Today in a guitar lesson, my student asked me about transposition. She wanted to know how to change keys if a song is too high or low to sing comfortably.
Last year she was in my Guitar 1 class, although she had already played guitar for several years; she struggled with note-reading but understands music intuitively. She is currently in the beginner piano class, so her theoretical knowledge is being strengthened. So, knowing that she has the skills and at least some of the knowledge to understand transposition, I dove into an explanation, relating it to the capo and barre chords.
Accompanied by a series of excited outbursts, she figured out how to transpose “Forever and Ever etc.” by David Crowder Band from the key of G to the key of Bb without having to use a capo.
We went into some theory to explain 2 other methods of transposition that don’t come quite as quickly by sight, but she grasped the concept. It was really exciting to me to see her making progress – not just in understanding transposition, though! She make several connections between piano and guitar – counting up the half steps on the frets and actually knowing what note names she played; figuring out what notes were in a chord based on half steps, etc.
The coolest thing was seeing how she “transposed” her musical understanding from piano to guitar! It was one of the most exciting lessons of the day!
