Archive for July, 2007
Transposition is when you take a piece of music tablature, written to be performed in a particular key, and change it so that it can be performed in a different key.
The two main reasons for wanting to do this are
(a) because the key of the song doesn’t suit your singing voice, and
(b) the tablature features chords which you find difficult to play.
I should point out at the outset, that transposition doesn’t always work. If you transpose a song in the key of D major to C Major, for instance, the piece may have featured a nifty little riff around the D chord ( e.g. D – Dsus2 – D – Dsus4 ), which is much more difficult to play on the C chord. If you want to transpose because your repertoire of chords is limited, well, some songs just have a lot of difficult chords, and transposition won’t always get rid of all of them!
Music is essentially based on mathematics. The art of transposing chords is really a straightforward process of addition or subtraction. Music is notated by use of the first seven letters of the alphabet, each letter being assigned to a note or ‘tone’ on the musical scale. For reasons best left alone, most of these musical notes are seperated by two semi-tones, with E-F and B-C being the exceptions, these being seperated by only one semitone. Each fret on the guitar fretboard represents one semitone.
With the inclusion of the semi-tones, there are 12 notes in the musical scale, which basically means that you can perform any song in a choice of 12 keys. The notes/keys are: A, B-Flat(or A sharp), B, C, C-sharp, D, E-Flat, E, F, F-Sharp, G, G-Sharp. Notice again that there are no flat/sharp keys between B and C, or between E and F.
There is no hard and fast rule about what the ‘in-between’ keys are called, but they usually appear as B flat ( Bb), C sharp (C#), E Flat (Eb), F Sharp (F#) and G Sharp (G#).
To transpose the guitar chords of a song, firstly assign a number to each of the keys, e.g.
A Bb B C C# D Eb E F F# G G# A Bb B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 etc…
Now, take a look at the song you’re trying to play, and the chords shown. For a minute, just forget about the format – minor, 7th, major 7th, whatever – just focus on the root of the each chord. You can add these back when you’ve finished.
Example: Song has chords E F#m A B C#m ( 8, 10, 13, 15, 5 ) You sing the song and find the key too high for your voice. So slide each chord down on the scale above. Sliding down by one semitone would give you: Eb Fm G# Bb Cm. ( 7, 9, 12, 14, 4 )
Hmmm, not the handiest of chord sequences, so slide each chord down one more semitone. Now you have: D Em G A Bm – a much more manageable set of chords. If this still proves too high for your voice, slide down another 2, and you get: C Dm F G Am. ( 4, 6, 9, 11, 1 )
If the song key is too low for your voice, you can apply the same principle – just slide each chord upwards by the same number until you find a set of chords that work. Of course, the simple solution in this case is to use a capo, which is often preferable, because some songs are just meant to be played with a particular chord sequence.
The capo allows you to use the intended chord shapes, but just produce a higher pitch. A Capo is also useful if you find that the perfect key for the song for you is an ‘in-between’. For instance, if D is just a little to high, and C just a touch too low, transpose to the C, and place the capo on the 1st fret of the guitar.
P.J. Murphy
PJ’s Guitar Chords & Lyrics Site
In this guitar lesson we look at a great way to test your note knowledge of the guitar fretboard. But before we look at that, why even bother learning the notes?
Knowing the notes on your guitar fretboard is an essential skill. Here are a FEW of the benefits that you’ll gain if you have fantastic guitarfretboard knowledge?
You’ll learn how to apply music theory to the guitar much more quickly. In my opinion there’s no point learning music theory if you can’t PLAY it!
Your creativity will increase. You’ll be able to think of new and unique ways of playing chords and scales. If you don’t know the notes on the guitar fretboard, you’ll be stuck playing the same chord and scale fingerings that everyone uses.
You’ll become a better musician. Great musicians don’t just think in terms of chord shapes or scale fingerings. They think in terms of notes.
You’ll save yourself hundreds (if not thousands!) of hours of frustration. By knowing the notes on the fretboard you’ll be able to understand, learn and memorize things faster.
Pretty powerful benefits right?
So?how do we know if our note knowledge is good enough?
Here’s a great way of finding out?
Note Knowledge Test:
Step 1:
Please turn on your metronome and set it to 120 beats-per-minute.
Step 2:
Decide on a note that you will work on.
Step 3:
Find that note on the thickest string in all possible locations. (One note location per click of the metronome).
Step 4:
Without pausing, repeat the process on all the other strings.
Step 5:
Repeat steps 2-4 for all the other notes.
How did you go? Did you find it hard or easy?
If you couldn’t do it easily, then you have some work to do. I would recommend setting aside 10 minutes a day to work on memorizing the notes of the fretboard. Within a few short weeks, you should have it nailed. Good luck!
Craig Bassett (The Guitar Solutions Expert) is a professional guitarist, guitar tutor and author who lives in Auckland, New Zealand
It is said that the forerunner of the guitar, the lute, was created by the Greek god, Apollo. In India, it is believed that the sitar, another stringed instrument from which the guitar is descended, is sacred to the goddess Saraswati. And one of the most popular tales about the guitar is the story of how it was pressed into service to play a hymn of praise to Jesus Christ at a Christmas Eve mass when the organ of the church broke.
It’s no wonder that the guitar has a history of association with the divine. The range and styles of music that can be played on the classic stringed instrument is incredible.
From the intricate fire and beauty of classical Spanish and flamenco guitar to the down-home country sounds of good finger-pickin’, the guitar is a versatile and beautiful instrument.
Modern-day guitars have a hollow or solid body, a neck with frets, and a tuning mechanism that is called the machine head. They may be acoustic, or electric, and are one of the most popular instruments in the world.
Those technical descriptions, however, can’t begin to express the sheer versatility of such a simple instrument.
Even in the hands of a beginner, the guitar can make lovely music – the best kind of music, the kind, in the words of a guitar teacher, that makes you want to sing along. Learning a few simple chords and finger placements, a few strumming patterns, can allow even a student who has only a few lessons to play literally dozens of popular songs.
The most important piece of the guitar is the face, or top. Its composition, shape and engineering will determine the final sound of the guitar. The back and sides also make a difference, but not so much, and often, luthiers will choose the wood for the sides and back with an eye to appearance rather than sound quality.
Electric guitars are solid, though they are rarely made of a single solid piece of wood. Instead, most are created of many layers of different kinds of wood laminated together.
This gives the guitar both strength and sound quality that wouldn’t be possible in a single piece of wood. Often, the electric guitar is made of a ‘good sounding’ wood like ash or poplar, with a laminated top of a more attractive wood for appearance.
Even within the broader categories of acoustic and electric there are many variations. Acoustic guitars may have six strings or twelve, the strings may be made of steel, nylon or gut. They may be arranged in pairs or singly or in triplets. Each of these has a different characteristic sound, from the wah-wah of a steel guitar, to the lush beauty of a flamenco guitar.
Nowhere else will you find the variety of guitars that you find in a typical Mexican mariachi band. A typical mariachi band will include at least three kinds of guitar – a classical guitar, a vihuela and a guitarron, a large guitar that is nearly the size of a cello.
Guitar tablatures are among the most searched for items on the internet. It’s a teen rite of passage to learn at least one classic guitar riff from Jeff Beck, Stephen Tyler or Eric Clapton.
Whether you choose to learn just a few chords so that you can play for friends at parties, or find yourself so enchanted with the guitar that you take it up as a lifelong practice, there are few other instruments that will provide you with as much pleasure.
Courtney Pancost is the owner of DAL Guitar which is a great resource with extensive information about guitars. For lots of info, go to: http://www.dalguitar.com
