Brother Musician Podcast
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Brother Musician Podcast
Growth vs. Survival: What Your Relationship with the Transpose Button Reveals
Every musician faces a crossroads in their journey: pursue technical excellence or simply get the job done? The transpose button sits at the center of this tension, especially in church music settings.
As someone who relied heavily on transposing early in my career, I've experienced both the liberation and limitation it provides. Only when seasoned musicians challenged me did I realize how much it was holding back my musical development. Yet I've also come to appreciate its practical value in communities facing severe musician shortages.
The numbers tell a striking story: my city has 230 churches but only 49 pianists. This shortage creates a practical reality where the ability to show up consistently often matters more than whether you're transposing. Churches need reliable musicians who enable worship to continue, regardless of how they achieve it.
This conversation isn't about condemning those who transpose but encouraging growth wherever you are. Whether you're learning one key per month, improving your sight-reading, or developing vocal coaching skills, everyone has room for improvement. Even musical giants like Cory Henry, Oscar Peterson, and Art Tatum had areas where they could grow.
What matters most is your attitude: are you committed to continuous improvement while faithfully serving with the skills you possess? Whether you're a church musician, a side-hustler making extra income, or pursuing music professionally, your journey should include both excellence and practical service.
What's your take on the transpose debate? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and let's continue this important conversation about musical growth and ministry needs.
Hi, I'm Rico Anthony. You're watching the Brother Musician podcast. Thank you so much for watching tuning in. Today we're going to be discussing a very important topic, a very talked about topic, a very popular topic on this last few weeks transposing.
Speaker 1:Transposing is a very touchy subject. It is very dear to my heart because I started out playing transposing I didn't know any better. I didn't know that, you know, I was supposed to learn my keys. I just knew that I could hit this button and I could make that key sound like any key that I wanted to sound like. And it wasn't until I got around older musicians that weren't transposing. That told me hey, man, you need to learn your stuff. Man, you need to learn your mess. One of my friends would say you need to learn your keys, man, because it's limiting you, and they were telling the truth. It was. But the transpose button in that season of my life, it got me through the season that I needed to get me through. Um, so, but let's dig in just a little bit deeper on that transpose button, because there are.
Speaker 1:I live in Greenville, north Carolina. There are 230 churches here. Um, there are about a hundred thousand people, I think. I think, since it says it's about 95,000 people here, about 230 churches, but there are only about 49 pianists. So, with that being said, you could take that number um and triple it and you still wouldn't get to the number of churches that are here. So, um, as far as it being a job or a a side hustle, I I mean, hey, it's, it's a, it's a market that's needed. Churches actually need musicians, people actually need music for their functions and their birthday parties, and everybody's not going to be on that level of excellence to where it really matters. They they're just trying to cover the lack of it not being a musician in place, so they're going to do whatever they need to do Now, at some point in every musician's life.
Speaker 1:I think we get to. We get to decide if we're going to really take this thing serious and grow, or if we're just going to, you know, just keep getting by, just keep hitting the button. Hey, this is a side hustle for me. I'm making two hundred dollars a week, I'm making three hundred dollars a week. This is not something that I really take serious. Hey, that's your decision to do that. But if you want to grow, if you want to get better, then I would recommend learning all your keys, but if you don't, I was man. I was the musician that bashed Like I was the man.
Speaker 1:I almost can't respect your plan if you were a transposer, until I started to realize that everybody's not going to want to do this full time. Everybody's not going to want to be full time in music ministry. Some people just do it because of the lack of musicians that are available. Hey, I know I can't be everywhere at the same time, but the same way that I talk about transposing and learning your keys, I also preach. Hey, if you can learn how to read, learn how to read. You know, that's something that I'm working on, even currently. I know how to read, but being fluent in my reading, you know what I mean. That will be, that will be another thing that will be really, really good, just as important to me as transposing or even, um, outside of reading, learning how to teach vocal parts. Um, that's another thing that's really, really important.
Speaker 1:So, as we break this transposing thing down, remember there are other areas that we could also grow. Um, nobody has gotten everything. You know what I mean. I mean there are some greats, you know. You know, you got your Corey Henry's and you got the. You know the Oscar Peterson and you know the the um, uh, uh art Tatum's. You know that just can wow you on the instrument. But I, I mean, I've come to learn that everybody has room for growth or some type of improvement. And so this transposed conversation has sparked you to want to get better, hey, that's a great conversation. But if it has sparked, if it has sparked or killed your confidence, just understand you can still do what you need to do and grow quietly. Hey, if you learn one key a month by the end of the year, that's 12 keys that you've learned. Or if you decide not to do it, hey, I appreciate your help and helping the ministries go forward.
Speaker 1:But I get calls every single week, every month, at least every two weeks about is there a musician available? Do you know of a musician? We need a musician at my church, and the number one reason that I can't call them has nothing to do with transpose. It has everything to do with their ability to show up. So if you're a church, if you're one of the 230 churches that are in just Greenville, north Carolina, alone, and you're looking for a musician, you'd rather have they'd probably rather have a musician that transposed, rather than somebody that's not going to show up because we don't really take the craft as serious.
Speaker 1:Am I advocating transposed? Absolutely not. I think it hinders your growth. But I am telling you, if you are transposing, desire to get better if you can't read, desire to read if you can. If there's a hole in your game anywhere when it comes down to down to playing the piano, fix the hole, cause we can all grow and get better. Hey, that's my two cents on transposing and I didn't want to cover it too long or too hard because I really want to see and hear what you guys have to say in the comments concerning transposing. Have a great day.