Hey Friend,
I hope this week's detour into lead guitar basics has been cool with you.
In response to yesterday's message about relative keys, I got a question from Sol. It was a very appropriate question, and one I've never considered.
His question was, "Thanks for the tip. Is this what is called transposing?"
That's a dang fine question, Sol!
Here's what I replied...
"You're welcome. No, transposing is actually changing the key of the song. It happens a lot when a singer has a hard time with a key. Say a song is in the key of E major, but that's a little too high for the singer. They may transpose the song to D major. All the notes and chords change to reflect the new key.
What I talked about today with 'relatives' is that all the notes are the same for the relative major and the relative minor. For example, the key of C major has the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B. C major's relative minor key is A minor, with notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G. This pair is easy to see because there are no sharps or flats in C or Am. It's also easy to hear. Play the notes in order for C, then play them in order for A minor. You can hear the "major" tonality for C versus the "minor" tonality for A minor.
Now if I was to transpose C major to D major, the notes would shift from C, D, E, F, G, A, B to D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#. See how the notes have all shifted by two frets?
It takes a little getting used to it, but once you have the basic patterns down for each scale, you just move them to the correct tonic. Rock on!"
I thought I'd expand a little on this today.
Another time you might transpose a piece of music is when it will be played by a different instrument. Guitars are tuned to the key of C in standard tuning (E A D G B e - strings 6 to 1), and it's very easy to change tuning based on what you need. For instance, you can simply use a capo to transpose the guitar to a different key by placing the capo across the strings, or you can tune each string to create an alternate tuning.
Many Rock artists use this technique to challenge their creativity. By using non-standard tunings, you can create completely different chord voicings that would be extremely difficult (or impossible) in standard tuning. Jimmy Page is known for using lots of alternate tunings in Led Zeppelin's songs. The Goo Goo Dolls guitarist John Rzeznik uses a lot of alternate tunings as well.
Alright, let me reel this in - alternate tunings really don't have anything to do with transposition. They're a guitar thing - doesn't take much to get me off track!
Other instruments don't have the flexibility of guitar when it comes to tuning. You can't just re-tune a saxophone or French horn. You have to transpose the score for those instruments to be in the key that will work for the music. It's interesting, because the key of the song doesn't change, just the written music for those instruments. The musical score is written out so that it fits within the confines of the instrument's layout.
Think about it like this. When a sax player is pressing the keys on the instrument, they know which fingerings create which sounds. They can't change the sound that results from a specific fingering like we can with guitar by simply moving up or down the neck with the same fingering. So the musical has to be written out so it accommodates how the brass or woodwind instrument works.
See, guitar players are super-flexible! We can get along with anyone...
I hope that stuff makes sense to you. If you have any questions, or you're a horn player and I've totally screwed up this concept, let me know. Have a great weekend, and ROCK ON!
Peace~
Dave
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