Find Your Keys!
How to Change the Key of a Guitar Song
Do you shy away from playing songs you like because you can’t sing them in the key you learned them in? Or maybe you can sing them, but you don’t enjoy them because you have to strain to reach some of the notes. I’ve often observed students singing wrong notes or phrases or randomly jumping octaves in an attempt to navigate the melody of a song that’s in the wrong key for them. When I suggest changing the key, the majority of them resist.
That resistance usually comes from two common misconceptions. The first one is that there is a “right” key for any piece of music and you just need to try harder to get the sound you want. The second misconception is that changing to a new key is a difficult or advanced process. Neither of these ideas is correct or helpful. The great thing is, you can play every song in the best key for your voice—and it will make everything better!
If the Song is Too Low
When the lowest note of a song is out of your vocal range, the solution is really simple, providing it’s not more than two or three steps too low. Just grab your capo and start experimenting! (To learn or refresh your knowledge of capo use, review this article.) Start by placing the capo on the first or second fret and see if that gets you into the higher key that works for your voice. If it’s still too low, go up one fret at a time until you find a comfortable place for your voice. If you get to the sixth or seventh fret and it’s still too low, you’ll need to change the key. (Stay with me!)
I don’t recommend going higher than the seventh fret with the capo. The higher you go, the shorter the string length, which starts to compromise the sound. Not only that, but you’ll probably find it awkward to fit your fingers onto the frets. A better solution is to transpose the song to another key, which I will describe below.
If the Song is Too High
When you’re having trouble reaching the highest notes in the song, you may still be able to use your capo to find an easier key. That may seem odd, as the capo raises the pitch of a song, But it’s really the easiest option. You won’t sing higher, even though the guitar will sound higher. Instead, you will search for a place to put the capo where you can drop your voice an octave.
This won’t be a good solution if the song is only a little too high for you, because it would require you to put the capo too far up the neck. Once you experiment with it a bit, you’ll start to get a feel for how it works.
When the Capo Isn’t Helpful
If you don’t like the way the song sounds when you use the capo, you’ll need to transpose it. The first step is to find the key that’s best for your voice for that song. Keep in mind that you won’t have a key that is best for you in all songs. The melodic range will be different in each song, so you’ll need to determine the key in each song individually.
The perfect key for your voice may turn out to be a key that you want to avoid. Maybe the new key would require you to play too many barre chords, or maybe you dislike the chord voicings dictated by the chord shapes. You may even want to retain a signature bass line or embellishment that requires some open strings.
The solution is to pick one of the guitar-friendly keys that allows you to get the sounds you’re seeking. The keys that fit this category are G, D, A, E, and C. Those keys are favored by guitar players because they can be played in the first position, incorporating open strings. Make sure the key you choose is slightly lower than the key you want to sing in, and then capo up appropriately. For example, if you wanted to sing it in Ab, you could transpose it to G, which is a key you probably think of as one of the guitar keys, and place the capo at the first fret.
And Now for the Scary (Not Scary!) Part
Transposing may seem intimidating if you’ve never done it, but it’s actually not hard at all. To see me teach two ways to approach transposing in a video, check out this tutorial the Virtual Studio. Here’s a short explanation of one of the easiest ways to approach transposing.
Determine the chord number of each chord in the song and choose the chord with the same number in the new key. Don’t worry about the quality of the chord (major, minor, 7th, etc.)—you will carry that over into the chord in the new key. Just count the letters. For example, in the key of C, C = 1 (the tonic chord), Dm = 2, Em = 3, F = 4, G = 5 and so on. In the key of G, G = 1, Am = 2, Bm = 3, etc.
Here’s a common chord progression in the key of C major, with numbers supplied. Notice that chord numbers are notated with Roman numerals. Upper-case numerals indicate major chords and lower-case numerals are used for the minor chords.
C – Em – Am – Dm – G7 – C
The numbers for these chords are:
I – iii – vi – ii – V – I
To transpose the song to the key of A, for example, use the chords of the same number in the new key:
A (I) – C#m (iii in A) – F#m (vi in A) – Bm (ii in A) – E7 (V in A) – A (I).
Unless you have all the scales memorized, the best way is to refer to the scales in chart form. They are listed this way on page 23 of A Guitar Player’s Guide to Music Theory and on page 12 of A Guitar Player’s Guide to Ear Training. If you don’t have either of those books, you can write out all of the major scales in the order of the circle of fifths. The most important thing is to have one scale per line and line up the scale degrees perfectly under one another.
First, locate the scales that reflect both the original key and the new one. Next, find the root of the first chord (the note that the chord is built upon) in the major scale of the original key and draw a straight, vertical line (either up or down) to the chord that is in the same position in the new key. Carry over any extensions (such as “7”) or quality indications (such as “minor”) when you name your new chord.
Continue doing this for all of the chords of the song. Remember to carry over the quality of the chord. (If the chord in the original key is minor, the chord in the new key will be minor, as well.) Look for chords that are not in the natural scale harmony of the original key and adjust by moving up or down a half step as called for.
If you have trouble with the written instructions, take your time and read them again, line by line. A great way to understand written explanations is to read them out loud. You’ll get it. If you don’t have the patience to learn that way, or if you just don’t want to, use the video. If you’re not a member of the Virtual Studio yet, join for a free month. There’s a lot of other stuff to learn in there and it won’t hurt my feelings if you cancel after your free month.
Once you discover that you can change the key of a song, you’ll find that your list of favorite songs grows quickly. Enjoy—and let me know if you need help!
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Extra help:
Keep in mind that the whole song may not be in one key. It’s common for different sections to change to different keys. If it sounds like the song moves to a different key and sounds minor, it’s likely to be in the relative minor. To find that key, just count six from the tonic of the major key. For example, if the song is in C major, the relative minor is A minor. If the song is in G major, the relative minor is Em. It will most likely use the harmonic minor scale (and the chords that are born of it), which you can learn about here.
Whether the song is in a major key or a minor key, both the melody and the chords will come from the scale of that key. The key signature tells you the name of that key. But if you don’t have written music or don’t know how to read a key signature, there are other ways to tell the key of the song. The easy way that’s usually reliable is to look at the last chord in the song. It’s also a good idea to learn to tell by ear, which you can learn here. Developing your ear will help you in lots of ways with your guitar playing!
I, IV, V
G = G, C, D
C= C F, G
D= D, G, A
E = E, A, B
A = A, D, E
Like the major keys, there are certain minor keys that are more “guitaristic” than others. If the song is in a common minor key, the i, iv, V progression will be as follows:
Am, Dm, E
Dm, Gm, A
Em, Am, B
