Sunday, September 18, 2011

Capo lessons


 Capo lessons
*****************

This lesson is meant for the person starting out in capos. Although, this may help some intermediate and even some advanced players. To understand how a capo works, let me highlight and explain some key points first.
First, a rhythym guitar is "usually" played with a lot of open chords. This does not include power chords, etc. A guitar gets its distinctive sound from strings that are constantly ringing. For example, when you change chord formations from a C to a G, some of the strings are left ringing(ie, the G string).But, if you wanted to play Ab, Eb(for example), you would have to fret the entire guitar to be technical. This really all depends on what kind of style you are playing. If you want the guitar to have the open ringing sound, you would use a capo. The capo is the "easiest" way to go from one key to another.


Now the next point. You have to understand the steps and half steps between notes.

ABCDEFG----these are the major notes of all music. There are half steps between B and C and E and F. To write out everything, it would look like this:
A
A#/Bb
B
C
C#/Db
D
D#
/Eb
E
F
F#/Gb
G
G#/Ab


If you're new at this, all explain. A half step up from the letter "A" is A#, but
it is also Bb because its also a half step below the letter "B". This is need in order
to know how the capo works. B and C are a half step apart. There is no sharps or flats between them. The same, is for E and F.

Now, onto the capo. Every time you put a capo on a fret, it raises the guitar a half
step. So, if you put a capo on the first fret, the guitar is now up a half step. Thus,
if you play a normal G chord(according to the capo), you are playing Ab. This is the really neat part about it. You're playing G, one of the most familar chords in guitar, but it's not really "G". You're fingering G, but the sound of it is Ab because of the capo.


Likewise, if you put a capo on the second fret and played a G chord, it would actually be an A. The note A is a whole step up from "G". The second fret is raising the guitar a whole step.


So now, if you put the capo on the 3rd fret, you're raising the guitar up a whole step and a half. Playing a major G chord would now acutally be a Bb chord.


This is it. I have included a simple chart of popular MAJOR chords and what they will be with a capo on fret one, two, three, and four. This is to help you understand how this all works. The chart goes like this. It runs horizontally, as you can see. No capo means the major chord played by itself. For instance, column one is the chord A. In the next column, it shows what "A" would sound if you had a capo on the first fret. Then the second fret, and so forth. I hope I have been clear.

Chords
1st Fret
2nd Fret
3rd Fret
4th fret
A ------->
Bb
B
C
C#/Db
Am
Bbm
Bm
Cm
C#m
B
C
C#/Db
D
Eb
Bm
Cm
C#m
Dm
Ebm
C
Db
D
Eb
E
D
Eb
E
F
F#
Dm
Ebm
Em
Fm
F#m
E
F
F#
G
Ab
Em
Fm
F#m
Gm
Abm
F
F#
G
Ab
A
G
Ab
A
Bb
B

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