Transpose a chord chart

Transposition is not a separate tool: it sits in the chart view, as a selector at the bottom of the page. Open any public chart, move up or down a semitone, and everything recalculates at once.

Transposing moves every chord by the same number of semitones. The relationships between them do not change: a progression that sounded right still does, simply higher or lower. The song stays the same, only its pitch moves.

Three reasons come up constantly. Fitting a singer’s range, so they are not straining on a song written for another voice. Avoiding barre chords by finding a key that falls on open shapes. Or accompanying a transposing instrument, whose written notes differ from the notes heard.

This is a display, not a transformation. You can transpose someone else’s chart without altering anything, and return to the written key in one click. The range runs from six semitones down to six up, which covers all twelve keys: beyond that you land back on the same chords.

The same sound can be written two ways, and the choice is not neutral. The rule applied is simple: the keys of F, B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat and G flat are written with flats, the others with sharps. And a chord written with a flat in the original keeps that spelling. This is what stops you reading “A sharp” where every musician expects “B flat”.

A chord written G/B is transposed on both halves: moved up a tone it becomes A/C sharp, not A/B. The bass line therefore travels with the chords, which is the expected behaviour and one many tools miss.

Both change the pitch, but not in the same way. A capo keeps your fingerings and raises the sound: handy for playing open shapes in a key that offers none. Transposing changes the written chords and lets you play without an accessory. On a chart the two combine: the capo is part of the song, transposition is a reading setting.