Hello,
I am very new to banjo but am quite familiar with fiddle, and transposing tunes to my preferred keys is something I do on the fiddle.
It's quite simple, just moving the tune up or down the staff (of sheet music) as needed. As a tune in Em may start on an E, I use that as an anchor note to place on the new desired key note, like moving the whole tune up three notes to Am. Basically.
So Im gettin on the clawhammer banjo now for a month or two and I want to just find tunes from wherever, (like some fiddle tunes), and transpose it to G, making the Key note the G-string. I have done this now for a couple tunes and it works pretty good.
But, I have noticed that other key tunes are played while in open G tuning. With no capo? So how would I transpose a tune into another key while still in open G? (And what are the best keys?) I'm guessing here but, do the other keys that can be used need to "harmonize" with G?
Such as D, or Bm, or Em...? And if so, would I just set the base note of the tune on the desired new key note (on the fingerboard) and transpose it from there? Then get on and play it, and work it into a set of other such tunes that all are played in open G tuning, playing in different keys, all the while the open tuning ringing out nicely?
So if you can help me here that would be awesome. Thanks