Free chord transposer

    Chord transposer: change the key of any song

    Paste your chords, choose a new key, and the transposer moves every chord by the same number of half steps. It works with chords written over the lyrics, with ChordPro chords in square brackets and with a line of chords on its own, and your lyrics and spacing stay as they are. It's free and needs no account, and nothing you paste leaves your browser.

    Chords over the lyrics, chords in brackets like [Am], or just a line of chords.

    Runs in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent anywhere.

    KeyG

    Pick a keyOriginal: G

    Transposed chords

    In the original key, G.

    Amazing Grace

  G     G7         C         G
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
     G       Em          D
That saved a wretch like me
  G        G7        C      G
I once was lost, but now am found
    G          D     G
Was blind, but now I see

    Playing this one again? In Stage Friend every song keeps its chords, lyrics and key, and a new key is saved in the song.Start free

    How transposing works

    A song's key is the note it feels at home on, and every chord in it sits a fixed distance from that note. Transposing keeps those distances and moves the whole song up or down, so if G becomes A, two half steps higher, then C becomes D and D becomes E. The tune and the chord progression stay the same and only the pitch changes. That's why the transposer needs nothing but the number of half steps, or the key you want, and works out every chord from there. A half step is one fret on a guitar or one key on a piano, black keys included, and twelve of them bring you back where you started.

    Choose a key that suits your voice

    Most key changes start with a singer. A song recorded by someone with a higher or lower voice can sit just out of reach, and moving it two or three half steps is often all it takes. Sing the highest line of the chorus and the lowest line of the verse: if the top strains, go down, and if the bottom disappears, go up. Try one half step at a time with the buttons above and sing it again, because the right key is the one where both ends feel easy, not the one on the recording. Once it sits well, the key shown above the result is the one to tell the band.

    Paste any chord sheet

    The transposer reads a line as chords only when everything on it is a chord or a mark such as x2 or a bar line, so a lyric that happens to start with "A" is left alone. Chords over the lyrics keep their columns and stay above the right syllable, and when a chord's name gets longer, the next chord moves along just enough to keep a space between them. Chords in square brackets change where they stand, a label such as [Chorus] stays as it is, and so does anything that isn't a chord, like N.C.

    Sharps or flats

    The same note has two names, C# and Db for example, and a chart is easier to read when it uses the names that belong to its key. The transposer chooses them the way Stage Friend does: the song's first chord is read as its key, and the keys of F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db and Gb, and of Dm, Gm, Cm, Fm, Bbm and Ebm, are written with flats, while every other key gets sharps. So a song that starts on an Eb chord is written with Ab and Bb, not G# and A#.

    Transpose a song in Stage Friend

    If you'll play the song again, it's easier to keep it in Stage Friend, where the key belongs to the song. On the chords and lyrics page, tap the key beside the song's title: a panel opens with all twelve keys, and −1 and +1 step half a tone at a time while the chords change behind it. Tap Save and every chord in the song moves, spelled with sharps or flats to suit the new key, and if the song is in a band, everyone in it sees the new key. Cancel puts the song back, and the original key is always one tap away.

    Transposing is included on every plan, the free one too. The help page shows how to transpose a song tap by tap.

    Questions

    Move every chord up or down by the same number of half steps. Paste your chords above, then press half step up or down, or pick the key you want, and the transposer moves all the chords at once.

    Count the half steps from the old key to the new one, one for each fret on a guitar or each key on a piano, black keys included. From G to A is two half steps up, and from G to E is three down. If you pick the new key above, the transposer counts for you.

    Use the ones that belong to the new key: flats for keys such as F, Bb and Eb, and sharps for keys such as D, E and A. The transposer picks them from the song's first chord, the same way Stage Friend does.

    Yes, it's free and needs no account. Everything happens in your browser, so the chords you paste are never sent anywhere.

    Copy the result and paste it wherever you keep your songs. In Stage Friend a new key is saved in the song itself, so it's there the next time you open it.