The Language of Music - Tom Brooks Music

CHAPTER 28 : TRANSPOSITION

Every song, every chord, every melody, and every piece of music can be played

in any of the 12 Keys. When you take a song or any element of music and

move it from its original key to a new Key Center, you are ‘Transposing’.

nuggets of knowledge

Changing a song to a different Key is called “TRANSPOSITION”.

When you Transpose a piece, the relationship of the notes to one another

remains identical, only the Key Center changes. Once you set the Interval of

the Transposition (for instance, “Transpose up 1 Half Step” or “Transpose up a

minor 3

rd

”), every aspect of the music, every pitch, every chord symbol, etc, is

shifted by that interval. Another way to describe a Transposition is to specify

the new Key Center, e.g. “Transpose from C Major to F Major”.

Why do you need to transpose? There are many reasons...

You are preparing a song and the range of the melody in the original key

does not match well with the range of the soloist or group.

You are transitioning from another song and you need to change the key

in order to make a smooth ‘segue’.

You are using a different instrumentation than the original and you want to

place the song in the best key for your Band –

example ‘E’ versus ‘Eb’ for guitar or ‘F’ versus ‘F#’ for Brass, etc.