Transpose chords

What it's for

To change a song's key and fit it to your voice or capo: paste the chords (e.g. C, Am, F, G) and shift them all by one or more semitones.

How it works

Only the chords (the letter with any maj/m/7…) are recognized and transposed. The rest of the text stays unchanged. +1 goes up a semitone, -1 down.

Why a song gets transposed

Almost always for the voice: a song written for a different range has the chorus too high or the verses too low, and no amount of practice fixes it. Moving the key by two or three semitones brings it where the voice is comfortable, and that is what every live singer does.

The other two reasons are practical. Playing with another instrument: a B flat trumpet and an E flat alto sax read different notes from the piano, and without transposition every rehearsal starts with an argument. And ease of playing: the same song in C or G uses open chords, in D flat it demands barres everywhere.

A capo is a transposition in reverse

Putting the capo on the second fret raises everything by two semitones: the finger shapes stay the ones you know, but the sound goes up. That is why a singer asks for the capo instead of relearning the chords.

Hence the practical way to use it with this page: if a song is in D flat and full of barres, transpose it down a semitone to reach C, which has open chords, then put the capo on the first fret to return to the original key. You play in C and it sounds in D flat. It is the technique behind most acoustic performances that look easy.

Sharps or flats, and how to choose

The same note can be called F sharp or G flat, but the choice is not arbitrary: it depends on the destination key. Keys with sharps (G, D, A, E) use sharps, keys with flats (F, B flat, E flat) use flats. Writing an A flat in a sharp key is readable, but it disturbs whoever is reading.

On the guitar the difference is purely graphic; on a score, or when playing with someone who reads, it becomes concrete. If a transposed sheet looks full of strange accidentals, the destination key almost always belonged to the other family.

The traps of a lyric sheet with chords

The first problem is alignment: if the chords sit on a line above the words, turning C into C sharp adds a character and shifts everything after it. The line has to be realigned by hand, or it is better to work on a text with chords in square brackets inside the sentence.

The second is ambiguous names. B in German notation is written H and B flat is written B, so a sheet of German origin transposed with international rules comes out a semitone wrong. And in a lyric the isolated letters A, B, C may be words or abbreviations: those must be left alone, and this page only recognises sequences shaped like a chord.

Nearby tools

To see which notes a chord contains there is Chord notes, for fingerings Guitar chords. The families of keys are in Circle of fifths, and to tune before playing Guitar tuner.