Free online tool
Chord Transposer: Transpose Chords Online, Free
Chord transposer: paste a chord sheet, shift it up or down any number of semitones or to a new key. Keeps chords above the right words. Copy or print.
About the Chord Transposer
Chord Transposer is a free browser tool that moves every chord in a chord sheet up or down to a new key. Paste your sheet, and it shifts the chords by any number of semitones or from one key to another, keeping each chord above the right words.
It is useful when you need to transpose music for a singer with a different range, find easier chord shapes on guitar, or convert a song in a key that doesn’t suit you. You can copy or print the result. The tool runs in your web browser with no sign-up, and nothing you enter is uploaded.
How to use the Chord Transposer
- Paste your chord sheet into the box. It can have chords written above lyrics, inline brackets such as [Am]Hello, or a plain list of chords. To try the tool first, press Load example.
- Choose how far to move the song: press − or + next to Transpose by to go down or up one semitone at a time.
- To move to a specific key instead, use Or: from key → to key. The first menu is the original key (Auto-detect guesses it from your chords), the second is the new key, and Major / Minor sets the key type.
- Leave the accidentals on Auto to get sharps or flats that suit the new key. Or press Sharps ♯ or Flats ♭ to force one.
- Check the Transposed panel. Chords change, while lyrics, headings and spacing stay as you typed them.
- Press Copy to paste the result somewhere else, or Print to print it.
Press Clear to empty the box and start again.
The most useful tips for the Chord Transposer are to confirm the original key and to check the result before you copy or print. The tool guesses the starting key from the chords, so if the guess is wrong, every chord shifts by the wrong amount. Set the from-key menu yourself when you know the key.
- A single word on its own line, such as a lone “A”, is read as the chord A and gets transposed. Check those lines.
How many semitones is it from one key to another?#
A semitone is the smallest step in Western music, the distance from one key on a piano to the next one, including black keys. To find the number of semitones between two keys, count upward from the old tonic (the note the key is named after) to the new one. Transposing by that count moves every chord by the same amount.
| Move | Semitones | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Up a whole tone | +2 | C to D |
| Up a minor third | +3 | C to Eb |
| Up a perfect fourth | +5 | C to F |
| Up a perfect fifth | +7 | C to G |
| Down a whole tone | −2 | G to F |
| Down a minor third | −3 | G to E |
C to E is 4 semitones, C to A is 9, and C to B is 11. Twelve semitones is one octave, which brings you back to the same note name. Going down works the same way: a negative number moves the song lower.
Transposing moves every note of a piece by the same interval, so the tune keeps its shape but sits higher or lower. For a chord sheet, this means each chord root, and each slash-chord bass note, moves by the same number of semitones. The chord type (minor, seventh, suspended and so on) stays the same.
Chords also keep their relationship to each other. A I–IV–V–vi progression stays I–IV–V–vi in any key. In C it is C–F–G–Am; in D it is D–G–A–Bm.
Why does it show A# in one song and Bb in another?#
A♯ and B♭ are the same pitch written two ways. Which name is correct depends on the key the song is in. On Auto, the tool follows the usual key-signature convention. The keys of F, B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭ and G♭ major, and their minor keys (D, G, C, F, B♭ and E♭ minor), use flats. Other keys use sharps.
So a song that moves into G♭ major shows its notes with flats, and moving F up one semitone prints G♭ rather than F♯. Press Sharps ♯ if you prefer F♯. The tool never produces C♭, F♭, E♯ or B♯, so a G♭-major song shows B rather than C♭.