Hey Community,
Want to adjust songs to fit your vocal range, match your bandās style, or experiment with new sounds? Let Lieven guide you through the straightforward process of transposing songs, whether youāre using a capo or not. Itās easier than you thinkābring your pen and paper to take notes!
What an excellent lesson @LievenDV . I had a question from this lesson. My question is, (I hope I say it clear enough to understand), Letās say I am playing āThe Jokerā the G,C,D,C with open chords, I have a mate that I wish to play this song with. Is it possible for them to play the same G,C,D,C, letās say, capoed on the 3rd and it will still be in the same key? and sound good? Or do we have to think bigger and change chord shapes to get proper key? I am a lil confused on this as I know that if I was to play say āBorn In The U.S.A.ā one can capo Second and play A,D another could be on capo 4 and play G, Cadd9? What am I missing in this equation?
Rock on!
Darren
Hi Darren @Dman74 ,
I know you asked @LievenDV , hope you donāt mind me answering.
Assuming you both use standard tuning - if you play G, C, D, C without a capo, your mate could use a capo in various ways:
Put a capo on fret 2 and play chord shapes F, Bb, C, Bb
or
Put a capo on fret 3 and play chord shapes E, A, B, A
or
Put a capo on fret 5 and play chord shapes D, G, A, G
or
Put a capo on fret 7 and play chord shapes C, F, G, F
in all cases the sound of the chords will in fact be G, C, D, C, even though the shapes are different.
If your mate, as you asked, plays the G, C, D, C chord shapes with a capo on fret 3, the sound of the chords would be A#, D#, E#, D#, and it would not be in the same key and not sound good.
Bonus info: If you play chord shapes A, D with a capo on fret 2, and your mate plays chord shapes G, C with a capo on fret 4, both of you are actually playing B, F#.
Hope it helps.
Jacob
Ahhhhhhā¦that makes sense when I put the theory to use. Yes , yes. This is the missing key that I wasnāt getting. It is all making sense now. Gotta love that note circle!!! 
Thank you very much!! Iām sure Lieven will verify this. It sure seems to make sense to the theory!!
Rock on!
Darren
I wanted to ask a question after watching Lievenās transposing with and witout a capo.
I have had a few breakthroughs watching this however one thing got me thinking. I understand that if you have a capo on fret 2 it canāt really move the capo down to transpose a song or chord progression down without tuning the guitar down, but what about if you had a capo at the 7th fret, like in walk of life?
If you transpose this down 2 steps or 3 steps you are moving the capo down, going backwards around the note circle and lowering the pitch for your voice, is that not accurate?
If you have the capo on the 2nd fret and play a G shaped chord you are playing an A chord. If you move the capo down 1 fret you will be playing an Ab, take the capo off and you are playing a G chord. So yes you can move the capo down to transpose when itās on the second fret.
The same thing applies at the 7th fret. If you move the capo down you are lowering the pitch by 1 semi tone for every fret. Just like moving backwards on the note circle.
Yeah I figured that, it was something that Lieven was saying in the transposing class, however I think he was more being specific that I misunderstood in that, if you donāt have a capo you canāt transpose down unless you downtune the open strings, but thanks for the clarification.
Bret
You can transpose to a different key without a capo which is some what the same. The biggest misconception about sing with a guitar is you have to sing at the same pitch as the guitar. The truth is you have to sing in the same key. That could be an octive higher, lower or the same octave.
yeah thatās exactly what he was getting across in the lesson, it was really interesting to learn and understand, and as I mentioned a few really big lightbulb moments for me.
@bkennedy74 If a song youāre going to play already has a capo, you can move it down to either change key or stay in the same key for an altered guitar part using different chord shapes.
Are you wanting to change key?
If yes, it is the simplest case of move the capo down until you find a position that suits your voice.
If staying in the same key or exploring other capo use, check this topic for more.
There is no absolute up or down when discussing keys.
Single notes can be moved up or down.
But not keys.
We can not say the key of C is higher in pitch than the key of B or that moving from the key of A to the key of G is lowering the pitch. Not until you begin to consider something that contains single notes does that become relevant.
A melody to a song in the key of A would be two semitones lower if moved to the key of G. That said, an identical melody, but an octave apart, would be ten semitones higher than the stating key of A.
You can change key for a lower pitched melody if you look to a suitable key using different chord shapes.
