Im trying to make a decent sounding version out of Guster's song "Demons" but need help transposing it. The original is played on two guitars, rhythm and lead. I can play both parts but to play it solo I have a problem. The lead is in G (capo 3) and the rhythm is in A (capo 5).
I want to play the song in G so what would the transpositions be for these chords (relative to capo on 5)-Em-C-G-D. I would think it would be Dm-B-F-C, but that sounds completely wrong when played, not to mention being rather difficult to finger in a fast rhythm. Any advice? If it'd be easier for someone to transpose the lead part up a step I can tab it out in another post....
"How could you possibly be scared of being bad? Once you get past that, it's all beautiful." -Trey Anastasio
Hi
Your transposed chords are slightly off and that's why it sounds wrong. Your B should be Bb, as Bb is a whole step down from C. B is only a half a step.
Does the lead (with the capo on the third fret) have many open strings? How many of the notes are on the first frets? The chances are likely that you may not have much problem at all transposing the lead up a step.
Another way of looking at it, though, is that the rhythm part, given what you've told us, is in Am when you play it without a capo. The chords would be as follows:
Am, F, C and G
It's quite possible you could manage to play both the rhythm and the lead totally without the capo.
Hope this helps.
Peace
The lead part has a lot of open strings, I mainly need it for the intro which is pretty much the signature part of the song....
In relation to capo...
e---0----0-0-0---0-0-0--0-0-0--0-0-0-0-------------
B----3h5-5-5-5---3-3-3--1-1-1--0-0-0--------------
G-------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------------------------- and repeat so on with some variation
A-------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------
I'm not sure what I should do with it from there
"How could you possibly be scared of being bad? Once you get past that, it's all beautiful." -Trey Anastasio
Figuring out capos can be confusing, because you're moving in opposite directions. The rule is: 'capo up, chord down; capo down, chord up'.
You can easily get lost when you're thinking 'this is an Em fingering' when it's not an Em chord, so even though it's an extra step, start by figuring out what the chords would be in open position.
Since you're moving the capo down five frets (to zero), you need to move each root note UP five frets to find out the chord names. The chords become Am-F-C-G.
Now figure a capo at the third fret... you're moving the capo up, so all the chords move down.
Raising Am by three frets means you count DOWN three frets from A to find your chord... an F# root. Repeat that with the other chords, and you get:
F#m-D-A-E
Try those against your lead part.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Thanks Noteboat, those chords sound close, not quite exact, but close enough. Im thinking that's what he actually plays though, I know his hand does some barre chords that I haven't found in any tabs but are there. Oh well, sounds good enough for me.
Maybe I'll get this transposing thing someday... :?
"How could you possibly be scared of being bad? Once you get past that, it's all beautiful." -Trey Anastasio
