Transposing

Changing the chords of a song into another set,

 to play the same song in a different key;

Referring to this chart might help

Reasons for :

1) for easier key to sing in

2) for easier chords to play

3) for harmony between guitars/instruments Possibly using a Capo

How to transpose:

Basically change the Root note of every Chord the same amount of Frets/Semitones

While keeping the tonality (Major/minor/7th etc) the same.

 To transpose this song .....A D Bm E7 

into D =  ...........D G Em A7

ie all up 5 frets!

 How to decide where to go in the first place depends on the reason for changing!

 1) for singing, sing it, find the 1st chord by ear,

ascertain the amount of frets away from the original,

and then change all the others the same amount.

2) for easier chords it is more down to experience

but be careful not to transpose out a hard chord and then get some others back.

There may be several different keys, which may give you easier options.

3) to get harmony between guitars, transpose to acceptable chords,

for example up 7 frets,

then put capo “down” 7 frets (from E/12thfret) = 5th fret

= the same key with different chords.

One can then play the original chords and the other capo 5th with the transposed chords.

for example  original chords = G C D

                Capo 5 =   D G A