Place the solid part with the rubber across in fret you want it to be in.My first capo was not the easiest to use, especially if you have perfectionist tendencies and lack luster coordination. You can look at a list of the best capos here if you’re in need of one. There are different types of capos on the market today and the design determines how you use it. At the end of the session, my hand hurt a little and the muscles in my forearm are done.īut pop a capo on there and play the chords of a key that’s much easier on the fretting hand, and ta da! You get a more pleasant playing experience and fewer risks of mistakes caused by difficult chords or your hand giving up. The result is that if someone really likes the key of B and most of the songs in the set are in that key, my hand gets tired, especially if there’s a practice right before it’s time to play on stage. Some genres sound better with barre chords as opposed to their open chord counterparts. It also just depends on what sound you’re going for. Especially if I have to mute strings in between or stretch my fingers quite a bit. While you can play open chords in the key of B (which has five sharps/#), I find some of those chords more difficult than playing barre chords. So often, while I’m capable of playing a transposed song with the chords particular to that key, I sometimes just use the capo, not only to save my hands from a crazy amount of barre chords, but because it sounds good too. While I’m not always a fan of higher voicings on an acoustic guitar, particularly when strummed, I like the sound of the chords sounding higher due to the capo. Some chords sound beautiful in a higher voicing. When I want some relaxed island vibes, that’s what I do. It produces are a sound that’s reminiscent of a ukulele. I like playing with the capo around frets 5, 6, and 7. If you’re looking for a particular tone, the capo is also helpful. But it only takes a few seconds to attach a capo. There isn’t always time to pencil in the new chords. The capo is the new “ nut”, (that strip that the strings are guided through at the top of the neck).Ĭapos can be a lifesaver (or indeed, a voice saver) when the key is too low for the singers and all that without making your brain tired or risking wrong chords if you aren’t good at playing in a different key on the fly. But instead of playing the chords from the key you’ve chosen, you play the same chords as for the key you were previously in.įor example, if you have the music written in G in front of you, but you prefer the key to be in A, you place the capo in the second fret and just carry on playing the chords for G. It’s easy to deduce from there that it helps you raise the key that you’re playing in. So you’ve already learned that a capo raises the pitch of the guitar. So perhaps we’ll see some more interesting designs. Not just for the guitar, but other stringed instruments too. Believe it or not, there are still patents being applied for this year. Nowadays there are a few types of capos around that work well and inflict no damage on the guitar. He improved upon the yoke and screw design by adding a lever. In 1850, a man called James Ashborn applied for his patent of the capo. The Spanish capos were made out of bone and metal, for example. Some of them used similar mechanisms to what’s used today, except that these capos used wire to secure them to the guitar. The c-shaped brass capos graduated into little contraptions you had to tighten with a screw. Since then, many more capos were developed. I’m wincing in sympathy of all those scratched guitars. It was a c-shaped piece of brass that probably was harder to use than those on offer today and very likely scratched the neck of the guitar. Back then and for many years after, it was known as a capotasto. The first capo was developed in the 1700s. The History of the Capoįor all the history buffs out there, here’s a bit about the humble beginnings of the capo and how it came to be what we know today. The capo, when put in place correctly (it’s not that hard to do depending on the type of capo you have), raises the pitch of the strings. The pressure along with the protective rubber or soft plastic coating or cushioning also prevents it from slipping around. Don’t worry, when I say clamp, I mean it only clamps the guitar hard enough to let the strings ring clearly, like you would with your finger.
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