[Disclaimer: This article is focusing on helping beginners to learn how to transpose scales, chords and arpeggios without using music theory. Intermediate/advanced players though should have a solid music theory/harmony knowledge.]
Some years ago I was teaching a group of students, preparing them for a live performance in 9 months.
The band was consisting of an electric guitarist, a keyboard player, a bass player, a drummer and a singer.
We usually cover a wide range of things during the given time frame, such as music reading, song forms and roadmaps, dynamics and articulations, rhythm, improvisation and theory concepts.
The guys had really made progress when after about 4 months, the singer left the band for personal reasons.
A few days later, a new very talented one joined the group.
The new singer had a beautiful voice but her range was different from the previous one.
So, she asked if it was possible to change the key of some songs.
She found me positive as this is very common to many professional music projects.
[This is true not only in the case of singers but in the case of brass instruments too, as they read to different keys. This is why all the professional players are able to transpose and play in various keys.]
The other members though got frozen. [except the drummer of course :-)].
“We can’t do that, we have to practice all the songs again in the new key”, they complained.
This is not true.
I can understand the piano player who needs theory knowledge in order to transpose a song (don’t forget she was a student and still improving at the music theory knowledge), but the guitarist and the bass player should be able to do it almost immediately.
Music transposition is an important skill set for every musician. You should be able to transpose everything, from scales, arpeggios and melodies to a simple chord progression or a whole piece of music.
In this article, I’m gonna show you how the transposition works on the guitar without using music theory knowledge […and how I “cheated “in my guitar exams!].
What you’ll need
For this lesson, we need to have a proper understanding of how the CAGED works (read more at this link) and learn by heart the notes on the 4th, 5th and the 6th string.
Download and print the diagram below:
[Remember: C# = D♭, D# = E♭, F# = G♭, G# = A♭, A# = B♭]
Notice how the sequence of notes, the music alphabet, remains always the same (C – C#/D♭ – D – D#/E♭ – E – F – F#/G♭ – G – G#/A♭ – A – A#/B♭ – B) but it works as a circle, beginning each time from the open string note.
- E string (high & low): E – F – F#/G♭ – G – G#/A♭ – A – A#/B♭ – B – C – C#/D♭ – D – D#/E♭
- A String: A – A#/B♭ – B – C – C#/D♭ – D – D#/E♭ – E – F – F#/G♭ – G – G#/A♭
- D String: D – D#/E♭ – E – F – F#/G♭ – G – G#/A♭- A – A#/B♭ – B – C – C#/D♭
- G String: G – G#/A♭ – A – A#/B♭ – B – C – C#/D♭ – D – D#/E♭- E – F – F#/G♭
- B String: B – C – C#/D♭ – D – D#/E♭ – E – F – F#/G♭ – G – G#/A♭- A – A#/B♭
As we’ve already seen, the CAGED system uses basic chord shapes that have root notes on the 4th, 5th and 6th strings.
- The E shape or Box 1 has a root on the 6th string
- The D shape or Box 2 has a root on the 4th string
- The C Shape or Box 3 has a root on the 5th string
- The A shape or Box 4 has a root on the 5th string
- The G shape or Box 5 has a root on the 6th string
Now, download the diagram below.
The C Major Chord – 5 Boxes
Let’s say that we want to transpose the C major chord Box 1 to an A major chord.
The red circles indicate the root note.
In our case, the lowest root note (C) is placed on the 8th fret 6th string (do the cross-check with the fretboard diagram).
The A note, the new root, is placed on the 6th string 5th fret.
By moving the C major chord Box 1 shape 3 frets lower, it automatically becomes an A major chord.
[trust me if you go and cross-check this in theory terms is also true.]
So, no matter if it’s a scale, a chord, or an arpeggio shape, the procedure is always the same and the first step is to locate its root.
The second step is to locate the new root on the same string.
And the last step is to transfer the whole shape to the new position “hanging” it from the new root.
That simple.
Of course, when learning something in a position and then changing the key, it needs some practice at first.
Don’t overlook to practice each exercise in various keys. After a while, it will be very easy to adapt to the key changes.
The Best Method of Key Transposition
The best method of transposing anything is by far using music theory.
[I’m gonna publish a whole article on how to do that]
Analysing anything using theory and harmony terms, gives you a deeper understanding of how the music language works and helps you create your own creative tools in order to express yourself better, deeper and make progress consistently.
How I “cheated” in my guitar exams
In my final exams, there was a section, where I had to play a chord progression in a different key while reading the chart in the original key.
Even worse, it was completely unknown to me until the time of the examination.
I had a few seconds to prepare it so I made the following:
I locate the root of the first barre chord and transferred it to the new one exactly as we made in our example.
Then while pretending that I’m still in the original key, I start to play the chord sequence in the new position without even looking at the fingerboard.
It worked amazing!
Of course, at that time I had already a solid understanding of how the transposition works on the guitar and advanced fretboard knowledge.
Let’s see now, how to practice fretboard knowledge using the Fretboard Passepartout Method!