Basic Capo use

Hiya fellow Chordians

I've just been having a look round the forum and many of the questions come up time and again. One of the questions that often pops up is about the use of a capo, so I thought I'd try to explain how I use it.

The song I'm using as an example is a song written by myself and my dear friend Russ Hunt in response to a project I started, (The Oakengates Song Project) Now, because you won't know the song you can find an mp3 and a song sheet from the links below. I'm just using the chorus for this example.

Song Sheet of the whole song   http://www.francis-bell.com/tunes/oak.pdf
MP3 of the whole song             http://soundcloud.com/russh29/the-oakengates-crawl
This post as a PDF file so you can download it and print it out.   http://www.francis-bell.com/tunes/capo.pdf

MP3 of just the chorus              http://www.francis-bell.com/tunes2/crawl.mp3

So, what the problem. Here are the words and chords to play along with it.

If I could sing it in the key of G, then these would be fine, but it's a bit low for me and I need it a bit higher.

First of all, lets look at the way the notes go up. The major keys are in bold the others have sharps (#) and flats (b)

I'm sure you will all understand that if I put a capo on the second fret and play the same chords I'm then playing in the key of A. Going up the fret board I could have -

Capo on fret 2  –  Key of A
Capo on fret 4  –  Key of B
Capo on fret 5  –  Key of C
Capo on fret 7  –  Key of D
Capo on fret 9  –  Key of E
Capo on fret 10 – Key of F
Capo on fret 12 – Key of G

Ok, so far, so good. But after Fret 5 my guitar is sounding more like a mandolin and I'd like to keep some bass notes. I could play all my chords at the nut end but that will mean playing some bar chords. I'm not a fan of them because -

A] my wrist hurts,
B] my fingers hurt,
C] I can't play them,
D] for the music I play I like some strings ringing most of the time. (My  reason, honest)

Pick whichever reason you like – the result is the same so lets look at all the chords in the major keys

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 5

Example 6

Example 7

I'm sure you've picked out the one's you want to play -

The key of A is OK – no bar chords
The key of B has 2 bar chords [B AND F#]
The key of C has 1 bar chords [F]
The key of D is OK – no bar chords
The key of E has 1 bar chords [B]
The key of F has 2 bar chords [F AND Bb]
The key of G IS OK – no bar chords

So now we get to use the Capo. I'll start in A and work my way up

The key of A – use example 1 – no capo
                        or use example 7 with a capo on Fret 2
The key of B – use example 1 but put the capo on Fret 2
The key of C – use example 1 but put the capo on Fret 3
The key of D – use example 4 – no capo
The key of E – use example 4 but put the capo on Fret 2
The key of F – use example 4 but put the capo on Fret 3
The key of G – use example 7 – no capo

That covers all the major keys, all with no bar chords and the capo no higher than Fret 3. Result.
Quite a few websites give you the chance to transpose songs so by transposing them and using the capo you should be able to have a go at most songs, and get them  in a key you can sing in.

Hope this helps explain basic Capo use.

Cheers
Howard

Note for Roger - Sorry, this should be OK

**Moderator's note - because of copyright laws I have had to remove the lyrics from this post.***

Howard, I realise that your intention was good, as was your explanation so if you can use just one line as an example I can allow that but not the whole chorus. Please read the 'Sticky' at the start of About Chordie and Song Requests for more information. Roger