Transposing
Transposing (or transposition) is the process of changing a song or piece of music from one key to another.
There are two reasons for transposing into another key:
- If a song is too high or too low to suit a particular singer, it can be changed into a lower or higher key. This does not change the sound, pattern or timing of the melody, but simply how high or how low it is sung and played.
- If a piece is hard to play or contains difficult chords you can transpose it to a key with easier chords, e.g. If a song is written in the key of B flat (Bb) major (which many songs are) it would contain chords like Bb, Eb and Cm which may be difficult for a beginning guitarist. If the song is transposed into the key of G major the chords would then be G, C and Am, which are easier to play.