im takeing a mock theory test that wants me to transpose a piece of music down a major third. Im a little confused what this means, do they want me to simply bring every note down 2 whole steps? for example if the only notes in a song were C and A would i transpose them down to Ab and F?

The way you see it is a minor third down. You need to lower by 2 whole-steps arbitrary without thinking of tonality.

What I do when i need to transpose while sight-reading,I'll see every chord on paper as the major third of the root I'm playing,

Sly

so, its still a little fuzzy, but by youre logic to tranpose a C down a major third it would be a G#? as with all the notes in the piece? keep in mind this is a thoery test and i have to write the new key signature with all of the accidentals so examples might help

A progression like G/C/F/Bb would now be Eb/Ab/Db/Gb

A progression like G/C/F/Bb would now be Eb/Ab/Db/Gb

+1


Make sure you don't mismatched #'s and b's within the key,

Sly

im takeing a mock theory test that wants me to transpose a piece of music down a major third. Im a little confused what this means, do they want me to simply bring every note down 2 whole steps? for example if the only notes in a song were C and A would i transpose them down to Ab and F?

Yes, C and A become Ab and F. Everything moves down a major third, including the key (so if was in C major, it is now in Ab major). This way, all accidentals will (sort of) stay the same, since they are both relative the home key. I say sort of because for example if in the key of C you had an F# (sharp 4), in the key of Ab you would have a D natural (sharp 4). The accidental does the same thing but in the new key it is a natural instead of a sharp.

Hopefully that makes sense.

This thread reminds me of a question that often crosses my mind
regarding symantecs.

If, for example, you wanted someone to go from C down to G.
Would you say, "go down a fourth?"
Of "go down to the fifth?"

In terms of offsets, G is a fourth below C.
However, G is the fifth of C.

This thread reminds me of a question that often crosses my mind
regarding symantecs.

If, for example, you wanted someone to go from C down to G.
Would you say, "go down a fourth?"
Of "go down to the fifth?"

In terms of offsets, G is a fourth below C.
However, G is the fifth of C.

That's different because those intervals are inversions of each other. Ab is a major 3rd below C but E is a major third above.

When you are discussing the abstract of harmony, typically octave displacement doesn't matter so down a 4th/up a 5th is the same.

Most of the time when we transpose a piece of music it is usually because it might too low or too high for an instrument or the vocal. So you transpose in either direction from there. From a bass player point of view it may represent to play eveything a string below or above in the case of fourth or a fifth,

Sly

im takeing a mock theory test that wants me to transpose a piece of music down a major third. Im a little confused what this means, do they want me to simply bring every note down 2 whole steps? for example if the only notes in a song were C and A would i transpose them down to Ab and F?

yep. Again, don't confuse the enharmonic names.