Transposing
Transposing means changing the key of a piece of music. This can apply to a scale, a riff, a short melody, or an entire song. The ability to transpose is an essential skill for all guitarists. To transpose a piece, write the scale degrees under the original melody and then work out which notes correspond to those scale degrees in the key you want to transpose to.
Here is a short melody played first in the key of C, and then transposed to the keys of F and G. You can see that the scale degrees are the same, regardless of the key. Play through them and notice that the melody sounds the same, but the overall pitch may be higher or lower. Transpose this melody to all the remaining major keys shown in the key cycle in Lesson 12.
Key of F
Key of G
Here is a solo in the key of D major.
Here is the same solo transposed to the key of E. Learn it in this key and then transpose it to all the other keys. Make a habit of transposing everything you learn to as many keys as possible. You should aim to eventually be able to play any song in any key at a moment’s notice.
This is essential for professional guitarists, as they may work with many different singers, horn players, keyboard players, etc, all of whom may prefer to play any song in their own favorite key. If the guitarist they are working with doesn’t know how to play in that key, they will call someone else instead.
