Earlier posts in this series look at how to form and play different permutations (or "modes") of a key.

These principles apply to any key, including the key of Gb (a.k.a., F#), as we'll explore here. When you take the 7 notes of the Gb major scale -- Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb, F, Gb -- you create 7 modes starting on each respective note.

Each pattern is a distinct sound because each mode begins and ends on a different note (or "tonic"). In this example, the tonic of Gb Ionian is Gb ... while the tonic of Ab Dorian is Ab ... and so on.

Each sequence of notes sounds nice. But they sound especially good when played as chords -- like these chords of Gb Ionian (a.k.a., Gb major):

The Gb Ionian mode sounds good fleshed out as harmonies because it's really just the major scale pattern. And just like the notes, these same 7 chords can also be arranged into 7 permutations -- like these three patterns, for example:

And the same idea applies to all of the other chords in this key, as you can see here....

There are 12 keys in music. And you can shift (transpose) a song to play any to them, as I explain in this video:

https://youtube.com/live/kKJG4_3hego

On the guitar, key changes are relatively easy using a capo. You just clamp the device onto the instrument’s neck and then play chord shapes to alter the pitch ... where the higher you rise up the fretboard, the higher the pitch.

Or at least this is how most guitarists transpose a song — mindlessly using the capo like a crutch, and never really understanding the underlying theory behind each key change.

If this hits a little close to home, don’t feel too bad. According to legend, famed composer, Irving Berlin, did this too. Only he played the piano. So the process was more involved. It’s said he had a special keyboard made that allowed him to play everything in the key of F# … mechanically moving the piano’s hammers to shift into any key by operating a crank.

But you don’t need to live this way — ignorant to the real theory at play behind key changes.

It turns out, it all pretty easy to understand transposition (a.k.a., the art of changing keys) using the circle of fifths. To illustrate, here are the diagrams that accompany the video. It’s the song, “Can’t Help Falling in Love," in three different keys….

Musicians who can play multiple instruments are amazing, right? Even the name “multi-instrumentalist” sounds impressive. So it seems their supreme talent must be equally impressive.…

But the truth is, that’s not so.

Virtually all instruments in the western world are based on the same underlying patterns. And this is definitely the case with stringed instruments in particular.

This video explains in detail:

And the following diagrams go with the video, where you can see how to play these 8 popular instruments:

When you get down to it, all 8 fingerboard are just subsets or variations of the standard guitar:

At first glance, the guitar fretboard may look like a scrambled pattern of notes. But based on the instrument’s standard tuning, the strings create a very orderly matrix.

Specifically, each string forms a chromatic scale sequence … while every fret follows a circle-of-fifths arrangement.

And this intersection of horizontal strings (chromatic scales) and vertical frets (circles of fifths) results in an an interlaced framework of notes:

This matrix of harmonically related notes informs how to play scales, modes, chords, and progressions in all keys on the guitar (which I explain is more detail in other posts — and in the full music theory course playlist).

But here, the point is that the layout of notes on the guitar is totally logical — again, based on the instruments standard tuning.

But what’s really cool is that this same relationship between the chromatic scale and circle of fifths also informs how the notes on various other stringed instruments are laid out. Because each fingerboard sits at a similar 9or somethings the same) intersection of horizontal and vertical patterns....