Step 1: know your vocal range
Your comfortable range is the span of notes you can sing easily, without straining or getting breathy. Not the extreme notes you hit once while warming up: the ones you can hold and repeat through an entire song.
To find it, start on a comfortable middle note and go down note by note singing "ah," until the sound gets weak or raspy. The last note that still sounds full is your low limit. Do the same going up: your high limit is the last note that comes out without tightening your throat.
To know which notes you're singing, play them on an instrument, or sing to Fredon: the app recognizes the note you sing, hum or whistle in real time and shows it on screen. Write down your two limits somewhere.
For most untrained voices, that range covers about an octave and a half. That's enough for the vast majority of songs, as long as they're in the right key.
Step 2: measure the gap
Find the highest note in the song, often in the chorus, and the lowest, often at the start of a verse. Compare them with your limits.
- The highest note goes two half steps past your limit? Take the song down two half steps.
- The verses are too low but the chorus is fine? Go up one or two half steps, making sure the chorus is still singable.
- Too high at the top and too low at the bottom? The song is wider than your range: no transposition will fix everything. Prioritize the chorus.
A tip: if the song was written for a woman's voice and you're a man, or the other way around, first try singing it an octave lower or higher. The chords stay exactly the same. Only transpose if the octave doesn't sit right.
Step 3: shift the chords
To transpose, move every chord by the same number of half steps, in the same direction. The chord type never changes: a minor chord stays minor, a seventh chord stays a seventh. Only the root moves.
All you need are the twelve notes, each a half step apart:
C – C♯ – D – E♭ – E – F – F♯ – G – A♭ – A – B♭ – B, then back to C.
Remember that there's only a half step between E and F, and between B and C. It's the most common mistake: E up a half step is F, not F♯.
An example
A G, Em, C, D progression is two half steps too high. Move each chord down two notches: G becomes F, Em becomes Dm, C becomes B♭, D becomes C.
The same progression, two half steps higher: A, F♯m, D, E.
The transposition chart
Find your chord's root in the middle column, then read across to the column for the shift you want. Copy the chord's suffix (m, 7, maj7…) as is.
| −2 | −1 | Original chord | +1 | +2 | +3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B♭ | B | C | C♯ | D | E♭ |
| B | C | C♯ | D | E♭ | E |
| C | C♯ | D | E♭ | E | F |
| C♯ | D | E♭ | E | F | F♯ |
| D | E♭ | E | F | F♯ | G |
| E♭ | E | F | F♯ | G | A♭ |
| E | F | F♯ | G | A♭ | A |
| F | F♯ | G | A♭ | A | B♭ |
| F♯ | G | A♭ | A | B♭ | B |
| G | A♭ | A | B♭ | B | C |
| A♭ | A | B♭ | B | C | C♯ |
| A | B♭ | B | C | C♯ | D |
C♯ and D♭ are the same note, and so are E♭ and D♯, F♯ and G♭, A♭ and G♯, B♭ and A♯. If your chart says D♭, use the C♯ row. If you run into chords written as Do, Re, Mi, the guide do re mi vs C D E has every conversion.
Beyond three half steps, think the other way around: going up seven half steps is the same as going down five, an octave apart. Pick the direction that suits your voice.
Transposing with a capo
On guitar, transposing quickly runs into a problem: the new progression has barre chords. In the example above, F and B♭ aren't easy chords. A capo solves that.
Each capo fret raises the song a half step, without changing your chord shapes. To sing a song written in G in the key of A, keep your G, Em, C, D shapes and put the capo at the 2nd fret.
A capo can only go up. To go down, combine the two: pick lower shapes, then come back up with the capo. A song in E is a half step too high? Play it with D shapes, a key two half steps lower, and a capo at the 1st fret: now you're in E♭.
| Key you want | Shapes to play | Capo |
|---|---|---|
| F | E | 1st fret |
| E♭ | D | 1st fret |
| E | D | 2nd fret |
| A♭ | G | 1st fret |
| A | G | 2nd fret |
| B♭ | A | 1st fret |
| B | A | 2nd fret |
| C♯ | C | 1st fret |
The full capo guide covers every combination.
What if you started from your voice?
You can also come at it the other way: sing first, wherever it feels comfortable, then find the chords in that key. Fredon's Melody mode works like this: sing the tune, up to sixty seconds, and the app transcribes it, finds the key you sang in and suggests a chord progression, with a recommended capo when it makes the shapes easier. The song is at your pitch from the start.
To identify a song's original key before transposing it, see the guide on how to find the key of a song.
FAQ
Does transposing change the song?
The melody and chords keep the same relationships to each other: the song is still recognizable, just higher or lower. The tone changes a little, especially over big shifts.
How far do people usually transpose?
Most often by one to three half steps. Beyond that, first check whether an octave would do the trick.