Transpose from Am to A

[simmerdown]

i notice the op bailed...LOL...i wonder why

[stringtapper]

You're rubbish

I guess it never occurred to me that the Ableton forum doesn't have an age limit.

[stringtapper]

Check my earlier answer.

I think you'll find its correct.

Rubbish

Ha, yeah I checked it. It's a less detailed repeat of exactly the things that I and others had already said earlier in the thread. lol

And you left out raising any Gs to G#s, which are in the key of A major, so technically, no, it was not correct.

[stringtapper]

I dunno about D being the root not of an A major chord, it says different here:
http://piano.about.com/od/musicaltermsa ... otnote.htm

I never said that D was the root of an A major chord. You only bolded the first part of what I wrote. Read what I wrote carefully:

In A major A is the root of the I chord, but A is also the tonic or "central tone." In A major D is the root of the IV chord but it is not the tonic, the key doesn't revolve around that tone and its constituent chord.

[stringtapper]

I guess I'm not being clear.

In the key of A major the pitch D serves as the root of the IV chord, also known as the Subdominant. The IV chord is spelled D-F#-A, with the D acting as the root of the chord.

=

"In A major D is the root of the IV chord…"

My only point in all of that was that equating the term "root" with the tonic/"keynote"/"central tone" is not correct. Every scale degree in a scale functions as a root to some chord, but only one note functions as the tonic. Thus why I illustrated that in the key of A major the notes A and D are both roots of their respective chords (I/tonic and IV/subdominant) but only the note A is the tonic/keynote.

(Btw, you say you're not familiar with the term tonic and yet it was used in one of the links you just posted [http://www.8notes.com/articles/scale_degrees.asp]!)

Edit: I was a little too harsh at first.

[ian_halsall]

in a minor the g is already sharpened

touche

[stringtapper]

It says tonic is the same as root note. So does this
http://www.netplaces.com/music-composit ... scales.htm

And it's completely wrong to say so, as I've already illustrated by referencing the fact that each scale degree in a key can function as a "root" while only one pitch can function as the tonic.

Even the Wiki page on Tonic makes reference to the common mistake of equating the two:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_(music)

This is why I would definitely advise people who are self-studying to get a reputable theory text instead of relying solely on the internet because there is just so much potential for people to be misled. The internet can be a great tool for spreading knowledge, but it's a double-edged sword in that incorrect information can just as easily be spread.

Tonic is not a particularly common term. Put it this way, it's not in this list
http://piano.about.com/od/musicaltermst ... erms_T.htm

The term not being on an About.com list is not what I would call anything close to a good indicator of how ubiquitous the term's use is in music theory instruction.

Any music dictionary (Oxford, Harvard, Grove) is going to have an entry for Tonic, as well as the rest of the traditional names for the scale degrees and their related chords.

Any music fundamentals course at any college of music or conservatory where English is the language of instruction will teach the term Tonic. <--

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatonic_function

Personally I never play major chords anyway.

Quite a bizarre statement from my point of view. One might as well say "I only play in the octave of C2 to C3" or "I never play Bbs."

[Angstrom]

I don't know what a scale degree is, let alone a tonic.

very basic music tutorial:
http://macableton.com/tutorials/basic-music-theory.html
A minor is actually the same as C, so you would transpose A minor down three to get to A. See my website where all this is explained

all is, indeed, explained.

[crumhorn]

without knowing exactly what material the OP is dealing with it's hard to give advice,

but here are a couple of observations that might be helpful.

in many styles pf music the bass line will be very simple and stick mostly to the root and fith of the chords. and it's not really possible to decide from the bass line whether the key is major or minor.

even if both parts are in the same key, if they don't follow the same chord progression it won't harmomize anyway.

[glitchrock-buddha]

Wow. No wonder the OP was scared off.

It's kind of impossible to tell someone what notes to change without knowing what notes are actually being played.

He said he thinks the bassline and stab are in A minor and the song is in A (we'll assume he means A maj, but sometimes people say A to mean A minor in some styles). What notes to transpose totally depends on what he wants to hear. Do you want a major chord stab from a minor chord stab? Then, if it's an A minor stab, you just have to sharpen the C to get A major stab. Or, do want to still have a minor stab? Then you could maybe play an F# minor stab while in the key of A maj, but whether that works or not totally depends on the tune. A song with a minor stab chord will usually be in that minor key. And although the notes in F# minor scale are the same as the A major scale, the focus is different so without knowing the melody, you can't say for sure.

Similarly for the bassline, it totally depends on the notes. You could try shifting the notes C,F and G to C#, F# and G# respectively to get the notes in the major A scale, but it might sound shit. It will certainly change the melody quite a bit. It might work to shift the bassline down three steps be in the F# minor scale (which shares the same notes as A maj). But there is no guarantee that will work either.

[stringtapper]

I don't know what a scale degree is, let alone a tonic. You need to explain stuff assuming zero knowledge.

Well at least two of the links you've posted have contained references to the term Tonic within them and just posted the Wiki on Tonic, which while not as in depth as I'd like does give the basic gist. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_(music))

Scale degrees are simply the notes of a scale, usually given ordinal numbers that also correspond to the Roman numerals of their respective chords.

So in A major:

Note names:
A - B- C# - D - E - F# - G#

Scale degree numbers:
1 -2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

Roman numerals:
I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - viiº

Functional names:
Tonic-Supertonic-Mediant-Subdominant-Dominant-Submediant-Leading Tone

not sure you can say wiki is a higher quality source than about.com. Wiki is anonymous and anyone can add to it.

And I never did say it was higher quality, just posted those two links because they incidentally do explain aspects of what I was talking about. There have been massive discussions on the Society of Music Theory's email list about the problem of making sure the Wiki pages on music theory aren't filled with bad information and how the problem is exacerbated by the fact that any 13 year old schmo with a guitar and a laptop can post to the pages. It's definitely an issue in the music theory world.

What is the point is saying that all notes in a scale are root notes because they might get used as the root note of another chord?

The point is that it is the correct terminology. "Root" refers to the fact that the note is the one its corresponding chord is generated from, like a plant growing from the ground. So A is the root of an A major chord, spelled up A-C#-E. But every scale degree in a scale functions as a root of its own corresponding chord (feeling like a broken record here). A is also the root of an A major chord whether you're in the key of A major, E major, or D major (keys in which an A major chord is diatonic), or even if the A major chord is appearing as a borrowed chord or a secondary dominant in some other key. "Root" is simply about the mechanics of chord construction. In that A major chord A is the root, C# is the 3rd, and E is the 5th. And that goes the same for every other triad (three note chord) on any scale degree in any key.

What "root" does not mean is the tonic/keynote/central tone of a scale or key. It just doesn't mean that, and you'd do well to unlearn that.

Tonic is the common term used for the starting note of a scale, the note that generates the I chord, or tonic chord. It's the chord that all the others will revolve around. It is the "tonal center" and its note name corresponds to the name of the key (i.e. A is the tonic of A major [it's also the tonic of A minor]).

When I played guitar I played funk which doesn't use normal major chords really.

Most funk has dominant seventh chords all over the place, which are just types of major chords (i.e. they have a major 3rd).

[gjm]

Hi funken. You have a mistake on your website where you have listed the C Major triad as C-E-C. Probably just a typo but it needs to be fixed.

On that note, it might be helpful for you to also look into the basics behind chord triads and chord inversions, which I think if addd to your intro to theory would round it out.

With that in mind, when discussing or advising on transposition in the light of techniques used within Live, it might be helpful to first examine what happens with the notes in a chord when using using your technique or when using Lives Transpose knob.

Even though you may not play many major chords, it might also be helpful to look into scale based or scale tone chords and the resulting progressions that can be made. That will be helpful to a wider audience who may not share your taste in music but use Ableton as their DAW.

[stringtapper]

As for funk rhythm guitar, it's 90% rhythm and 10% music theory.

Rhythm is part of music theory, or more correctly part of music fundamentals.

Perhaps you mean funk guitar is 90% rhythm and 10% harmony?

[simmerdown]

...while on the topic

how can i transpose from B# to C ?

this has been keeping me up at night

thanks!

[Angstrom]

...while on the topic

how can i transpose from B# to C ?

this has been keeping me up at night

thanks!

I'll leave it to stringtapper to explain why B# is actually a quite real note and yet still different from C.
Personally I wish musical notation had a shakeup a long time ago, 1500a.d. Would have been a good date.

To my mind anything lke "double sharps" is an indication of something awry.
Two sharps and five double sharps is a sign that black is now white, fish walk the streets and dogs talk with the voices of men.