transpose chords?

[leighbeynon]

so i have some chords that i need to change to Emin

i think they are in G at the momemt,

G A# D F A AND F A C E G

How can i transpose these so they are in Em ?

or is that just stupid ?

thanks leigh

[VicDiesel]

Strictly speaking you can only transpose from one major to another major key, or from one minor to another.

But you can make something that has kinda the same relationships between chords.

G A# D F A AND F A C E G

Em.

Third up: G.

Anotehr third up: B major or minor.

F -> D

A -> F# min

Et cetera.

Victor.

[llatham]

so i have some chords that i need to change to Emin

i think they are in G at the momemt,

G A# D F A AND F A C E G

How can i transpose these so they are in Em ?

or is that just stupid ?

thanks leigh

You mean G Bb D F A

These chords are not "in" anything. They can be found in various keys.

If you are playing a Gm9 (which is G Bb D F A) followed by an FMaj9
(which is F A C E G) and continuing to alternate the two, you could be:

In the key of G, Dorian Mode - G A Bb C D E F G. That assumes you hear G as the primary chord.

or

In the key of F Major (or Ionian Mode) F G A Bb C D E F. That assumes you hear the F chord as the primary chord.

Since you said you want to move it to E minor, I'll assume that we're looking at G minor (Dorian) first.

Gm9 - FMaj9.

To get to E minor you subtract a minor 3rd (3 semitones) from everything.

That gives you:
G Bb D F A = E G B D F#
F A C E G = D F# A C# E

That gives you Em9 and DMaj9, putting this progression in E Dorian now.

Another quick way you can do this:
You want to move from G to E.
Chord 1, Gm9 will simply become Em9. Easy Cheesy.

How far is chord 2 from chord 1 in the original? F is a whole step below G so when you move it to E, chord 2 will need to be a whole step below E - therefore D.

A word of caution - any time I see someone spell a chord "G A# D F A" it gives me a pretty good clue that the person doesn't yet understand keys (and modes) and chord construction. That is very importan information to understand before you start trying to transpose things around. I would recommend you try to study up on the circle of 5ths, scales and modes, chord and scale spelling, etc. as soon as you can. The sooner you get this stuff down the easier the rest of it will become. But until then, it will be hard to tie together the reasons for why the transposition methods I gave you above work.

HTH,
Steve

[kwgm]

so i have some chords that i need to change to Emin

i think they are in G at the momemt,

G A# D F A AND F A C E G

How can i transpose these so they are in Em ?

or is that just stupid ?

thanks leigh

To transpose G to em, do nothing -- the key of G and Em are enharmonic.

[leighbeynon]

this is all very helpful and i appreciate all replys,

i am having piano lessons and learning scales for just just maj keys at present, i want to understand as much as i can about chords and relationships between them so i can modulate into different chords,

circle of 5ths eh, i was told this many times, but my teacher is very old school and says not to bother with this,

but i would like to learn as much as i can and im happy to try any methods to learn this, is there any books or material you recommend to help me understand
circle of 5ths,

i can now read music and understand key signature, but only been having lessons for 1 year so i know i have years ahead of me, which im prepared to do

thanks leigh

[BertKoor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths

[llatham]

so i have some chords that i need to change to Emin

i think they are in G at the momemt,

G A# D F A AND F A C E G

How can i transpose these so they are in Em ?

or is that just stupid ?

thanks leigh

To transpose G to em, do nothing -- the key of G and Em are enharmonic.

Actually, G Major, Fx Major, and Abb Major are enharmonic, and Em, Fbm and Dxm are enharmonic.

G Major and em are "relative".

Steve

[llatham]

circle of 5ths eh, i was told this many times, but my teacher is very old school and says not to bother with this,

No offense but your teacher's an idiot. That's not "old school". Old School people INSIST you learn the Circle of 5th. It's the "new school" people who are too lazy to learn anything about music.

Maybe it's time to investigate some other teachers.

Are you learning to play MUSIC, of just PIANO. If it's just piano I guess you can just learn to read the notes of the page and not worry about what types of chords they produce and what scales they come from and so on. Some teachers teach with that assumption.

But if you want to learn about MUSIC, you MUST know the Circle of 5ths (unless you are only interested in non-western types of music).

Steve

[leighbeynon]

yeah this is my fear really, he only plays with sheet music and doesnt compose himself, personally i want to learn jazz chords min9th 7ths etc etc

ive basically been tought to read sheet music from books, and understand different elements of notation, all i do is practise these songs each week and move on to new songs, and scales for keys, is this the same as scales for chords ?

are there any books you recommend i could read and practise with along side these lessons ?

i did get this one
http://www.amazon.ca/Chords-Easily-Refl ... 0953052826

it basically shows you all maj chords then minor, aug, sust, dim etc

dont think it mentions scales though

[leighbeynon]

would i be better off with this guy ??

http://www.playpiano.com/pattest060608/ ... 61208.html

ha ha

[VicDiesel]

yeah this is my fear really, he only plays with sheet music and doesnt compose himself, personally i want to learn jazz chords min9th 7ths etc etc

This guy may still be useful for you, teaching you technique. But you'll have to do some exploring on your own. Get some jazz fake books and play the notes as written. Then figure out what they have to do with the chord symbols, and try to play a different accompaniment based on how you understand the chords.

Victor.

[llatham]

yeah this is my fear really, he only plays with sheet music and doesnt compose himself, personally i want to learn jazz chords min9th 7ths etc etc

This guy may still be useful for you, teaching you technique. But you'll have to do some exploring on your own. Get some jazz fake books and play the notes as written. Then figure out what they have to do with the chord symbols, and try to play a different accompaniment based on how you understand the chords.

Victor.

I agree with Vic - you might use this teacher for your "technique" part of learning music - or "how to play what's on the page", but you will find you'll either need another teacher, classes, or online resources and books to "understand and play what's not on the page".

There are thousands of not hundreds of thousands free online resources. The only thing is, you have to be careful because some of those sites are written by people who only half know what they're doing. I suggest that you look at 10 sites, and if 8 of them agree on something, and two are different (and from each other) they are probably wrong. The more things you can look at, the more you can figure out what's right and when something's totally wrong.

Of course, you also ask in forums like this.

Best,
Steve

[leighbeynon]

yeah i do see your point, and my teacher is very good with timing and reading the music and explaining the symbols etc, but what i really want to be good at is chord progressions, so i may need to learn the circle of 5ths myself
and try to learn the intervals of chords / inversions etc

ill search for a good book, ive seen some fake jazz books are these helpful then ? never heard of them, why are they called fake jazz ?

sorry it a whole new world !!!

[BertKoor]

but what i really want to be good at is chord progressions

Is your teacher a classical music one or does he also do pop / rock / jazz? Classical teachers only work with staff notation. The others may use chord symbols etc. It's an entirely different approach. In staff notation each note is dictated while chord notations leave a lot open to personal interpretation.

What may help is figuring out chord progressions of a lot of existing songs all by yourself, maybe with a little help of a teacher when you get stuck. But you have to have some knowledge of a chord notation system.

try to learn the intervals of chords / inversions etc

That certainly helps!

ive seen some fake jazz books are these helpful then ? never heard of them, why are they called fake jazz ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_symbol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_chart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_sheet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comping

[leighbeynon]

well my teacher plays pop, rock what ever but only from sheet music, he doesnt compose or play jazz, he doesnt believe in chord charts and all that either, he works from chord cymbols,

so really he is only helping me read music and play it as its written
and get timming correct, finger placement,

so if i can get an online resource to help me teach myself chords that would be great, as i understand alot more than i did before i started the lessons,

to be honest this guys chord lessons dont sound that bad ...

http://www.chordpiano.com/A-GWO/062308/3.html

maybe i can find some more