[adsense_id="1"]Due to the tuning and design of the guitar, some keys are easier to play than others. The chart below and be used with a capo in order to transpose your song from an unfriendly key to a key that is far more friendly for playing on the guitar. The blue top row shows the 12 keys of music and the blue column to the left shows the 7 notes of the scale and the chords that comprise the key. A capital Roman numeral means Major, and a lowercase Roman numeral means minor.
In order to use the chart to transpose your song, find out first what key the original song is in. This method is especially useful in a key that involves a lot of barre chords which are chords that require you hold down all of the strings with your index finger while playing the rest of the chord with the remaining fingers. As an example lets use F#, which is a bad key for the guitar since there are so many barre chords included in it. Simply look to the left of the F# key until you find an easier key that you want to play in. For this example lets use C. You cannot go to the right in the table as it is impossible to move the capo to a lower pitch than the original open chord.
| A | A#-Bb | B | C | C#-Db | D | D#-Eb | E | F | F#-Gb | G | G#-Ab | |
| I | A | A#-Bb | B | C | C#-Db | D | D#-Eb | E | F | F#-Gb | G | G#-Ab |
| ii | B | C | C# | D | D#-Eb | E | F | F# | G | G#-Ab | A | Bb |
| iii | C# | D | D# | E | F | F# | G | G# | A | Bb | B | C |
| IV | D | D#-Eb | E | F | F#-Gb | G | G#-Ab | A | Bb | B | C | C#-Db |
| V | E | F | F# | G | G#-Ab | A | A#-Bb | B | C | C#-Db | D | D#-Eb |
| vi | F# | G | G# | A | A#-Bb | B | C | C# | D | D#-Eb | E | F |
| vii | G# | A | A# | B | C | C# | D | D# | E | F | F# | G |
Now you can cound the number of columns away it is from the original and put your capo on that fret. In this example C will be 6 columns away from F# so you would put your capo on the 6th fret and play as if you were in the key of C. You can refer back to the chart and find the chord in the F# column that is next in your song and then move down to the C column to see what the chord is in the key of C. Make sure you maintain the original quality of the chord. If it was a minor chord keep in minor if it was major 7th then keep it major 7th. This all may seem a bit complicated when you are trying to learn to play the guitar.However, learning to transpose music is a valuable skill to have as a guitarist and eventually it will become second nature.Keep working at it and keep using the table below to guide you.
One way to use this new skill of transposing for a capo is when you are playing a song with another guitarist.In order to attain a wider variety of sound rather than both guitarists playing the exact same thing you can have one of the guitarists play with a capo on as if they are in another key. For example if one of you is playing in C the other could capo 5th and transpose the song to play in G relative to the capo. While in effect these are actually the same notes and chords, the different chord positions give them a different sound and a wider variety of sounds while still playing in the same key will be the result.Make sense? Don’t worry! You will get it! Take your time and try playing a song in a few different keys.
