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Transposing success
Well, I’ve been tinkering with writing my own music.
It’s not great stuff, but it has the right parts, assembled as well as I can do it- given my experience-level. I’m working on three different songs. I took advice from the great group Bread’s song “Guitar Man”– “I’ve found myself a message and some words to call my own- and take ’em home”…..
I’ve done a LOT of reading and studying and analyzing of songs and lyrics and Tab-bed music to give me ideas on how verses and choruses and bridges fit together. And also deciding on which KEY and all the different possible chord progressions within that key. Also watched many-MANY “Play For Us” videos- (which I LOVE)- here in the TAC Forum.
I’ll be the FIRST one to tell you that there’s a LOT I don’t know about it all yet, but I think I’m ***starting*** to maybe/actually “get the hang of it”🙄.
I have/had discovered that all three of my “songs” sounded vaguely “similar”– many of the same chords and progressions. I think it was just a sub-conscious thing- (I certainly wasn’t **trying** to make them sound similar). I don’t have the luxury of finding the Key straightaway because they are not really songs yet- I can’t just “find” the key using the Low-E method.
Anyway- my small win is that I wanted to CHANGE the fact that they all **sounded** “similar”. So I revisited the Fretboard Wizard course- and did a deep-dive back into the “Transposing” section of the course!
Well, after determining MY music’s chord-progression’s (Nashville) NUMBERS, I did exactly what the FBW lesson said– I just used the very same number-sequence– but in a different KEY. I changed my own music- (in my case– from the Key of G to the Key of A)!!!!
My “old” chord-progression that sounded good-together in G—- also sounded good-together in the new key– A!!!!
Soooo, that’s my small win- (I know that to many, it’s like “duh”- but at my level, it’s pretty eye-opening).
Parallel universe side trip—— I was just now watching a video of my 9-month-old great-grandson just starting to ALMOST stand-up– to maybe start taking his very first steps(!)…….. (but then he would just fall back down…..).
I smiled– because of our similarities🙂.
Anyway- that’s it.
theoldcoach
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3 Replies
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EXCELLANT! Good to hear. I know that I’m going to have to go back to the FBW again and again till i can get it to stick in my head. What an accomplishment to write your own song. We just have to keep at it.
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Sorry about my loooong original post on this. This one, too, it seems…..
In the FBW lesson about transposing a song- I think there was a word or two about actually transposing a song in the “Now You Try It” area- sort of as an assignment(?) maybe.
While I understood the process clearly while going thru FBW, I didn’t actually take a song and do it at the time.
So…. fast-forward…. there I was– with three similar-sounding songs…….
I went from ground-zero. Followed the FBW course. Figured out the Key/chord family from my song, figured out the chord progression- (the hardest part), converted it to Nashville numbers, and then just listened to songs in other keys- hoping I could find one I wanted to change my song TO, to get a “general sound” I wanted.
Songs in the key of “A” sounded good- so why not?
Funny thing is- actually changing the song- (in my case from “G” to “A”)- was remarkably simple. So then it was a matter of applying my-own-song’s Nashville-numbered chord sequence to the NEW Key/chord family chords.
Voila- done- (easy-actually!).
I knew HOW to do it before-hand- (from the FBW course materials)….. but actually DOING IT was the fun part! And it sounds great- and my voice “matches up” better in that key.
Again- I’m sorry if this seems to many of you that this is a “so what”, as many are way ahead of where I’m at– but it’s a pretty big light-bulb moment.
Note- It actually took longer to write this post that to actually change/transpose the key to a song.
So…… just for kicks……. Take a song you like- (but maybe isn’t easy for you to sing-along with)- and do what I did………. Change the key/chord family to a different key!- and if you don’t like THAT- change it to another one.
The FBW-lesson said being able to do this is a GREAT skill to have— it would allow you to easily play along with others who only know a song in one key- you could adapt a song to THEIR key and play along!?
theoldcoach
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Great win @the-old-coach ! The Nashville Numbering System along with knowing how to build a chord matrix are definitely the go to tools for changing the key of song.
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