As I’m sure you are all aware, there is a musical alphabet that we all know and love, and it goes as follows...

A,B,C,D,E,F,G

Now this is simple enough. It’s only 7 letters long, and I’ll bet you can you say “A-B-C-D-E-F-G!!” In a fraction a second, with little to no effort. But how fast can you say that sequence backwards?? Take a second to close your eyes and try it out. When you're finished, ask yourself this question: “How hard did I have to think about that?" If you're having to put any effort into it at all, then you're putting in more than you need to. Could you do this as fast as you could saying it forward??

Let’s take this a step further. What’s 3 steps down from G? What’s 4 steps down from F?

The problem this can create is that you end up having to put more thought and effort into playing your instrument than you need to. This can apply to chord progressions,leads, or whatever exercises you happen to be working on. In addition, this can factor heavily into your ability to transpose songs into different keys (which often needs to be done on the fly). Knowing the musical alphabet both forward and backward can significantly improve the time and effort you need to put into these activities. So go practice your G-F-E-D-C-B-A’s and soon, you'll find you'll have one less thing to worry about...

Written by: Christopher Bright

Tags: transposing, guitar, bass, keys, christopher bright