Transposing.

philrab66

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Hi all
If I transpose a Bb minor to key of C would it become F minor?

Thanks Phil.
 
It depends what the original key was. What is the song / chords and original key and I take it you want to transpose whatever that is to the key of C. If you can give me that I'll do it and teach you how to do it in a jiffy.
 
It depends what the original key was. What is the song / chords and original key and I take it you want to transpose whatever that is to the key of C. If you can give me that I'll do it and teach you how to do it in a jiffy.
.

Key of F. F, Bb Bb minor C7.
 
Sorry, just turning my roast potatoes. Yes Fm sounds correct. The easy way to transpose is whatever the distance ie semi-tones is between the original starting chord and the new one applies to all following chords. Easy peasy.
Thanks, i have been reading a book which explains that but I was not sure how you did it with the 7ths dims augs maj7ths. if say it was a Bmajor seventh do I just change the letter and make it a Amajor 7th for instance.
The other reason i asked originally was that there is not a Fb minor which is a bit confusing.
 
Everything moves accordingly. No, there's no such thing as Fb as that would be an E.

Scale goes C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B

Ok thanks a lot for clearing that up learnt something else today. Hope you havent ruined your spuds.
 
Yes, that's correct, you only change the letter.

Sometimes I struggle with this. I think I'll make myself a little wheel to do it and save a lot of time. Just two circles of craft paper of different size, fixed in the center with a... not sure what you call it in English, I'm tempted to translate it as a butterfly pin... And with the whole chromatic scale written around. So when you need to transpose something, just rotate them to match the key you're transposing from, with the key we're transposing to, then just look up the base notes of the other chords and see what they were matched to.
 
It's good to know how to count half-steps. But Fermin's right, sometimes it's easier to just use a transposing wheel. Won't take but a minute to make one. Hmm... wonder if there's an Android app?
 
I take it that would also work for notes.
Actually it works only for notes.....

The rest of any chord is just maths: some additional notes in defined distance from the base note.
E.g. C major: sorted ascending it consists of CEGC. Base note is C, additional is E (+4 half steps), G (+7 half steps) and C (full octave)
Transpose it to D which is 2 half steps above C and you have D (base note), F# (+4 half steps), A (+7 half steps) and D (full octave)

Transposing moves the base up and down the scale - the intervals within a specific chord always stay the same.
 
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Going to ask a few more questions which I thought of. Does the 4,7, 12, only work for major chords. Maybe another silly question do all major chords only have 3 notes if not how does the formula work.
Thanks Phil.
 
I'm not the one that knows the most about theory, but I think they can be added to both major and minor chords. At least I've seen a lot of minor 7th chords.
And yes, major chords are only three notes, which doesn't mean you only have to play each one only once or on the same octave.
 
I'm not the one that knows the most about theory, but I think they can be added to both major and minor chords. At least I've seen a lot of minor 7th chords.
Nope, your wrong on this one. Admittedly, I did not follow standard terminology in my calculation - I mentioned the number of half-tone steps.
The numbers you find in chord symbols refer to the notes in the respective scale, e.g. a C7 is a C major chord with an added 7th tone of the C major scale: B (CEGB)

And minor chords are built slightly different: the first interval is 3 half steps, the next one is 4 half steps. A C minor consists of C, Eb, G, C

I am not an expert in music theory so I better stop here - there's plenty of teachers out there how could explain more.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(music) might help a bit though.
 
Oops, sorry, somehow the forum didn't show me all the new posts, and I replied to Phil's last post without the whole contest, and misunderstanding his question.
 
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I have a downloadable PDF file for creating a transposition wheel (and Circle of Fifths/Fourths wheel) on my website. Easy to print and build.
 
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