• Registered: 2007-03-13
  • Posts: 7

Topic: I have a "Capo" questions... ;)

I know, I know... on the chees-o-meter that probably tipped the scales, but I just couldn't resist. I really do have a couple questions about the capo. I'm sure this has probably been asked on here 100 million times already, so what's one more time?

First, when you capo, can you do the same chord fingering and still get the same sound? Or is it a whole new set of finger placing? And second, if that's the case, is there any "rule of thumb" or guidelines or charts I can get ahold of to help me? And finally, are there any suggestions on a good capo for beginner guitarists?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and well taken. Thanks so much guys for helping beginners such as myself learn things you won't learn in a classroom. Keep up the awesome work!

  • From: Renfrewshire, Scotland
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 1,359

Re: I have a "Capo" questions... ;)

Hi bruddah,

When you use a capo the fingering for the chords is exactly the same. As you move the capo up the neck each fret raises the pitch of the chord by a semi-tone. E.g. If you are fingering a G major chord and you have the capo on hte 1st fret then you are actually playing a G#. On the 2nd fret it would be an Amajor, and so it goes.  If you were fingering an Am with the capo on the 2nd fret then you are actually playing a Cm. Get the idea.

Use the transpose tool on chordie if you need to change the key of a song to find easier chord shapes or singing key. I find it much easier to work out where to place my capo if I transpose downwards and then you can move the capo up the same amount of semi-tones  as you transposed down. I hope that's understandable.

I prefer the strap on kind rather than the big clamp on ones but it's pretty much just personal preferance.


I found this chart which shows what happens to chords when using a capo. Hope it helps.

http://www.bigcitystring.com/capo.htm

Is anything really made up of zeros and ones??

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