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Transposing is the concept or process in music of changing keys by moving notes higher or lower. Garage Band allows you to transpose music by half-tone steps (12 in total). The easiest type of music to transpose is MIDI music.
Each tone in music has a letter name, A-G. After “G”, we repeat with another “A.” The distance between the low and high As is called an octave. The octave is a transposition of 12 half-steps. If we transpose down 24 half-steps, we’ve also transposed down 2 octaves. The easiest way to get make sense of notes in music is to look at a piano keyboard. This page at Lesson Tutor introduces musical notation. You can see a piano keyboard with notes including sharps (#) and flats.
If you are in one “key” your primary note or tone is the letter of that note. The key of “C” is easy for beginners because you can play a scale in “C” without using the black keys on a piano keyboard. For each key, there are 2 basic modes: major, and minor.
The distance between notes on a scale in any key are the same, if you’re in the same mode. A “C major” scale will sound the same as an “F major” scale. C major starts on C: C D E F G A B C. F major, however, starts on F: F G A B-flat C D E F. B-flat? Yes, the key of “F” has one flat in the major mode. 4, in the minor. Black keys are used for “in-between” half-steps because the distance between the notes for the major mode must remain the same. The fourth note up (F in the key of C, B-flat in the key of F) must be 2 half-steps away from the next note (G in C major, and C in F major).
The distance between C-D is 2 half-steps. The note in between C and D is C# (c-sharp). One a keyboard, this is the black key between C and D. If you count all the steps between C-C in the major scale, there are 12 half steps total. When you transpose in GarageBand, you must think in “half steps.” As you probably saw on the picture of the piano keyboard referenced above, the same black key on the keyboard has two names: it’s both a sharp and a flat. C-sharp is the same as D-flat. We simply use different names depending upon which key we’re playing.
The distance between C and G is 7 half steps. So, if you play something in the key of “C”, and want to transpose it to the key of “G”, you tell Garage Band to transpose up 7. Now your music will be in the key of “G,” and you never had to play an F# (G major has one sharp).
Confused yet? Check out Shane’s website that covers basic transposition.
If you’re intrigued by music and the talk of transposition and keys, I encourage you to study music beyond the scope of Garage Band. Here are some common transpositions, in half-steps, that you can use:
Want to hear some transpositions? Listen to three versions of the Heart and Soul melody. The first is in ‘C’, the second is transposed up 7-half steps to the key of ‘G.’ Then, the final version is transposed up a major-third from ‘G’. That’s the key of ‘B’!
Using the track editor in Garage Band, you can change a number of settings to MIDI loops and recorded performances. You can apply transposition by selecting the individual notes in the bar/sequencer view, and move the slider up or down to transpose by half-step (also called semitone). You can also switch view to the notation view, drag the mouse around notes, and transpose these up and down the musical staves.
With MIDI you’ll also see something called “Note Velocity.” Note velocity is a reading from the MIDI keyboard that senses how hard the key was struck. Higher values will result in louder notes. The sensitivity for key presses in MIDI ranges between 1 and 127. Not all keyboards are touch-sensitive, so Garage Band allows you to change this setting manually.
© 2005 by John G. Hendron.
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