Change Musical Keys on a Piano

When playing the piano, and learning how to compose music, it is important to learn how to transpose any song from one musical key to the other. This is especially important when playing with a band, or accompanying a singer. It is also necessary in music theory exams, and when writing music for transposing instruments such as a Bb clarinet.

Steps

  1. Figure out how far you're going. For example, if you're going from D to G, that's a perfect fourth, or four notes up, counting the D, the G, and all the notes in between. If you don't know about harmonic intervals, count the semitones, eg: A to Bb is one semitone, A to B is two semitones, D to G is five semitones.
  2. Know what the key signature of the new key is. For example, D has F# and C#. G just has F#. Ab has Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db. Also, make sure you know how to write the new key, and which order to add in the sharps and flats. (See Work Out Which Key You're In).
  3. Play the music as written, except play everything the number of semitones higher or lower. Continuing with the same example, when you see a D, play a G. If you see an E, play an A, and so on.
  4. Include the sharps or flats in the NEW key signature. For example, if you see a C in the original music (which is actually a C#, but that isn't important right now), you're going to play an F, because that's a fourth higher than C. But you're in G now, which has an F# in the key signature. So you play an F# instead. In this example, both the original note and the new note are both sharped. This will not always be the case. A natural note may become sharp or flat or natural, depending on the new key. This won't matter if you have translated everything up or down the same number of semitones.
  5. Choose the corresponding accidental for the new key. For example, if your original song (in D) has a Bb, that's a half-step down from its normal pitch (n to b = -1). The note B in the old key corresponds to the note E in the new key. In the new key (G) E is normally natural, so you must drop it a half-step, to Eb.
  6. Playing a song written in Ab, which has Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db. You're transposing it to E, which has F#, C#, G#, and D#. You see a D# in the written score. You say to yourself, " D is normally flatted in this key, but here it's sharpened. That means it's been raised two semitones, or one tone. D in the old key corresponds to A in the new key. A minor doesn't have any sharps or flats associated with it, so to raise it a whole-step up from A natural, play Ax, which is equivalent to B." Don't worry; it's not usually going to be this difficult in real life.
  7. If there's a key change in the song itself, you have to make sure to transpose the music after the key change correctly. For example, if the original music goes from C to D (a modulation of one tone), and you're transposing such that it starts in Eb, the music after the key change must be in a key a tone higher than Eb, which is of course F.

Tips

  • Remember that some keys can be expressed in two ways. They are C# (7 sharps) = Db (5 flats), F# (6 sharps) = Gb (6 flats), and B (5 sharps) = Cb (7 flats). If you're going into one of these, decide which one is easiest to think of, or suits the music more, although they'll both be played the same.
  • If you need to, make notes on the score. For example, pencil in "Eb" or "G" to remind yourself what notes to play.
  • Begin with 'close' transpositions (C major to D major, Ab major to A major, etc.) These are generally easier to do because the hands tend to stay in the same place as the original.

Warnings

  • The two parts should sound exactly the same once transposed; just one is higher than the other. If they don't, something has gone wrong somewhere.
  • Don't assume this is easy. Although one can understand how to do it, not everyone can, unless it's very easy, like transposing from F to C.

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