Moving the notes in a song

Sorry for this super newbie music theory question....

If I find the guitar chords for a song - and it goes something like: A# D# E#

Can I just play it as A D E if I want and simply remove all the sharps? In this instance I am cutting out the sharp notes but the intervals between the notes are still the same. (I know that if only one note was a sharp, and I cut only that out, I would essentially be playing a different song all together.)

So, will the A D E chords sound generally true to the original, or is this somewhat a sacrifice from the original song's sound, or is this totally off and my version will sound like a different song all together ?


With great appreciation in advance.

The short answer is yes, you can just remove the sharps from those chords and you'll be alright. What you're doing is transposing the song from A# to A.

Thank you Seeso!

Like seeso said, you're just transposing it. But half a step is not likely to cause any problems vocally (like put it out of your range). Only thing is, if you are playing with someone else who's in the original key, you won't fit with them.

there are a few notes where you would go wrong though. for example C F G a half step lower would be B E F# (or actually Cb Fb and Gb but that's just random). so you got to take a look at your fretboard and take exactly the same amount of frets in either direction.

FYI
The best newbie trick regarding changing keys was something I learned from my very first uke teacher. You might already know this but if you don't it will open up many songs to you no matter what key they are written in originally . Most songs, you can figure out the key it is written in by what note it starts with and what note it ends with. If it starts with an F and ends with an F it's probably written in the key of F. Well, what if you don't particularly like to finger a Bb yet, (the key of F has a Bb in it), or perhaps you want to sing the song and it's too high or low for your voice. And you want to change the key of the song from an F to the key of G, here's what you do.....

write out the key of F (forget flats and sharps) and write out the key of G below it

F G A B C D E F
G A B C D E F G

Replace the F's in the song with G's, replace G's in the song with A' replace A's in the song with B's.....etc.....if the original chords have flats or sharps move them over too. This will work for transposing to any key. Sometimes you have to tweak it a bit with flats and sharps (those black keys on a keyboard) but pretty soon your ear will catch it if it's wrong.