C F G G7 #### C# F# G# G#7 #### use strict; use warnings; my %notes_hash = ( 'A' => 0, 'A#' => 1, 'B' => 2, 'C' => 3, 'C#' => 4, 'D' => 5, 'D#' => 6, 'E' => 7, 'F' => 8, 'F#' => 9, 'G' => 10, 'G#' => 11 ); my @notes_array = ( sort( keys(%notes_hash) ) ); sub transpose { my ( $note, $amount ) = @_; my ( $base_note, $modifiers ) = $note =~ m/^([ABCDEFG]#?)(.*)/; return $notes_array[ ( ( $notes_hash{$base_note} + $amount ) % 12 ) ] . $modifiers; } print transpose( 'C#7', 1 );