I highly recommend you take my Guitar Theory Unlocked course to establish a good foundation in music theory; that will really, really help with things like transposing.
Nevertheless, I've got a quick 'n dirty way to help you transpose anything you need to using the Table of Major Keys worksheet. Download it using the link below.
Whenever you are transposing, it's important to only transpose the chord letter name, and not change the type of chord in any way. For example, minor chords are always going to be minor in both the original key and the transposed key. Major always major, 7th always 7th, and so on.
If you follow that rule, you can use this worksheet to transpose minor keys as well, keeping the chord types intact from the original music, and simply using the worksheet for the letter names.
This is a fun trick that I use somewhat often for playing in E major or F major. It’s not for everyone, but it does offer some unique sounds that I think are worth experimenting with.
I have a specific capo that I use for the partial bit, but you could probably make this work with any two capos, just experiment with what you have, and have fun with it. These are not expensive capos, just about anything can work here.
NOW that you understand what's happening when we apply a capo, I've got a quick reference guide in case you get stuck. I really do believe it's important that we took the time to understand the how and why before we jump straight to this kind of resource, but with that said, I hope you do find it useful!
Using a capo to change the voice of your guitar, while playing in the same key, is a really great way to use a capo. The process for doing this is exactly the same as we learned in the transposing section, the only difference being that you’re not changing the target key.
So you still go down from the target key through the chromatic scale to select your playing key.
In this section we’re going to experiment with playing three different guitar parts in three different voicings. This was not rehearsed or even planned out much ahead of time, so that you can really see how simply changing the voice makes a really big difference.
If I wanted to polish something like this further, I would definitely take more care as to what exactly each part was playing, to tighten up the final result a lot more.
For the rest of this course, I’ll be referring to “playing keys” and “target keys.” The playing key simply refers to the chord shapes you’re actually playing (open G, open C, open D, etc), and the target key refers to the key you’re actually playing in, once the capo is applied.
There are only about five playing keys that are really popular; although you can use anything you want to. Those five are C, A, G, E, D. No, this is not the CAGED system, but we’re referring to the same open shaped chords that system works with.
To figure out which of those playing keys to use, start going DOWN the chromatic scale from your target key. The reason we go down is that we have to compensate by moving the capo UP the fretboard, so if we run that in reverse, we start with the capo really, really high on the fretboard, which is almost never ideal.
So start at your target key, then go down (towards the left) through the scale until you reach a playing key that you want to use. The number of semitones that you have gone down is the same number of frets that you need to go up, using the capo.
For example, if you want to play in F, you could go down the scale three semitones, and arrive at a playing key of D. Place your capo at the third fret, and you can play chord shapes in the key of D, while the actual music you’re playing will be in F.
Remember, the scale repeats itself over and over in both directions, so if you are going down from B, just cycle around to the other A on the right, and keep going down from there. From B to a playing key of G would therefore be four semitones.
When you’re using a capo, it’s really important to have a basic understanding of the musical alphabet, and how it relates to the fretboard. That’s what we’re going to deal with in this lesson.
Standard tuning on the guitar is EADGBE. The first E is the lowest pitch string on your guitar, also the thickest. For whatever reason, we list tunings in the opposite order from string numbering; the strings are numbered from highest in pitch (string 1) to lowest in pitch (string 6).
Open notes are notes that are not fretted – for instance, if you play the 6th string without touching any of the frets, you’re playing an open E.
On the guitar, every fret is one semitone.
A semitone is the smallest distance between two notes that we have in any of our scales. Two semitones makes one tone.
There are seven natural notes in the musical alphabet, the letters ABCDEFG. In between each of these letters EXCEPT between B and C, and between E and F, there is an accidental note. Accidentals are either sharp (♯) or flat (♭).
So if we start with A, we can complete the full musical alphabet just by adding semitones.
Notice that each accidental note has two names; they represent the exact same pitch on your guitar, but depending on the context of the key you are playing in, they can be called either sharp or flat.
To apply this to our fretboard, if we start on that open E on the 6th string, and we place our finger behind the first fret, this will cause the string to contact the first fret, and will raise the E note by one semitone.
Remember our rule? One semitone up from E gives us F.
From here we can keep going; one more semitone gets us F♯. Another fret brings us to G, then G♯ and so on.
If you apply the full chromatic scale to the 6th string, starting from E, you will find that each note falls into place as we go up the fretboard, and at the 12th fret something special happens – everything repeats!
The 12th fret is the octave, and this applies to all strings and all tunings, because no matter what your starting point is, if you go up incrementally by 12 semitones you will always reach the octave of your starting point. For this reason, many guitars have some kind of special marker on the 12th fret, like double dots, or something similar.
Let’s take a look at the A string (5th string).
Starting with the open A note, this is the exact same sequence as we saw earlier when we learned the chromatic scale. You can start that scale anywhere you want – it just so happens that we’re starting it again on A in this example, but it applies to any starting point on the fretboard.
On the 2nd string for example, we start on B, but the exact same sequence of notes always plays out in the same way. The only difference is the starting point.
Also, notice how when we get to the 12th fret, we find another A? That’s the octave, where the scale repeats itself.
The other thing to recognize is that this applies to every note, anywhere on the fretboard. For instance, if you start on the G on the 6th string, 3rd fret, and go up 12 frets, you will find another G there on the 15th fret.
There are tons of different types of capos. In my books, the main thing to watch for is that the one you choose is easy to use and doesn’t squeeze the strings more than necessary.
If the spring is too strong, it can pull your strings out of tune each time you use it.
The most accurate capos are typically the screw-type ones that allow fine adjustments to get precisely the right amount of pressure on the string. However, these aren’t quick to use and may not be ideal for a live situation. For this reason, it can be beneficial to have more than one capo.
Also, just because a capo costs a lot doesn’t mean it’s going to be a lot better, the capos I use day in and day out both cost under ten dollars!
I recommend always (whenever time permits) tuning your guitar open first, then apply the capo, then tune again for any fine adjustments that need to be made.
If you do your main tune-up with a capo on already, it’s possible the capo will hold the strings in place and not allow for accurate tuning, creating different tensions on either side of the capo. Then, in the middle of a song all the vibrations can begin working their way through the capo to the other side, equalizing the tensions, and thus changing your tuning.
So get as close as you can before, and you should be okay.
Also, watch out that your capo is not pressing too hard on the strings, thus pulling them out of tune. If that’s happening, try adjusting the position of the capo, bringing it closer towards the fret. Also, if you’re getting any string buzzing, you may need to bring it closer to the fret as well.
To transpose a difficult-to-play key into a key that is much easier to play
To access a different voicing for the same key
The benefit of transposing your playing key out of a normally hard key is fairly obvious: you get to play in a key like Ab (for instance) without needing to use any bar chords. You can use a playing key that you’re very familiar with, and access all the benefits of that “open” key.
An open key is simply one in which you have open strings showing up in your chord shapes.
Transposing to access a different voicing is less common, but equally useful. I really love doing this when I find myself as the second rhythm guitar player in a band, and I want to differentiate what I’m playing from what the other player is doing.
By applying a capo and choosing different chord voicings for the same chords, it instantly separates what the two guitars are doing, adding richness and depth.
We’ll talk about each of these approaches in more detail as we get further into the course.
In this lesson we're going to practice transposing a bit more, but you're going to find some additional perspective and techniques as well! The Circle of Fifths can be used for transposing, which isn't something we covered in the main course.
In this lesson we're going to look at a few more examples of finding the key of a chord chart. This is a really useful skill, but it does take some practice to get good at it.
In this lesson we're going to look an additional "oddball" example which doesn't fit the standard mold.
In this lesson we're going to practice building triads. There's some review here, but also some fresh perspective, as we'll look at how to build chords without building a scale first. In fact, we can use some basic fretboard patterns to help us out, and show us the notes we need!
In this lesson we're going to practice building major scales. Repetition REALLY helps learning this stuff; I've seen so many benefit from simply putting in the time and practicing.
As we go through these examples, you can follow along with the Major Scale Worksheet, then carry on and complete the rest of the keys on your own!
So far we’ve looked at minor 7th chords, which stack a minor third on top of a minor triad, and we’ve looked at major 7th chords, which stack a major third on top of a major triad. Dominant 7th chords on the other hand stack a minor third on top of a major triad.
Third
Fifth
Seventh
Minor 7th
minor
perfect
minor
Dominant 7th
major
perfect
minor
Major 7th
major
perfect
major
Side Note: There is a fourth combination: minor 3rd, 5th, major 7th, however it is not very common. Try it out yourself: The major 7th of A is G♯ so just add a G♯ onto an open Am chord and you’ll hear what this chord sounds like. The easiest one to add is on the first string, fourth fret. Try this chord (x02214) and you’ll see why it isn’t very commonly used.
If you look at the scale, you will find that this combination (major triad + minor third) simply doesn’t exist. We have to break the scale to make it work.
That’s fine – we can do that. 😉
Going outside the notes in the scale is allowed; we won’t be getting into that too deeply here, but I did cover some ways to do that in Guitar Theory Unlocked.
When you first start out learning music theory, you learn basic sets of rules. Later on, you learn more comprehensive rule sets that allow for many more possibilities, even though they seem to be “breaking” the original rules.
We need to add a minor third onto a major triad, and the way to do that is to take the major third that would normally exist at the vii position, and make it minor by flatting it.
That may sound complicated, but in reality it is very simple: we’re changing the distance between the V and the vii to be three semitones instead of four. That’s it.
Remember that a minor third is three semitones, and a major third is four semitones. That applies regardless of what scale you’re working with; those are absolute relationships that never change. A minor third interval is always three semitones.
Let’s take a look at our diagram that we’ve been working with. Normally the vii is an F♯, but we’re going to take that note and flat it. We could write that note as a ♭7.
So our notes for the G dominant 7 chord are: GBDF, which we could also say are 135♭7.
Dominant 7th chords are special, we don’t need to mention the “dominant” part of their name, like we do with minor 7ths and major 7ths. You can of course, for clarity, but often they are simply written as G7, A7 etc.
From the diagram we can see that to create a G7 chord (Gdom7) we need these notes: G, B, D, F.
The dominant 7th chord is sometimes referred to as a fence-sitting chord, and the reason for that is it has qualities of both major and minor chords. The bottom half is a complete major chord. However added onto that is a minor third in the top end, which really affects the character of the chord, pulling it back towards the minor side. In fact, on the top end, you basically have a diminished triad, which pulls very hard toward the minor.
Because of this internal tug of war, the fence sitter can actually be used to substitute for either major or minor chords, depending on the context.
A lot of blues songs are written using exclusively dominant 7th chords for the main I IV V progression; they’re great sounding and versatile chords that are well worth having in your collection. In fact, the dominant 7th is one of the most common 7th chords you’re going to come across, regardless of the type of music.
Let’s look at some common shapes:
Bar Chord Options:
These ones are labeled “dom7” purely because it could be misleading to just have a 7 there with no further information!
Major 7th chords are built by taking a major triad and adding a major 7th to it. In the context of stacking thirds, we’d be adding the next third after the V note as you go along in the scale.
Looking at it this way, in terms of stacking thirds, you need a major third, a minor third, and a major third to build a maj7 chord. Let’s take an example from the key of G major. We’ll build a Gmaj7:
As you can see, the notes in Gmaj7 are G, B, D, F♯.
You need to be careful though, not all of the notes you need for all of the chords are found in the scale. When you’re building the Vmaj7, the 7 note will naturally be a minor 7; you need to raise this one semitone to make it a major 7 if you want to create a major 7 chord.
Why not spend a few minutes right now practicing building these? Take a few major chords and figure out what needs to happen to turn them into major 7th chords.
Here are some common major 7 chords:
Bar Chord Options:
Major 7th chords tend to be more common in jazz; however they sound pretty cool - see if you can work them into your playing. One idea to get you started is to move from the major to the major 7th, then see where that leads your ear next. To my ear, going to the IV chord works good at this point, but you can play around with different options. In fact, one really cool transition is to go from major to maj7, to dom7… which brings us right into our next group of chords!
Before we dig into these 7th chords I want to make a distinction between “7th” chords and “the vii” chord. When we’re talking we don’t have the benefit of the extra information available in print, and it can all begin to sound the same. However, there is a difference between the vii chord, which is the 7th chord in the scale, and 7th chords, which are a collection of chords that all involve the 7th note in relation to the root note of the chord. I’ve seen people get these confused so it merits mentioning. As we saw earlier the vii chord in any major key is diminished, whereas we can make any major or minor chord in a key into a 7th chord simply by adding a note. Make sense? Great, let’s move on.
The suspended chords we just looked at replace the third note in the chord with a fourth, or a second. With minor 7th chords, we’re not replacing any notes; instead we’re adding them. That means we’re getting away from our three note chords (triads), and now we’ll be dealing with four note chords (tetrads or tetrachords).
Technically, you might say that these are actually minor/minor 7th chords, because we are adding a minor 7th onto a minor triad.
We’ve talked before about major and minor thirds, as well as perfect intervals such as the fourth and the fifth, but what is a minor seventh? One way you can determine if a seventh is major or minor is to look at the interval between the V and the vii. If the interval is a minor third (three semitones), then you’re dealing with a minor seventh. If the interval is a major third (four semitones), then you’re dealing with a major seventh. This works because the V chord is a perfect fifth from the tonic, therefore it is a fixed point in the scale, and does not change regardless of whether you are in a major or a minor scale.
Another way to find the quality of the seventh is to compare it to the I. If it is a semitone away from the I, then you have a major seventh; if it is two semitones away from the I, you have a minor seventh.
If you think back to how we built our basic triads, we’re going to do exactly the same thing with minor 7th chords, by stacking an extra third. That means that in order to build a min7 chord, we will need a minor third, a major third, and a minor third.
Let’s do an example. We’ll take an A minor chord from the key of G major. To create the A minor chord, we start with the A and start stacking thirds. We get A, C, and E. Now, to get a minor 7th, we just add on the next third interval, which is G.
So an A minor 7 (Am7) chord looks like this: A, C, E, G. Remember that there is no requirement for the notes to appear in that same order, and also octave repeats are just fine as well too, as you can see in the Am7 on the far right (repeating the G).
Here’s the trick: in relation to the key, which is G major, A is the ii note. However, when we’re building chords, we always call the root note of the chord the 1, which in this case is A. If you think of the A as the 1, then it becomes easier to see that the fourth note added is a seventh in relation to the root note, which is A.
Another way to look at it is that you’re adding a minor third (three semitones) to the V, or adding a perfect fifth to the III (which is minor).
Here’s a quick way to find the minor 7; just go down a tone from the root note of your minor chord. Rather than counting up seven scale positions, just go down a tone from A, and you find G. Add that to your minor chord and you have a minor 7th.
Take a few minutes to think through these chords, and find a way to relate to these chords that makes sense to you.
Try taking a few minor chords and figuring out what note needs to be added in order to convert them to minor 7th chords.
Minor 7th chords are very common chords, and can easily be substituted in place of a minor chord pretty much anywhere you want to. In comparison to a standard minor chord, they tend to have an even softer sound. Here are some common versions:
Another type of suspended chord is the suspended second, or sus2, also seen as sus9. On the guitar, adding a 2 doesn’t usually sound that good, because the pitches are too close together and end up sounding muddy, so instead we usually add a 9, which is the same as the 2 but one octave higher (2+7=9).
Just like with the sus4 chords, we’re replacing the third in the chord. For example, where D major would normally be D, F♯ and A, if we want to make that a sus2, we need to replace the third, which is F♯ and put a 2 or a 9 in its place. Remember, in a major chord, the third is four semitones from the root note, so to get a 2, we need to drop that third by a tone, which gives us an E.
In our example of Dsus9, the easiest way to add an E to the chord is to play the first string open. That removes the F♯ and replaces it with an E. Note that from a technical perspective, this is a Dsus9, because the note that is changed is more than an octave higher than the root note of the chord.
The Asus9 is a pretty common one, and can be easily barred as well.
The Csus2 chord is a great example of the difference in sound between a sus2 and a sus9. My personal preference is to either mute the fourth string entirely and use the higher octave D, or alternatively, just play a Cadd9. I don’t really like the sound of the 2 in the lower octaves; it just feels muddy and indistinct to me.
Which do you prefer? Let me know in the comments below!
The Gsus2 chord is very similar, and again, my preference would be to simply mute the 2nd string here and not let that low 2 interfere with the root note too much. Also, here's the Cadd9 chord we talked about in the video:
