a C
but when you get to that note it is a B and not Cb. Same with B# is C
Fb is E and E# is F.
Now comes along this scale table which has a couple of rules in order
to produce.
Rule one: each sequencial letter of the scale MUST be used
Rule two: No sequencial letter can be repeated in the same scale.
So these invisible notes are going to be used. But that does not
mean there is suddenly the key\note of Cb, B#, Fb, or E# because the
rule that all keys MUST have a proper chromatic scale fails.
A chromatic scale example:
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A
Another example.
Piano keyboard. Start on A and go to the next A but play all the
keys in between, all the black keys and white keys.
SHARPS AND FLATS TABLE. (STEP,STEP,HALF,STEP,STEP, STEP,HALF)
Major Scales
A B C# D E F# G# A
B C# D# E F# G# A B
C D E F G A B C
D E F# G A B C# D
E F# G# A B C# D# E
F G A Bb C D E F
G A B C D E F# G
Flatt Major Scales
Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab
Bb C D Eb F G A Bb
Cb non-existence scale\key Use the Major scale of B
Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C Db
Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb
Fb non-existence scale\key Use the Major scale of E
Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F Gb
Sharp Major Scales
A# B# C## D# E# F## G## A#
B# non-existence scale\key Use the Major scale of C
C# D# E# F# G# A# B# C#
D# E# F## G# A# B# C## D#
E# non-existence scale\key Use the Major scale of F
F# G# A# B C# D# E# F#
G# A# B# C# D# E# F## G#
More on:
key and scale
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