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Capo Theory and UsageBy Eric Schlange

The capo is a marvelous invention. Its a little clamp thatpushes down (in most cases) all of the strings on the guitar at

a certain fret, acting like a unmoving barre chord finger.Capos have several uses:

Easily raise the pitch youre playing on guitar. If I havea chord sheet in the key of G, but the song is too lowfor me to sing, I might slap a capo on the 3rd fret inorder to raise the pitch into my best vocal range.

Give variety to the sound when more than one guitaris playing. If Im playing a song without a capo in thekey of E, it may sound better to have a second acoustic guitar playing in C with a capoon the 4th fret. The pitches well be playing will match, but the sound, or timbre of thestrings will be varied, giving the duet a more colorful sound.

Allow you to play chords that work nicely on guitar, even though the song is in a difficultkey (Eb, anyone?). While some musicians may see this as cheating, the truth is thatacoustic guitars sound best when open strings are ringing free, and some chords simplydo not allow for the ringing of open strings.

More advanced players often use partial capoing or a cut capo where a specially-made capo is used to press down only a few of the strings, in effect placing the guitar inan alternate tuning. Partial capoing is outside of the scope of this lesson, but you mightwant to check it out.

Applying the CapoYour capo should be clamped on just behind the fret youre capoing, not in the middle of the fretspace. If you place it in the middle, it will usually press the strings down too far, resulting in too-

sharp notes.

Transposing Using a CapoTo use a capo effectively, you must understand how it works to change the pitch of the songyoure playing. Basically, a capo acts like your index finger in a barre chord. Another way to lookat it is that the capo is a moveable nut (the nut is the white piece of bone or plastic just downthe neck from your first fret). To transpose using a capo, you just need to know the arrangementof the 12 notes used in Western music (note: if you dont have sequence memorized, do itnowits essential to any musician).

C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B

Basically, youve got A-G, with accidentals (sharps # and flats b) between all the notes acceptE-F and B-C. The different in pitch between one note and the note next to it is called a halfstep or semitone. The different in pitch between one note and a note two notes away wouldbe a whole step or tone.

Lets make sure we understand thisThe distance between C and C# is a half step.The distance between C and D is a whole step.The distance between E and F is a half step.

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The distance between C and E is 2 steps.The distance between C and D# is 1-1/2 steps.

Frets are spaced on your guitar in half-step intervals. So if you were to start on any string,on any fret, and just begin playing the notes up the neck on that string, you would have startedsomewhere in the 12-note series above, and you would be playing sequencially through it. Once

you get to the end of the 12 note sequence, the next note will take you back to the beginning,just an octave higher (same note, such as a C, but a higher pitch).

If you place your capo on the first fret, and play your chords relative to the capo, you havesimply raised the pitch of all the chords by one-half step. Playing capoed on the second fret willraise the pitch one whole step, etc, etc. So if you place your capo on the 2nd fret and play a Cchord, youre actually playing a D. (D is a whole step up from C).

To make sure you understand, take a look at this simple chart and see if they make sense.

Capo Fret Position Chord You Play Actual Chord Produced1 E F

2 D E3 B D4 C E5 G C

So, if a songs chord chart is written in the key of E but you capo on the third fret, youre reallyplaying in the key of G. Cool, eh?