transcription

How do you transcribe from one key to another on guitar? So if I am playing a Amaj blues how would I know what to play in Cmaj? Also what scale could I use to jam with? Is it F# blues or could I use a A blues as well while in the key of A maj?

There's one thing cool with the guitar is transposing licks and riffs. Its so simple.
Lets say your playing inside the world most famous minor pentatonic scale box.
Lets say your playing in Gminor. It looks something like this right?

e|------|------|---o---|------|------|---o---|
b|------|------|---o---|------|------|---o---|
g|------|------|---o---|------|---o--|-------|
D|------|------|---o---|------|---o--|-------|
A|------|------|---o---|------|---o--|-------|
E|------|------|---o---|------|------|---o---|

So if you have a lick in a song in G minor thats played around in this box and you want to play it, lets say in the key of Bb minor, well you play your lick in the same type of scale box but with the first note on the low E string starting on the Bb (wich would be the 6th fret of the low E). Its the same thing with any types of scales/modes.

If you know all your scales shapes, its just a matter of finding out what scales shapes are used in your song then using the same shape in another key and play your melody the same way but in your new spot.

As for what scale to use, a good place to start is to use the scale that matches your key. So if in C major, you could use the C major scale or the C major pentatonic scale to improvise/jam.
When your comfortable with this, try hitting notes that are in the chord that you are playing over. So in a standard 12 bar blues in C, when you go to the 2nd chord (the 4th, wich would be F in this case) try hitting a note from the F major chord (F, A or C) when the chord switches and try to stick around those notes a bit more then the other ones in your scale.

Also, you can just play around the notes in the chord without even thinking of a scale shape (this is often referred as chord tone soloing). Theres a couple of videos here on GT about chord tone soloing that Douglas Showalter did. Neal did a nice channel episode on that recently too.
Here are the links.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=958
http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=21757

You can also switch scales everytime you change chords. And then you can go further and further and the sky is the limit :P As long as it sounds good, its good.

Originally Posted by: MickyDsHow do you transcribe from one key to another on guitar?[/quote]
The term you are looking for there is transpose.

Transposing on the guitar is usually very easy because it simply means to move the pattern of chord or scales up or down the neck. Keep the same exact shape, just move it X number of frets.

When we learned barre chords in GF2 this is exactly what we are doing: transposing to get different chords with the same shape.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=450

Originally Posted by: MickyDs
So if I am playing a Amaj blues how would I know what to play in Cmaj?

The same exact shapes, but 3 frets higher, because that is the distance on the guitar from A to C.

Here's a blues riff in A major. Looks familiar, yes?

|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|--2-2-4-4-5-5-4-4--------------------------|
|--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0--------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|

To transpose this riff to C major simply move the whole pattern, intact, up 3 frets so your root note is on C instead of A.

|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|--5-5-7-7-8-8-7-7--------------------------|
|--3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3--------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|

Make sense?

Next, suppose you are playing blues licks using the A major pentatonic box. Notice that the 1's, the scale root notes, are on A notes.

E ||---|-6-|---|---|-1-|---|---|---|---|
B ||---|-3-|---|---|-5-|---|---|---|---|
G ||---|-1-|---|-2-|---|---|---|---|---|
D ||---|-5-|---|-6-|---|---|---|---|---|
A ||---|-2-|---|-3-|---|---|---|---|---|
E ||---|-6-|---|---|-1-|---|---|---|---|

To transpose this to C major, we simply move the whole pattern, intact, up three frets so that our 1's, scale root notes, are now on Cs.

E ||---|---|---|---|-6-|---|---|-1-|---|---|---|---|
B ||---|---|---|---|-3-|---|---|-5-|---|---|---|---|
G ||---|---|---|---|-1-|---|-2-|---|---|---|---|---|
D ||---|---|---|---|-5-|---|-6-|---|---|---|---|---|
A ||---|---|---|---|-2-|---|-3-|---|---|---|---|---|
E ||---|---|---|---|-6-|---|---|-1-|---|---|---|---|

Make sense?

In this tutorial I play a wide variety of different blues riffs & licks. Lessons 2 & 3 are in A, lesson 8 & 9 are in C.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1108
[QUOTE=MickyDs]Also what scale could I use to jam with? Is it F# blues or could I use a A blues as well while in the key of A maj?

I think what you are looking for here is that you can use either pentatonic major or pentatonic minor to play blues licks. There are lots of options, so it does get confusing.

I show the same group of notes using A minor pentatonic in this tutorial.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1614

And they can also be used to play in C major pentatonic here!

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1646

This tutorial also shows how to incorporate both pentatonic major & minor to use in solo licks.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1441

Have you gone through the Blues Course? Anders does a great job of explaining soloing ideas in those courses!

Also, in the above tutorial I show a bunch of different approaches to blues licks. In these tutorials I show you the basic ideas that most blues licks are based on. They are all in A, but are all transposable to C by moving them up 3 frets! :)

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=217
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=232
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=826
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=244

Ask more if necessary. Have fun!

Transpose. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that. Thank you both for the tips I will be checking out all these videos. I recently dislocated my shoulder so it is painful to play but I am working through the videos on blues and rock and have made it through the fundamental videos. Thanks again.

I should be transcribing more myself anyway. Thanks for the reminder.