How to Transpose a Song in Under 5 Minutes

Transposing is a lot easier than you think. With just a little practice you'll never need to fear a last-minute key change.

A simple and comprehensive system that makes it a breeze to transpose a song.

Yes, It's a hassle when you have to change a song key at the last minute. But it's not the tragedy so many worship musicians make it out to be. You can get apps and print out charts in every key, but ultimately you'll spend more time and energy avoiding it than simply learning how to do it. I'm going to teach you a simple (and comprehensive) system that'll help you transpose a song in less than five minutes. 

The Musical Alphabet

Let's start with the basics. The musical alphabet starts at A and goes to G#, then repeats. It looks like this.  (Keep in mind that A# and Bb are different names for the same note.)

The interval between each note is a half step and two half steps equal a whole step so... 

The Major Scale

The major scale is the basis of all western music and it's how we define what notes belong in what key. All it is is a fixed pattern of Whole steps and Half steps that never changes; it's ALWAYS the same. Visually it looks like this:

Go ahead and read that out loud a few times.  

"Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step"

"Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step"

"Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step"

Defining the Key

To find what notes are in one key you simply apply the major scale pattern to the alphabet, making sure you start on the root of the key. So, if you want notes in the key of C, you start your 1 on a C like so.

Go ahead and hover your cursor over it. From C to D is a whole step. D to E is a whole step. E to F is a half step...whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. If you do it right, your 1 and 8 will be the same note.  Seriously, hover over it while saying the steps out loud.I'll wait.

Changing Keys

Okay, the key of C is easy because there are no sharps or flats, but every other key is just as easy. You simply apply your major scale pattern. Let's try the key of D.

You'll notice we use the sharp (#) designation instead of the flat (b). That's because we want a representation of every letter in each key.  If we used flats instead of sharps, we would have D E Gb G A B Db D which would give us doubles of D and G while depriving us of F and C's lovely company. Let's try the key of F and see how the flats come into play.

In this example, we go with flats because we don't want both an A and an A# in the scale.

Music Transposition

Now that your music theory knowledge is expanding, you can see that each note in a key occupies a specific scale position. Transposing is simply swapping notes that share the same scale position.  So, let's say you have a chord progression in the key of F that goes like this:

If we translate that to numbers (using the scale postions) it looks like this:

Once you have those numbers you can quickly and easily swap in the new chords. So let's try it with G and D.  First we lay out the scale:

Then drop in the notes:

It Takes Practice to Master Music Transposition 

Transposing may not seem easy right now, but it is essential and becomes easier with practice. Practice enough and you'll start thinking in numbers. If this is an entirely new idea to you, I'd suggest simply writing out the notes in each key as a starting point. I have a handy cheat sheet and video on this so you can check your work. Start by choosing a few song lesson charts and converting them to number charts. Play through your chords in each scale saying their numbers aloud. Mastering this skill is worth the investment, so get after it!