Thanks for the quick and easy explanation 🙂 for musically-challenged folk like myself, certain helps understanding why pressing Transpose + or Transpose - on a certain chord site that rhymes with Sultanate Cigar does what it does! Thanks!
This video was so helpful!! I dont know a ton of music theory, and I’m having trouble transposing from Dm key. The chords are Am Dm E G F. Am i missing something? Is there a different way to tranpose from minor keys?
TL;DR Looks like it may be in the key of C/Am. On dulcimer try playing Bm for Am, Em for Dm, F#5/powerchord for E, A for G, and G for F. Awesome. Great questions! I’m going to ramble a little but hopefully I can help some. First off, minor keys are the same as major keys they just focus on the 6th note of the scale. A little example: B is the 6th note of the D scale so the notes that make up D major scale are the same notes that make up B minor. Same scale just two different names. This means we can use the same method of chord deduction to transpose the song’s chords. If we can figure out what major key the chords belong to then we can understand which minor key it belongs to as well. But there is something else that is important and that’s that not every song falls neatly into a key. Many songs use notes outside of the key. I say this because I don’t think the chords provided fit neatly into any given key but we can play some alternative chords to make it work! Okay, let’s see if I can get this right. If the song is in Dm this would mean that it is also F major since D is the 6th note of the F scale. In the key of F the chords you would be able to make are F, Gm, Am, Bb, C, Dm, E* (E diminished). This could work but the E would be diminished and the G would be minor. If you’re playing dulcimer then I would write out the F scale over top the D scale then to translate chords that way. Then I would barre the chords (finger across all of those fret positions to make power chords. See little lesson 7) for G and E. However, if you wouldn’t have said that the song is in the key of Dm/F my guess is it actually might be in Am/C based off the chords. The chords of the C scale would be C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, B*. If it is C then the only chord that doesn’t fit neatly into the key is the E chord which would be Em in the key of C. That still works a bit better than if it is in the key of Dm/F. If this is the case and you’re transcribing chords for dulcimer then I’d write the C scale over top the D scale to translate. Or even easier you can just add one letter value to the chords for their equivalent in D. Example: C becomes D, Am becomes Bm, etc. And since the III chord (E in the chords your provided) is major and not minor just barre the 2nd fret to play a power chord.
Thanks for the quick and easy explanation 🙂 for musically-challenged folk like myself, certain helps understanding why pressing Transpose + or Transpose - on a certain chord site that rhymes with Sultanate Cigar does what it does! Thanks!
Absolutely! I’m glad it helped
These videos are really helping me with my learning on this new instrument.
P.s. i love the shirt dude, i have one of the same design as well lol :)
Heck yeah 🤘🏻 glad to hear it
This video was so helpful!! I dont know a ton of music theory, and I’m having trouble transposing from Dm key. The chords are Am Dm E G F. Am i missing something? Is there a different way to tranpose from minor keys?
TL;DR Looks like it may be in the key of C/Am. On dulcimer try playing Bm for Am, Em for Dm, F#5/powerchord for E, A for G, and G for F.
Awesome. Great questions! I’m going to ramble a little but hopefully I can help some.
First off, minor keys are the same as major keys they just focus on the 6th note of the scale. A little example: B is the 6th note of the D scale so the notes that make up D major scale are the same notes that make up B minor. Same scale just two different names.
This means we can use the same method of chord deduction to transpose the song’s chords. If we can figure out what major key the chords belong to then we can understand which minor key it belongs to as well.
But there is something else that is important and that’s that not every song falls neatly into a key. Many songs use notes outside of the key. I say this because I don’t think the chords provided fit neatly into any given key but we can play some alternative chords to make it work!
Okay, let’s see if I can get this right. If the song is in Dm this would mean that it is also F major since D is the 6th note of the F scale. In the key of F the chords you would be able to make are F, Gm, Am, Bb, C, Dm, E* (E diminished). This could work but the E would be diminished and the G would be minor. If you’re playing dulcimer then I would write out the F scale over top the D scale then to translate chords that way. Then I would barre the chords (finger across all of those fret positions to make power chords. See little lesson 7) for G and E.
However, if you wouldn’t have said that the song is in the key of Dm/F my guess is it actually might be in Am/C based off the chords. The chords of the C scale would be C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, B*. If it is C then the only chord that doesn’t fit neatly into the key is the E chord which would be Em in the key of C. That still works a bit better than if it is in the key of Dm/F. If this is the case and you’re transcribing chords for dulcimer then I’d write the C scale over top the D scale to translate. Or even easier you can just add one letter value to the chords for their equivalent in D. Example: C becomes D, Am becomes Bm, etc. And since the III chord (E in the chords your provided) is major and not minor just barre the 2nd fret to play a power chord.