Learning to transpose, a.k.a. "Picking music out of the air"

One great way to become more flexible on your instrument which is often overlooked is to learn melodies in all twelve keys.  While this may seem like a daunting task for some, I assure you that it is not.  I have successfully taught fifth graders how to play certain tunes in all keys.  If you know all your scales, even in just one octave and even if they’re not all perfect, you’re ready to start transposing.  Budget about 5-10 minutes a day of your practice time for this endeavor.  Start with an easy tune like “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and go through every key in the order of the circle of fourths.  This may take several days or even weeks if you’ve never done it before.  By the time you get through 10 or 20 tunes, you will probably find that it only takes you one day to learn a tune.  By the time you learn 40-50, you’re probably doing several every day.  The ultimate goal is for transposing to simply be a natural skill you posses, that as soon as a melody is learned you can easily transpose it to any key. 

Why should you do this? This ability will do wonders for your ears, your technique in “unfriendly” keys, and your theoretical knowledge.  It will put you in the top 5% of instrumentalists, and will make you that much more marketable. I have to pick tunes out of the air all the time in church gigs, often after only hearing the song once or twice. There is also an important practical reason. Say you've been playing for a year or so. When Aunt Myrtle comes to visit, she'll want to hear you demonstrate your new skill. She'll probably say "play me something." If you're anything like me, your mind goes totally blank when someone asks you this question. Even in high school and college, my palms would start to sweat just thinking of "something" to play. Sure, you could play whatever scales or method book exercises you're working on, and Aunt Myrtle probably wouldn't mind. But she doesn't know those songs. Aunt Myrtle knows Christmas songs, church hymns, and Happy Birthday. Wouldn't it be great if you could make Aunt Myrtle happy by playing something you know how to play because you've developed the skill of picking tunes out of the air?

There are different methods people use to help them transpose tunes.  Some people prefer to assign a scale degree number to every note.  For example, Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony would become 1-1-3-3-5-5-3, 4-4-2-2-7-7-5.  Others prefer to think of everything intervallically.  The same piece would then be “root, root, up M3, unison, up m3, unison, down m3, up m2,”, etc.  Still others are able to extract the bigger harmonic picture and think in shapes.  That same piece would then be “Ascending and descending tonic major triad, then descending dominant 7th chord.”  If these last two methods are over your head, don’t worry.  Start with the number method, and as you study more music, you’ll learn much more about intervals and functional harmony.  I hesitate to advocate any single method for learning to transpose, though, because I’ve found this thought process to be very personal.  I actually use a combination of all three of the above methods when I am transposing.  The only method I discourage is the trial-and-error, or “hunt and peck” method.  By guessing, you’ll only waste time and get frustrated.  Think through a tune so that you can play it in the new key perfectly the first time, even if it’s at a very slow tempo.  You’ll learn much faster and your progress will be much swifter.  This is not a skill you will develop overnight.  This is why your list should be so extensive.  Your progress will be measured in months and years, not days.  The end result makes all the mental strain worthwhile.

I have a sample list of tunes included on my site, but I won't post it here because this article is already lengthy. Instead, I'll list some categories that should serve as memory-joggers. Write down every tune you know. In this context, "know" doesn't mean you can play it start to finish. If you can recognize the song when someone plays it, you know it. Here are some sample categories:

• Christmas carols
• Nursery Rhymes
• Patriotic songs
• Broadway show tunes
• Movie music, especially Disney and John Williams
• Classical themes
• Hymns/religious songs
• Traditional/folk songs
• Jazz tunes