April 10, 2025 • 13 mins
Ever found yourself perfecting a song in one key, only to discover it's completely wrong for your vocalist? That's where the humble capo enters as your musical superhero.
This deep dive into capo technique goes far beyond the basics, unraveling the mathematical relationships between fret positions and key changes. We explore how this small device transforms your playing while preserving muscle memory and chord shapes. When you've mastered that beautiful fingerpicking pattern in G but need to play in A-flat, your capo becomes the bridge between what you've practiced and what you need to perform.
Communication becomes particularly interesting when working with different instrumentalists. While guitarists might casually mention "playing in G with capo 2," pianists and horn players need translation into their musical language. Understanding these nuances prevents confusion during rehearsals and performances.
The distinction between "cheater tool" and "essential equipment" becomes clear as we discuss the unique tonal qualities of open positions versus barre chords. Some melodic passages simply cannot be replicated in different positions, making the capo indispensable for preserving a song's character while accommodating vocal ranges or other instrumental limitations.
Whether you're playing in a church band with last-minute key changes or collaborating with singers of varied ranges, mastering capo mathematics elevates your versatility without requiring you to reinvent your technique for every new musical situation. Ready to transform your approach to transposition and unlock new possibilities on your six-string journey?
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
All right, now that you know how to use a capo, what we
want to do is talk a little bitabout the mathematics of using
the capo.
Okay, so, for instance, if youknew a song that was in the key
of G and you were playing G andC and D and a singer comes in
and they're going to sing thissong with you and you've learned
(00:21):
how to play this in the key ofG, but as soon as you start
playing, you recognize thatmaybe this key doesn't work for
this singer, for whatever reason.
You know, maybe the singer hasa bit higher voice, or whatever
it might be.
So that's obviously the perfectopportunity to start using a
capo.
You can still maintain all ofthe open chord, tonality, you
can still maintain all yourthoughts on how you're actually
(00:44):
playing this song, how youpractice it, all that kind of
stuff.
Everything can be the same.
You're just going to add thecapo and start changing the key.
So I have a couple of differentcapos here.
This is kind of a typical capothat you would see.
Okay, just something like thatwhere you squeeze and right, it
opens and closes.
And then there are other caposthere's, you know, fancier capos
that have, you know, like alittle, you know, trigger.
(01:07):
If you will, that work a littlebit better sometimes, because
with a capo, sometimes whathappens is the capo might pull
the strings a little bit andyou'll recognize whether that is
or is not happening on yourguitar, depending on which capo
you have and what you hear.
So anyway, what I'm going touse, I'm just going to use the
traditional old school capo here, okay.
So let's say I put this on thefirst fret, okay.
(01:30):
So now what would happen iseverything that I was doing
would now be one fret higher,which means if I was playing in
the key of G, playing G, c and Dvisually I'm still seeing G and
C and D, but the audio right,what's actually happening with
the pitches would be one frethigher, which you want to know
your chromatic scale, becausethat would be very helpful to
(01:52):
you to know the math conversionhere.
So now, all of a sudden,instead of playing G, I'd have
to play it one fret higher,which means I'm now playing in
the key of G, sharp, or morecommonly called the key of A
flat.
Okay, now it can be confusingwhen you're talking to other
musicians, because you're stillthinking G, c and D, and if
(02:13):
you're with a bunch of guitarplayers, you use terminology
like oh, let's play in the keyof G, but just capo the first
fret.
Okay, that makes sense.
G, c, d, capo, first fret.
That's the language that we use.
But if you were playing withsome other instruments, if you
were playing with a saxophoneplayer and a piano player and
whatever, they're not going tounderstand that language unless
(02:33):
they play guitar.
So you've got to tell them whatyou're actually doing.
So you, as a guitar player, arethinking G, c and D, but you've
got a capo at the first fret.
So you're actually playing Gsharp, c sharp and D sharp,
which, again, commonly we mightcall these things A flat, d flat
and E flat.
Now, if that terminology screwsyou up at all, you want to
(02:56):
learn what those things are,understanding your chromatic
scale, all 12 notes and thenunderstanding that if you say C
sharp, it has an alternate namewhich is D flat or G sharp has A
flat, and again, you couldlearn all of that, but it's
important to understand that.
So now you know we're gettingcloser, so we start playing the
(03:16):
song again.
Okay, so for us as guitarplayers, nothing's really
changing other than the factthat we have the capo on the
guitar.
We're still visually thinkingabout the G, the C and the D.
We're still working on it thesame way we did it when we were
practicing at home, but maybeit's still a little too low, so
now we've got to move it up.
So we move it up to the secondfret.
(03:37):
Again.
Nothing is changing for me interms of my visualization.
Obviously, the sound ischanging, but the way I'm
thinking about the song is stillstaying the same.
Now this G would be two fretshigher, which means G is
actually A, c is actually D andD is actually E.
(04:00):
And you can see where that canget confusing.
That's why when you're workingin the guitar world, people will
just say oh, it's in the key ofG, second capo, second fret.
So we've got it cleared,because if I say A, then it's
like well, why it doesn't looklike A to me, right?
So that's where the confusionhappens.
So you always have to rememberwho are you talking to.
(04:20):
Are you talking to other guitarplayers that understand capo 2?
We're still playing G, right, g, c and D, but capo 2.
Or are we talking to othermusicians where we'd have to
define this?
Now you can see where, in thiscase, g has become A, c has
become D and D has become E,because we're two frets higher.
So then the question ariseswell, why not just play A, d and
(04:44):
E then?
And the answer is well, youcould, okay.
What will change, though, isthe tone will change a little
bit, because when you were here,of course, you were playing
like that D chord had a realhigh sound to it, right, so it
(05:04):
kind of sounds like it's movingup.
When I play in the key of withthese chords, you see, now it's
the same chords, but it sounds alittle bit different because
we're going from A up here to Dand then down to this low E
sound.
The other thing that'ssignificant about this is that
it's changed in your mind.
Like, if you've been practicingand you've been thinking about
(05:26):
G, c and D, well, now you'vegotta convert this in your mind
to A, d and E, and that's okay.
Again, if you have time,there's nothing wrong with that,
right?
But if it's on the fly, andmaybe that would confuse you,
well, hey, that's a perfectreason that you'd want to use a
capo.
Okay, so if I put that capoback on, here's another instance
(05:47):
.
Let's say I was doing somethingwhere the melody is doing
something where I'm going.
Well, let me just show you this.
So that's what it sounded like,right, that's what the song was
.
That I was learning how to play, so, even though I could put
this in A.
(06:07):
That I was learning how to play.
So, even though I could putthis in A, I can't do that
picking melody if I change this.
So that'd be a prime example ofwhy a capo would be beneficial.
You see, when I was growing up,capos were considered these
cheater things and I suppose insome way, they are like if you
(06:28):
don't learn your bar chords orsomething like that, but a capo
isn't always gonna be be theanswer, because you're still
going to wind up having to playbar chords at some point in your
life, so it's worth learningthem.
But I think a capo is really,really important for exactly
what we're talking about now tokeep the consistency of what it
is that you're doing.
Because if what I want to playis is that if I take the capo
(06:52):
off and play it as A, d and E, Ican't get that same thing
happening, the only way I canreally do that is by playing the
chord shapes that I'm playingnow and then just moving this up
and down relative to, again,whatever the limitation might be
.
Now, limitations might consistof knowledge, right, limitations
might consist of knowledge,right, you only know certain
(07:13):
chords, or you don't know yourbar chords, or other musicians
that you're playing with can'tdo this or this, this.
So physical limitations, skilllimitations, right, knowledge
limitations.
The second thing would belimitations of the instrument
itself, and you think about avoice.
That's a prime example.
You know everybody can't singeverything in every key, like.
Usually, the voice has morelimitations.
(07:35):
The guitar has less of thoselimitations if we learn enough
about it.
But there are other instrumentsas well that might have certain
limitations, and so that'swhere all of this conversation
winds up, coming in to play.
So for me, you know, if I windup playing, for instance, a
prime example of when I mightuse a capo would be in the
(07:55):
church band setting.
So I play in church once in awhile and I'll learn songs.
I learn the parts, the specificparts of things.
And then if I get to church andwe need to change the key or
something like that, that's fine.
And as long as I can, stillwhatever the song might need, I
could still do that.
Otherwise, if I switch chordsand I'm playing it in different
(08:18):
chord voicings and all that kindof stuff, I might not be able
to do that anymore.
Now, that's okay, unless it'sreally pertinent to the song.
Then I might want to use thatcapo, right?
Or if, for some reason, it justmakes more sense in my head to
stay using the shapes of G, cand D or whatever, it might be
(08:41):
right, then I'll use a cable forthat, okay.
So sometimes it's because oflimitations, sometimes it's
because you don't want to alterwhat you're thinking in your
head, and sometimes because youreally do need to keep it
consistent to have that sametonality to be able to do the
same execution of things.
Okay.
So if you think about ittonality to be able to do the
same execution of things Okay.
So if you think about it, whatyou need to be able to do is use
the chromatic scale and thenreadjust.
(09:03):
Now, if you know your theory,which I would strongly recommend
if you know your basic chordtheory right 1, 4, 5 being major
, 2, 3, 6 being minor, like ifyou know that, okay.
So if you're in the key of G,for instance, you know G, c and
D would be the 1, 4, and 5.
And if you don't know that,again you can learn that it's
something that's fairlystraightforward.
(09:24):
But G, c and D would be the 1,4, 5.
So, if you think about it, if Ineeded to redo this let's say,
for instance, I need to go theother direction, I need to go
down right, the key that'sworking isn't functioning and
I'm not going to move up, I needto do something else.
Well then I need to convertthis and I need to think okay,
(09:45):
so GCD is my 145.
Okay, so, as long as I've got a145 available.
So if I wanted to move down,I'd be on F sharp.
So if I wanted to move down,I'd be on F sharp, okay, which
isn't going to work.
Obviously, if I move down again, it's going to be F, which
might work, but it'd put me inbar chords.
So let's just say I was movingdown one fret to F sharp, okay,
so that's not going to work.
(10:06):
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to choose F sharp
somewhere else.
So I might take D, d, sharp, e,f, f sharp.
D, d, sharp, e, f, f sharp.
You see what I did.
So G.
We want to move down a halfstep.
So G becomes F sharp.
Well, I can't play that downthere, so I'm going to find
something else.
I could try C, but then I'mgoing to go C, d, e, f sharp.
I'm going to be way up here,which is okay, but of course the
(10:28):
further up you go, the smallerthe frets get.
So maybe a better choice wouldbe moving E or D E F sharp up
here.
Now, of course I could havemoved E to F sharp, but let's
say we're trying to stay awayfrom the bar chords for whatever
reason.
Maybe we want more of that openchord kind of sound.
So D E, f sharp, d E, f sharp,okay, so I'm going to put this
(10:55):
on here.
And now I've got F sharp.
Now again it's a D shape in myhead.
So if I think about it, one,four, five, it'd be D, g, a.
So there I go.
So I'm ready to go.
So I'm ready to go, right, orwhatever it is, I'm playing.
(11:22):
Whatever it is I want to play,I've mathematically figured out
where I need to go.
Okay, it's just now.
I have to be aware that eventhough my brain is thinking D
and G and A, in reality, ofcourse, because the capo is here
.
That's not the case.
It's actually going to be Fsharp B and C sharp right.
So it takes a little bit to getused to.
(11:44):
But that's what I want you tounderstand about the capo is why
you would use a capo when it'sgood to use a capo.
And in reality, as guitarplayers, sometimes we want to
retain that thought that we'vegot on how we're playing
something or we really do needto keep it for a particular
reason of the picking that we'reusing.
And if we were to switch thoseshapes entirely, we wouldn't
have the availability of beingable to do that thing anymore.
(12:06):
So just something for you tothink about a little bit.
All right, now that you know how to use a capo, what we
want to do is talk a little bitabout the mathematics of using
the capo.
Okay, so, for instance, if youknew a song that was in the key
of G and you were playing G andC and D and a singer comes in
and they're going to sing thissong with you and you've learned
(00:21):
how to play this in the key ofG, but as soon as you start
playing, you recognize thatmaybe this key doesn't work for
this singer, for whatever reason.
You know, maybe the singer hasa bit higher voice, or whatever
it might be.
So that's obviously the perfectopportunity to start using a
capo.
You can still maintain all ofthe open chord, tonality, you
can still maintain all yourthoughts on how you're actually
(00:44):
playing this song, how youpractice it, all that kind of
stuff.
Everything can be the same.
You're just going to add thecapo and start changing the key.
So I have a couple of differentcapos here.
This is kind of a typical capothat you would see.
Okay, just something like thatwhere you squeeze and right, it
opens and closes.
And then there are other caposthere's, you know, fancier capos
that have, you know, like alittle, you know, trigger.
(01:07):
If you will, that work a littlebit better sometimes, because
with a capo, sometimes whathappens is the capo might pull
the strings a little bit andyou'll recognize whether that is
or is not happening on yourguitar, depending on which capo
you have and what you hear.
So anyway, what I'm going touse, I'm just going to use the
traditional old school capo here, okay.
So let's say I put this on thefirst fret, okay.
(01:30):
So now what would happen iseverything that I was doing
would now be one fret higher,which means if I was playing in
the key of G, playing G, c and Dvisually I'm still seeing G and
C and D, but the audio right,what's actually happening with
the pitches would be one frethigher, which you want to know
your chromatic scale, becausethat would be very helpful to
(01:52):
you to know the math conversionhere.
So now, all of a sudden,instead of playing G, I'd have
to play it one fret higher,which means I'm now playing in
the key of G, sharp, or morecommonly called the key of A
flat.
Okay, now it can be confusingwhen you're talking to other
musicians, because you're stillthinking G, c and D, and if
(02:13):
you're with a bunch of guitarplayers, you use terminology
like oh, let's play in the keyof G, but just capo the first
fret.
Okay, that makes sense.
G, c, d, capo, first fret.
That's the language that we use.
But if you were playing withsome other instruments, if you
were playing with a saxophoneplayer and a piano player and
whatever, they're not going tounderstand that language unless
(02:33):
they play guitar.
So you've got to tell them whatyou're actually doing.
So you, as a guitar player, arethinking G, c and D, but you've
got a capo at the first fret.
So you're actually playing Gsharp, c sharp and D sharp,
which, again, commonly we mightcall these things A flat, d flat
and E flat.
Now, if that terminology screwsyou up at all, you want to
(02:56):
learn what those things are,understanding your chromatic
scale, all 12 notes and thenunderstanding that if you say C
sharp, it has an alternate namewhich is D flat or G sharp has A
flat, and again, you couldlearn all of that, but it's
important to understand that.
So now you know we're gettingcloser, so we start playing the
(03:16):
song again.
Okay, so for us as guitarplayers, nothing's really
changing other than the factthat we have the capo on the
guitar.
We're still visually thinkingabout the G, the C and the D.
We're still working on it thesame way we did it when we were
practicing at home, but maybeit's still a little too low, so
now we've got to move it up.
So we move it up to the secondfret.
(03:37):
Again.
Nothing is changing for me interms of my visualization.
Obviously, the sound ischanging, but the way I'm
thinking about the song is stillstaying the same.
Now this G would be two fretshigher, which means G is
actually A, c is actually D andD is actually E.
(04:00):
And you can see where that canget confusing.
That's why when you're workingin the guitar world, people will
just say oh, it's in the key ofG, second capo, second fret.
So we've got it cleared,because if I say A, then it's
like well, why it doesn't looklike A to me, right?
So that's where the confusionhappens.
So you always have to rememberwho are you talking to.
(04:20):
Are you talking to other guitarplayers that understand capo 2?
We're still playing G, right, g, c and D, but capo 2.
Or are we talking to othermusicians where we'd have to
define this?
Now you can see where, in thiscase, g has become A, c has
become D and D has become E,because we're two frets higher.
So then the question ariseswell, why not just play A, d and
(04:44):
E then?
And the answer is well, youcould, okay.
What will change, though, isthe tone will change a little
bit, because when you were here,of course, you were playing
like that D chord had a realhigh sound to it, right, so it
(05:04):
kind of sounds like it's movingup.
When I play in the key of withthese chords, you see, now it's
the same chords, but it sounds alittle bit different because
we're going from A up here to Dand then down to this low E
sound.
The other thing that'ssignificant about this is that
it's changed in your mind.
Like, if you've been practicingand you've been thinking about
(05:26):
G, c and D, well, now you'vegotta convert this in your mind
to A, d and E, and that's okay.
Again, if you have time,there's nothing wrong with that,
right?
But if it's on the fly, andmaybe that would confuse you,
well, hey, that's a perfectreason that you'd want to use a
capo.
Okay, so if I put that capoback on, here's another instance
(05:47):
.
Let's say I was doing somethingwhere the melody is doing
something where I'm going.
Well, let me just show you this.
So that's what it sounded like,right, that's what the song was
.
That I was learning how to play, so, even though I could put
this in A.
(06:07):
That I was learning how to play.
So, even though I could putthis in A, I can't do that
picking melody if I change this.
So that'd be a prime example ofwhy a capo would be beneficial.
You see, when I was growing up,capos were considered these
cheater things and I suppose insome way, they are like if you
(06:28):
don't learn your bar chords orsomething like that, but a capo
isn't always gonna be be theanswer, because you're still
going to wind up having to playbar chords at some point in your
life, so it's worth learningthem.
But I think a capo is really,really important for exactly
what we're talking about now tokeep the consistency of what it
is that you're doing.
Because if what I want to playis is that if I take the capo
(06:52):
off and play it as A, d and E, Ican't get that same thing
happening, the only way I canreally do that is by playing the
chord shapes that I'm playingnow and then just moving this up
and down relative to, again,whatever the limitation might be
.
Now, limitations might consistof knowledge, right, limitations
might consist of knowledge,right, you only know certain
(07:13):
chords, or you don't know yourbar chords, or other musicians
that you're playing with can'tdo this or this, this.
So physical limitations, skilllimitations, right, knowledge
limitations.
The second thing would belimitations of the instrument
itself, and you think about avoice.
That's a prime example.
You know everybody can't singeverything in every key, like.
Usually, the voice has morelimitations.
(07:35):
The guitar has less of thoselimitations if we learn enough
about it.
But there are other instrumentsas well that might have certain
limitations, and so that'swhere all of this conversation
winds up, coming in to play.
So for me, you know, if I windup playing, for instance, a
prime example of when I mightuse a capo would be in the
(07:55):
church band setting.
So I play in church once in awhile and I'll learn songs.
I learn the parts, the specificparts of things.
And then if I get to church andwe need to change the key or
something like that, that's fine.
And as long as I can, stillwhatever the song might need, I
could still do that.
Otherwise, if I switch chordsand I'm playing it in different
(08:18):
chord voicings and all that kindof stuff, I might not be able
to do that anymore.
Now, that's okay, unless it'sreally pertinent to the song.
Then I might want to use thatcapo, right?
Or if, for some reason, it justmakes more sense in my head to
stay using the shapes of G, cand D or whatever, it might be
(08:41):
right, then I'll use a cable forthat, okay.
So sometimes it's because oflimitations, sometimes it's
because you don't want to alterwhat you're thinking in your
head, and sometimes because youreally do need to keep it
consistent to have that sametonality to be able to do the
same execution of things.
Okay.
So if you think about ittonality to be able to do the
same execution of things Okay.
So if you think about it, whatyou need to be able to do is use
the chromatic scale and thenreadjust.
(09:03):
Now, if you know your theory,which I would strongly recommend
if you know your basic chordtheory right 1, 4, 5 being major
, 2, 3, 6 being minor, like ifyou know that, okay.
So if you're in the key of G,for instance, you know G, c and
D would be the 1, 4, and 5.
And if you don't know that,again you can learn that it's
something that's fairlystraightforward.
(09:24):
But G, c and D would be the 1,4, 5.
So, if you think about it, if Ineeded to redo this let's say,
for instance, I need to go theother direction, I need to go
down right, the key that'sworking isn't functioning and
I'm not going to move up, I needto do something else.
Well then I need to convertthis and I need to think okay,
(09:45):
so GCD is my 145.
Okay, so, as long as I've got a145 available.
So if I wanted to move down,I'd be on F sharp.
So if I wanted to move down,I'd be on F sharp, okay, which
isn't going to work.
Obviously, if I move down again, it's going to be F, which
might work, but it'd put me inbar chords.
So let's just say I was movingdown one fret to F sharp, okay,
so that's not going to work.
(10:06):
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to choose F sharp
somewhere else.
So I might take D, d, sharp, e,f, f sharp.
D, d, sharp, e, f, f sharp.
You see what I did.
So G.
We want to move down a halfstep.
So G becomes F sharp.
Well, I can't play that downthere, so I'm going to find
something else.
I could try C, but then I'mgoing to go C, d, e, f sharp.
I'm going to be way up here,which is okay, but of course the
(10:28):
further up you go, the smallerthe frets get.
So maybe a better choice wouldbe moving E or D E F sharp up
here.
Now, of course I could havemoved E to F sharp, but let's
say we're trying to stay awayfrom the bar chords for whatever
reason.
Maybe we want more of that openchord kind of sound.
So D E, f sharp, d E, f sharp,okay, so I'm going to put this
(10:55):
on here.
And now I've got F sharp.
Now again it's a D shape in myhead.
So if I think about it, one,four, five, it'd be D, g, a.
So there I go.
So I'm ready to go.
So I'm ready to go, right, orwhatever it is, I'm playing.
(11:22):
Whatever it is I want to play,I've mathematically figured out
where I need to go.
Okay, it's just now.
I have to be aware that eventhough my brain is thinking D
and G and A, in reality, ofcourse, because the capo is here
.
That's not the case.
It's actually going to be Fsharp B and C sharp right.
So it takes a little bit to getused to.
(11:44):
But that's what I want you tounderstand about the capo is why
you would use a capo when it'sgood to use a capo.
And in reality, as guitarplayers, sometimes we want to
retain that thought that we'vegot on how we're playing
something or we really do needto keep it for a particular
reason of the picking that we'reusing.
And if we were to switch thoseshapes entirely, we wouldn't
have the availability of beingable to do that thing anymore.
(12:06):
So just something for you tothink about a little bit.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.