This exactly. Transposing and arranging songs away from their original key is something I do almost daily as part of my job. Even the kids in the choir have no idea that we're not in the original key unless a) they are listening to it on an mp3 simultaneous with me playing or the change makes it harder for them to sing in their vocal range (usually the opposite is true because I transpose to make the songs fit better into a choral vocal range).Originally Posted by NorthernChaosGod
He finally ended the conversation by saying I was wrong, knew nothing about music theory and that it was pointless to talk to me. Of course, that's not before he misconstrued my point about a guitarist with a capo wanting to know the chord position they were playing rather than knowing the actual chord. (If you want a guitarist to play a B with the capo on the 4th fret, you would tell them to play a G). He proceeded to explain to me how each of the guitar strings worked and how chords are spelled on them and told me that I was wrong about the chords.
He said I didn't understand the basics of guitar and that someone with a capo on said fret wouldn't be playing a G, but a B (something I'd already stated, but he had decided missed). My point being that if I told them to play a B through a tab or in person they would most likely try to play a B barre chord and end up sounding a D#.
I'm sure there are some guitarists out here who have looked for tabs and would be horrified to find a chord sheet that told them to put the capo on a given fret and then only told them what the sounding chords were rather than physical chord shapes they were playing.
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