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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → changing key of song
hi guys/gals, novice guitarist here so excuse lack of knowledge. Trying to learn the song daniel but the key of c that it was wrote in doesnt suit my voice . its just too high with those chords . To get over this i tried changing to key of G and lo and behold its much better to sing. however there s a few chords in song that the chart i have does nt have the G equivilent .... E7 A7 and Fm .... can anyone advise ....
I would go to the song on Chordie and to transpose to G ,you would go to transpose
-5 steps and it will transpose it for you. Another thing you can do if you like the original progression is to use a capo. Some songs I go a half step with my capo till I find one that fits my voice.
Hope this helps, Wayne P
Hi alanmac872 and welcome to Chordie! One of the great features here is being able to transpose any song to your desired key. On Daniel, going down 5 steps or semitones will change from the key of C to G. E7 transposed down 5 steps is a B7, A7 changes to an E7 - here's a link:
http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/getso … anspose=-5
Just use the transpose button on the right side of the song page to find your desired key.
didnt know could do that thanks guys
Howdy Alanmac872, and welcome to Chordie!
Wlbaye had the same answer I came up with! Funny how that happens sometimes. I think you would find the following substitutions:
E7 - B7
A7 - E7
Fm - Cm
But your mileage may vary.
There would be some cases where direct substitutions would not be harmonious, but in the case of C key to G key the 3-4 notes are EF and BC neither of which has a sharp between them.
Admittedly I do not know enough about theory to get this stuff right all the time, but there is a very good resource here over in the theory section where all the real "smarts" live and anything you could come up with will get answered .
Visit Chordie often and have fun with your music, it just gets better and better.
Again Welcome to Chordie and Take Care;
Doug
thaks doug , just checked out the transpose feature , wow what a help that is and never knew it existed . feel quite foolish now ha ha . learn some thing new every day i guess
One thing that it makes you realise is how great a voice that some of these artists actually have ... they really do have a great range in their voice ... paul mcartney is one that springs to mind .. the songs seem simple - until you try to sing them etc...
one of the rewards of taking the time to learn music theory is you can find the correct chords to transpose to any key with just a piece of paper and a pencil and then without them 
Somebody may have already covered this. But I stumbled once upon the "Nashville Number System" on the internet. I also have found tunes here that do not fit my singing range the way they are written, but with a little trial and error and using the number system as a quide I can get the chords I need.
I found it at www.liamclancy.com/tutor.htm
I hope thats helpful??
The circle of 5ths is the ideal tool for this kind of transposition.
i have this question that needs strong answer-
how do i transpose the key of a particular song to another key that suit its song chords? please ,can somebody try to help me,,.
i'm just interested in guitar playing and i'm only a beginner.
God bless you ALL!
This is what Jerome was referring to clockwise its the circle of 5ths counter clockwise its the circle of 4ths some intervals or steps have enharmonic equivalents like F# and Gb,C# and Db,G#and Ab just locate the key you want to sing or play in and if you have the chords look and see how many steps or intervals they are from the key you want to sing in and transpose 
Hi Gears and Welcome to Chordie also!
Well I'll try to get you answered as best I can, although as stated earlier there are more qualified folks out there.
Having started to try to understand the theory of music rather late in my career (?) the whys and wherefores still are a puzzle to me in many areas. If the music is sitting in front of you and the chords are on it, and you can do the chords, but still want to change the key up to suit your voice as an example... try a capo and start going up the neck until you find a key that sounds right to you. If you want to go down, you are going to have to transpose the written chords according to where you want to wind up.
The easiest is to just find the tune here on chordie and follow the instructions above to change the key of the tune and the software will do all the work for you. Print the results and you are in! The nice thing about software transposition, is that you can play a bit of each version and if it is not enough to fit you, you can easily go up or down a step at a time until you are happy with it.
Welcome to Chordie and don't be a stranger here, there are a lot of good folks here who can and will help you with your guitar playing. Surely not the easiest instrument to master, but a friend for life once you get a handle on it!
Take Care;
Doug
gears you can transpose useing the software mentioned but a basic understanding of a major scales construction can be applied to any key and will serve you better in the long run,as you have stated you are a beginner so why not begin at the beginning? It seems today we are offered quick alternatives to almost everything from food to education,the popularity of Guitar Hero is based on a marketing strategy that people are by nature lazy and will opt or choose anything that dose not require a great deal of there time to achieve plausible results,or mediocrity in all its glory, this is only my opinion
This is what Jerome was referring to clockwise its the circle of 5ths counter clockwise its the circle of 4ths some intervals or steps have enharmonic equivalents like F# and Gb,C# and Db,G#and Ab just locate the key you want to sing or play in and if you have the chords look and see how many steps or intervals they are from the key you want to sing in and transpose
http://files.meetup.com/227762/Circle%2 … 0wheel.gif
I wanted to thank you for that diagram, I just spent a very fruitful hour going over it in detail with my teacher. It really pulled a lot of things together for me, especially in going over past lessons of scales, major and minor chords.
Many thanks!!
I love this place!!!!!
You are very welcome, understanding this cycle which includes not only the notes in each chord but its relative minor can save a great deal to time in your studies, happy pickin
I'm a pickin' and a grinnin" , our next session is going to include tunes that work along the lines of the Circle fifth. Even, what I thought was a seriously hard task of reading music is beginning to make sense!
Peace
Russell_Harding wrote:This is what Jerome was referring to clockwise its the circle of 5ths counter clockwise its the circle of 4ths some intervals or steps have enharmonic equivalents like F# and Gb,C# and Db,G#and Ab just locate the key you want to sing or play in and if you have the chords look and see how many steps or intervals they are from the key you want to sing in and transpose
http://files.meetup.com/227762/Circle%2 … 0wheel.gifI wanted to thank you for that diagram, I just spent a very fruitful hour going over it in detail with my teacher. It really pulled a lot of things together for me, especially in going over past lessons of scales, major and minor chords.
Many thanks!!
I love this place!!!!!
I'm seriously considering having it tattooed on my left forearm. Permanent cheat sheet.
ozymandias wrote:Russell_Harding wrote:This is what Jerome was referring to clockwise its the circle of 5ths counter clockwise its the circle of 4ths some intervals or steps have enharmonic equivalents like F# and Gb,C# and Db,G#and Ab just locate the key you want to sing or play in and if you have the chords look and see how many steps or intervals they are from the key you want to sing in and transpose
http://files.meetup.com/227762/Circle%2 … 0wheel.gifI wanted to thank you for that diagram, I just spent a very fruitful hour going over it in detail with my teacher. It really pulled a lot of things together for me, especially in going over past lessons of scales, major and minor chords.
Many thanks!!
I love this place!!!!!
I'm seriously considering having it tattooed on my left forearm. Permanent cheat sheet.
LOL
The song "hey Joe" by Jimmy hendricks follows the cycle of fifths the changes are E A D G and back to E for the whole song!
I'm a pickin' and a grinnin" , our next session is going to include tunes that work along the lines of the Circle fifth. Even, what I thought was a seriously hard task of reading music is beginning to make sense!
Peace
My teacher showed me how that is done, it was so cool!
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → changing key of song
