HOW TO TRANSPOSE BASS TABS TO ANOTHER KEY

[bogiebusta]

I am not a bass player but a guy who learns to play songs on a bass guitar. I have been doing this for 45 years. I have not had band members ever comment on it. I guess if I have it down it does not matter. Recently, I am taking on a side project. When the band sent their set list I thought, no problem.....wrong.....they do not play anything in the key of the original song. Now, something that the original artist performed in E is in B etc.etc.. My question is there an app that will do the work for me or a chart that makes this easy. I spent 2 hours today on one song.

Help.

 

[EarnestTBass]

I believe that no such app or computer program exists.

I play in bands that will, without warning or forethought, decide to change keys. They have no formal training, they don't think about any key signature at all while playing. From that perspective, it's no big deal- to them- to just move the fret board patterns around. I have adopted this approach for my own benefit. Instead of learning specific notes, I learn the song as a pattern of notes and the relationships/intervals between those notes. When the key changes, just move the pattern. A five string bass helps.

 

[Fragile Thunder]

I am not a bass player but a guy who learns to play songs on a bass guitar. I have been doing this for 45 years. I have not had band members ever comment on it. I guess if I have it down it does not matter. Recently, I am taking on a side project. When the band sent their set list I thought, no problem.....wrong.....they do not play anything in the key of the original song. Now, something that the original artist performed in E is in B etc.etc.. My question is there an app that will do the work for me or a chart that makes this easy. I spent 2 hours today on one song.

Help.

All I've ever done is just move the root, in this case E, to the new I or root, B, and play the same progression or pattern. If you're playing a blues tune the progression would be E A B, to move that to B you'd just play the same pattern but it'd be B E F#.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[hrodbert696]

Well, I hope I'm not being a jerk, but maybe this is a good opportunity to start thinking of yourself as a musician and expand your knowledge.

Fundamentally, it's a matter of figuring out how many half-steps (= frets) the new key is from the old one and moving your pattern on the fretboard accordingly.

For instance, E is your open E string, while B is the seventh fret on the E string. So to transpose a song from E to B you can move your whole pattern seven frets higher and write your TAB accordingly. Of course, you can also take it DOWN - there's also an E at the 7th fret of your A string, and B is the 2nd fret on that string, so maybe it would make sense to move your pattern five frets lower. Depends on the pattern itself, and which direction everyone else is going. (E to B is a pretty huge key change, by the way - usually people only change by half a step or one full step).

That's pretty mechanical, but it may force you to make some choices in a lot of songs. If you transpose down, you may wind up with notes below your low E. In that case, you'll have to either 1) buy a 5-string, 2) down tune, or 3) play that one note an octave up, changing the bass line. Likewise, the old pattern may have relied on some open strings to be playable, which the key change will take away from you. So you'll have to figure out where to best play those notes to still be able to execute the line.

 

[Richland123]

Here is a website to transpose songs to any key. This website works and I used it already.

Automatically Transpose Song Chords to a New Key

 

[guy n. cognito]

Question: can you play at all by ear, or are you totally reliant on tabs written by others? I ask because there are programs that can be used to change the key of a recorded song.

 

[LeviMorrison]

Try the circle of fifths? It will give the I ii iii IV V vi chords (notes) for what is in that key. So if the song is in the key of A (like "Stand By Me). Those chords would be I=A ii=B iii=C# IV=D V=E vi=F# vii=G# and then the octave. Say we transpose the key to D then:
I= D ii=E iii=F# IV=G V=A vi=B vii=C# then the octave.

 

[AQUANOVA]

I've had to transpose on the spot in a church praise band (darn singers)
If it’s a half step up or down and you have a pattern that you play, it's easy.
Just slide your hand up or down.
If you have a chord sheet and improvise your line, write out the original key on your sheet, then write the new key under it, like this.

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

You can quickly change the chords on your sheet to the new chords.
All C’s are now F, etc.

 

[Gary Shaves]

I am not a bass player but a guy who learns to play songs on a bass guitar. I have been doing this for 45 years. I have not had band members ever comment on it. I guess if I have it down it does not matter. Recently, I am taking on a side project. When the band sent their set list I thought, no problem.....wrong.....they do not play anything in the key of the original song. Now, something that the original artist performed in E is in B etc.etc.. My question is there an app that will do the work for me or a chart that makes this easy. I spent 2 hours today on one song.

Help.

The Program I use is called the Amazing slow downer you will have to pay for it can’t remember the cost you can down load any song into it move the timing / key and eq the mix to make your part you want to learn stand out had mine over 5 years great bit of gig

 

[Herm-Jan]

Hi! I came across this thread really late. But there is an amazing app called: moises. It lets you transpose any imported songs and the AI gives you chords to play. The AI in the app makes stems from different instruments. So you can also practice by putting volume of original bass guitar on 0. I use this for drums.

 

[filmtex]

I've had to transpose on the spot in a church praise band (darn singers)
If it’s a half step up or down and you have a pattern that you play, it's easy.
Just slide your hand up or down.

And this is EXACTLY why they came up with the Nashville Numbers System. "

The Nashville Number System can be used by someone with only a rudimentary background in music theory.[2] Improvisation structures can be explained using numbers and chord changes can be communicated mid-song by holding up the corresponding number of fingers. The system is flexible, and can be embellished to include more information (such as chord color or to denote a bass note in an inverted chord). The system makes it easy for bandleaders, record producer or lead vocalist to change the key of songs when recording in the studio or playing live, since the new key just has to be stated before the song is started. The rhythm section members can then use their knowledge of harmony to perform the song in a new key."
Nashville Number System

Learning to use the Nashville System and spending time on ear-training while completely ignoring tabs has taken me a long way. Very highly recommended.

 

[Papageno]

You seem to think that 2 hours for one tune is too long. You might also consider that these were 2 hours practicing something essential to any musician: transposing. It took you a long time vecause you are not familiar with doing this. Do it on more tunes. I am sure you will do the 50th tune in 10 minutes.

Another option is getting rid of tabs and using music notation. If you are familiar with several clefs, then some transpositions can be immediate: for example, if you are reading a part written for an Eb instrument (eg alto sax) in treble clef, you can transpose it for C instrument by reading it in bass clef and mentally adding 3 flats to the key signature. (I'm not sure this is the kind of suggestion you were looking for, though...).