Transposing Songs Between Keys On the Bass Guitar

Shape Shifting and Mental Math

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This post is a followup to the article The Quickest Way To Achieve Competence as a Bass Guitarist.

In some cases (when you aren’t using open strings and the change of key simply requires moving a couple of frets or so up or down the neck from the middle area of the neck), transposing between keys is pretty easy — to go from A to G, you just drop down two frets, and from A to C, move up three frets, for example — (and, by the way, on guitars [including bass guitars], “up” means towards the bridge and pickups, and “down” means toward the nut and machine heads).

Other key transpositions, though, can be more headscratchy, such as transposing from E to D. I will give you examples of a riff transposed from the key of E to D. First, though (we need to walk before we can run), I will demonstrate transposing the riff from the key of E to F#.

Let’s call this riff “Dad’s Got A Brand-Spankin’ New Satchel”

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KEY OF E

Here it is in E:

…using the gold-circled notes:

…in this order:

E1, B1 (4 times), A1, E2 (2 times), E1, B1 (2 times), B1, F#2, B2, F#2, A1 … E2, G#1, B1, E2, E1, A#2, B2

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KEY OF F#

…and here it is transposed two steps up to F#:

…using the orange-circled notes:

…in this order:

F#1, C#1 (4 times), B1, F#2 (2 times), F#1, C#1 (2 times), C#1, G#2, C#2, G#2, B1 … F#2, A#1, C#1, F#2, F#1, C2, C#2

ALTERNATIVE VERSION in F#

There’s another way to play the F# version using the same exact notes, but playing some of them in different places (frets and strings) on the neck. This can be done to get a slightly different sound (even though the notes are the same frequency, the string you play it on will have a slightly different tone), or simply for personal preference (where your fingers feel more comfortable). Here’s the alternate version of the same notes in F#. See if you can detect a difference in the tone/sound/timbre/color:

…using the red-circled notes:

…in the same order as before, namely:

F#1, C#1 (4 times), B1, F#2 (2 times), F#1, C#1 (2 times), C#1, G#2, C#2, G#2, B1 … F#2, A#1, C#1, F#2, F#1, C2, C#2

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KEY OF D

…and finally last, and probably in this case also least, is the riff in D:

…using the blue-circled notes:

…in this order:

D1, A2 (4 times), G2, D2 (2 times), D1, A2 (2 times), A2, E3, A3, E3, A2, G2; D2, F#2, A2, D2, D1, G#3, A3

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So there you have it; the original series of notes in the key of E, then transposed two steps up to F# (in two versions), then transposed from the original E two steps “down” to D, but actually up ten steps (an octave higher than if we dropped down two), as there is no D lower than the E string on a standardly-tuned, standardly-stringed (4) bass guitar, and thus we had to move up (the neck and in pitch/frequency).

Which version do you think sounds best? My opinion is that E is the best key for that riff. For one thing, you get to play the lowest note on the (standardly-tuned) bass (the open E string), which sounds “boss,” “cool,” “bad,” “wicked,” or even “groovy” — or what have you — but, of course, your opinion may differ

In my opinion (of course it’s my opinion, why would I write someone else’s opinion?), the low E string on the bass is the coolest note in all of musicdom.

As just one example of thousands, listen to (either literally or in your mind’s ear) the low E played by Tiran Porter of the Doobie Brothers at the start of the bridge in their song Listen to the Music — he climbs up to E2 and suddenly falls off a cliff (a full octave) to E1, and lets it ring.

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