Thanks to automatic transposition algorithms offered on websites like Ozbcoz.com, we don’t think twice about what’s involved in transposing a song manually. Without such options, how do we transpose all the chords for a given song by hand? To transpose means to shift all the notes and chords in a song by a certain interval. Think of transposing as an invisible capo.
For the next 3 Chord Thursday song session, I signed up to perform “Thorn in My Side.” The website Tunebat.com incorrectly states that the Eurythmics recorded it in the key of G as the official version on Youtube is clearly in the key of D, as also the case in their sheet music album “Eurythmics – Ultimate Collection”. The two ukulele song sheets I found online (Ukulele Wednesday and Southampton Ukulele) concurred the song in D major.
To transpose it to the key of G, which is more comfortable for my voice, I make use of my music interval knowledge. I need to change the key of D to the key of G major, and all chords in the song. The term “music interval” refers to the distance between two notes. Notes of the same pitch (when in tune) have no distance, thus termed “unison” or “Perfect One” and abbreviated “P1.” Notes that are a half-step (semitone) apart have an interval of “Minor Second” or “m2” (small letter m). An octave is known as “Perfect 8” or “P8.”
The note G is a perfect fourth interval above D. By inversion, G is a perfect fifth interval below D. Here is where referring to a Circle of Fifths chart is useful. We can also use the “music interval” terminology on chords. The old chord to the new chord maps as follows:
- D to G
- G to C
- A to D
- Bb to Eb
- F to Bb
- C to F
In Google Docs or Word, I can use “Find and Replace” to do the job. But in which order?
Actually it doesn’t matter if I’m finding parenthesized capital letters and changing them into bracketted capital letters. For example, in the FIND/REPLACE option of Word or Google Doc, FIND (A) REPLACE WITH [D].
If not the case, then we should FIND / REPLACE in the following order:
- Bb to Eb
- F to Bb
- C to F
- G to C
- D to G
- A to D
Next, I transpose the ukulele riff (which is the melody of the song) into the new key. Click on the sample below to get the resulting 2-page PDF.
With enough practice, it’s possible to transpose on sight – the subject of another blog post. Such visual transposition is one of the challenges I’m introducing to my students. It’s easy to go up or down in pitch by a whole step but anything larger is mental gymnastics.
Transposing or transposition is a useful skill, allowing you to sing and play in a key of your choice, other than the one given.
Next blogposts
- transposing in online
- transposing on sight
- transposing vs modulating
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