Transposing Songs

Song One offers you two options to transpose a song and automatically update its chord symbols and chord diagrams:

  • A 'Quick-Transpose' pop-up menu enables you to transpose a song by specifying an interval (the number of half-steps) above or below the current key.

  • A 'Chromatic Circle' enables you to transpose a song by selecting a specific key. It also allows you to switch between parallel minor and major keys and change the accidentals ('#' / 'b') of the chord symbols.

You may manually type in the values of the 'Original Key' and 'Transposed Key' of a song in the song info panel. This will change the key without transposing the song's chord symbols and chord chart.

Quick-Transpose

The quick-transpose pop-up menu to specify the desired interval is accessible in the Song Info panel.

Quick-transpose the selected song by tapping/clicking on the transpose icon in the song info panel (next to 'Transpose Key') and making a selection from the pop-up menu.

Chromatic Circle

The chromatic circle can be accessed in three ways:

Option 1: Tap/Click on the transpose icon in the song info panel (next to 'Transpose Key') and select 'Chromatic Circle' from the pop-up menu.

Option 2: Tap/Click on the round arrows of the song info pop-up. (The song info pop-up appears when the song's scrolling position is at its beginning.)

Option 3: Tap/Click on the circle icon of the docked toolbar. (If the docked toolbar is not visible tap/click on the three dots in the right corner of the bottom toolbar.)

A circle will appear:

The circle has a menu icon in its center to access a pop-up menu with the following options:

  • 'Set Tonic/Transpose' (set and change the key of the song)

  • 'Circle Of Fifths' (analyze chord progressions and build harmonic fields)

  • 'Select Scales' (explore scales on the virtual fretboard or keyboard)

Select 'Set Tonic/Transpose' in the pop-up menu.

If you wish to set the tonic (original key) of the song ...

  1. tap/click (and holding) the lower area of the inner ring (indicated by the orange dot),

  2. drag the selection arrow under the desired note.

If you wish to transpose the song tap/click on the desired note in the outer ring.

Song One automatically switches between flat or sharp accidentals when the key signature changes during song tranpositions.

Tap/Click on the accidental sign in the center of the circle to toggle between the sharp ('#') and flat ('b') transcriptions.

Note: The accidental sign is automatically greyed out when the selected key signature requires the use of a specific accidental sign.

Tap/Click on the 'M'/'m' button inside the chromatic circle to change between parallel major and minor keys.

Transposing PDFs

Songs in the PDF format cannot be transposed (the chromatic circle cannot be accessed).

Convert PDF documents into the native Song One format to enable the transposition feature. (See import PDF documents to learn more.)

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