Final Exam: Transposing Music

When music is in a particular key, it may be too high or too low to play on your instrument, or in a key that is difficult to play. Transposing the piece of music will help to make the piece easier for you to play.

Take for example the section of music below - Jingle Bells in the key of F (1 Flat). 

If you want to transpose this to the key of C - with no flat or sharp notes - we have to transpose downwards.  

This is the Result in C, having transposed each note downwards by 4 pitches.

When you transpose you have to remember that all accidentals will be transposed also. 

The best way to have success with transposing a melody is to create a chart.  List the letter names of the scale of the original melody and what they will become. When you've finished, carefully double check each note. Your list could look something like this if you were going from F Major to C Major:

	F	G	A	Bb	C	D	E	F
becomes	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C