PLEASE HELP! CLUELESS IN TRANSPOSING

[strider]

F#m7, C#m7, B7, etc.....mostly minors

they are written above the lyrics of all songs in our church that are for guitars and keyboards.
I am pretty clueless in transposing all these "minors" and "7".
I can only transpose the standard or the natural keys (A, B, C, D,...)
can anybody please help.

I play the alto and I'm a total beginner -- 10months.

thank you and keep on honking.

[singlereed]

Doesn't matter what the chord type is as far as transposing the note letter: on alto sax, if you see a note or chord, you need to play three semitones lower - eg. for e Em7, your reference is C#m7, if you see a Bb, you play a G and so on. A B #13 b5 if it exists would be G #13 b5 It's helpful to write a table of all the notes in order and write the note you should play on a list. Remember when you play a C, it comes out as Eb (hence, Eb saxophone).

As regards key signatures, you add three sharps/subtract three flats (imagine a linear scale in which flats are negatives and sharps are positives) - so in C major, you add three sharps (F#, C#, G#), and you are in A major. If the music is in Bb major (which has two flats), you play in G major (which has F#). You need to know the order that sharps and flats are added, i.e. F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B# and Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb). For accidentals, flats become naturals and naturals become sharps.

As for what scales to play over all these chords, that is more complicated and perhaps someone else can offer some handy hints!

[strider]

indeed thanks a lot singlereed, now I have an idea how to deal with those little chords above the lyrics. I will surely work on it.

God bless you and keep hinking.

[strider]

ups! sorry, typing mistake...........i mean "keep on honking"

so....for eq: guitar chord F#m7 is equal to D#m7 on alto.....so the scale notes of D#m7 is Eb F Gb Ab Bb C Db following the theory of lowering the 3rd & the 7th by half (read it somewhere). Is this correct? hope anybody can help.

thanks in advance.