Transpose Music:
How to Change the Key of a Song

Transpose Music: Two easy ways to change the key of a song

Do you have a song that you would love to sing but it is just too high or too low? Or is one of your band's songs not right for your singer? It is easy to transpose music so the song will be in a more suitable key.Here are two ways:

TRANSPOSE BY SCALE DEGREE

For this method, you need to be familiar with Chord Progressions.

The steps to transpose are:

1. Determine the scale degree of each chord

For example, if the chords in the song are:

G / Am / Bm / C / Am / Em / D7 / G

The scale degrees of the chords are:

I / ii / iii / IV / ii / vi / V7 / I

2.Apply the Scale Degrees to the New Key

To change the above progression to the new Key of "A":

A / Bm / C#m / D / Bm / F#m / E7 / A

NOTE: This method works best if the song remains in one key.

TRANSPOSE BY INTERVAL

1. Determine the intervals between the chords

For example:

"G" to "Am" is a 2nd--So a 2nd from "A" would be "Bm".

"Am" to "Bm" is a 2nd--so a 2nd from "Bm" is "C#m" (because there is only a half-step between "B" and "C".

Continue this process until you finish with the new chord progression in "A":

A / Bm / C#m / D / Bm / F#m / E7 / A

NOTE:With this method, you can transpose any song, even if it changes keys several times.

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