Transposing Melodies by String or Finger

January 15, 2008 at 9:14 pm | Posted in Musicianship, Practicing, Private Lessons | Leave a comment
Tags: transposing, transposition, viola, violin

The start to playing in all keys is simply to play in a few keys! Take a simple melody that you know very well…Mary Had a Little Lamb, or Twinkle Twinkle.

How do you transpose it to other keys?

The easiest way is by finger (rote). It requires very little adjustment on your part. Just start on a different string, but use the same fingering. As you get better at it, start identifying the key signature and the interval of the starting note.

For example, Twinkle starting on the A string starts on DO, which is the note “A,”, and is in the key of A, which has three sharps, F#, C#, and G#.

Twinkle starting on the D string starts on DO, which is the note “D,” and is in the key of D, which has two sharps, F# and C#.

Twinkle starting on the G string starts on DO, which is the note “G,” and is in the key of G, which has one sharps, F#.

Twinkle starting on the C string starts on DO, which is the note “C,” and is in the key of C, which has no sharps or flats.

Once you can do this with Little Lamb and Twinkle, Try “Bingo,” “Amazing Grace,” “Star Spangled Banner” and Brahms “Lullaby. In our next article, we’ll discuss transposing by playing on a different starting finger…

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