Chord transposer
Write a chord progression, choose how far to shift it and in which direction, and read the transposed chords as you type. The symbols are read and rewritten by the toolkit's transpose engine, so the result of a shift is the same here, on the home page and anywhere else the engine is used.
Shift a progression
D A Bm G
Results always use sharp spelling: an F lowered by two semitones reads D# (the same note as Eb).
Chord symbols this page reads
A chord is read as a root note plus everything written after it. The shift rewrites the root, and the bass note of a slash chord with it; the rest of the symbol is kept exactly as it was written, so any suffix the notation uses — m, 7, maj7, sus4 — survives the shift unchanged.
| Written as | Shift | Transposed | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Am | +2 semitones | Bm | A minor chord: the m is part of the suffix and stays with the root. |
| G7 | +2 semitones | A7 | A seventh chord: the 7 belongs to the suffix and moves with the root. |
| G/B | +2 semitones | A/C# | A slash chord: the bass note is transposed together with the root. |
| F | -2 semitones | D# | The result is always spelled with sharps, whatever spelling went in. |
| N.C. | +2 semitones | N.C. | A token that is not a chord — N.C., a bar-repeat %, a barline — comes back unchanged. |
The example progression at every step
The offsets the control above offers, applied to C G Am F by the engine that renders this page:
| Shift | Result |
|---|---|
| -7 semitones | F C Dm A# |
| -6 semitones | F# C# D#m B |
| -5 semitones | G D Em C |
| -4 semitones | G# D# Fm C# |
| -3 semitones | A E F#m D |
| -2 semitones | A# F Gm D# |
| -1 semitones | B F# G#m E |
| +1 semitones | C# G# A#m F# |
| +2 semitones | D A Bm G |
| +3 semitones | D# A# Cm G# |
| +4 semitones | E B C#m A |
| +5 semitones | F C Dm A# |
| +6 semitones | F# C# D#m B |
| +7 semitones | G D Em C |
How far a progression can be shifted
The engine accepts any whole-number shift within ±24 semitones; the control on this page offers ±7. Requests outside the engine's supported range are rejected instead of being accepted silently.
Tokens that are not chords
Anything the engine cannot read as a chord is returned unchanged rather than guessed at, so the N.C. and repeat marks of a lead sheet survive a transposition untouched. The tool above lists the tokens it kept that way as soon as one appears.
Sharp spelling
Results always use sharp spelling: an F lowered by two semitones reads D# (the same note as Eb).