I Need To Learn A Song On Guitar That Requires A Capo But I Don

Guitars: I don't have the money to buy a capo. How can I make one?

Since others have given you some good ideas for a homemade capo, I thought I'd answer your question with something different.  My suggestion is to use this situation of not being able to afford a capo to become really skilled at transposing keys.I know that transposing keys won't fulfill all the functions that a capo provides, but having the skill to transpose is really worth it.The great thing about transposing is that you get a great workout playing some chords that aren't too common.  You'll become a master at barre chords and movable chord shapes.  You'll know your major scales and their relative minors.  You'll also learn which keys you can sing in and which are a strain for you.  You'll be able to take a riff or lick and adapt it to any key the band is playing.I know it sounds like quite the undertaking, and it will take some effort and theory but it's not nearly as difficult as some might think.  Really, if you can count, you can do this.  Learning the intervals and major key scale degrees is something that will be useful for your entire life as a guitarist, or for that matter, any instrument.You can start by taking songs in common easy keys and transposing them to other common easy keys.  Let's say that you like to sing in the key of G but the song is written in C major.  You might have a progression like, C / Am / Em / F / G ... to play this song in G, you'd transpose those chords to G / Em / Bm / C / D.  It's simply taking the intervals from the key of C and playing them in the key of G... you identify that the progression is I / vi / iii / IV / V.  Now, what if you wanted to play the same song with a band with a bunch of Bb horn players.... to put it in Bb we just look at the key of Bb and apply those intervals, we get Bb / Gm / Ebm / E / F# ... now that's a lot of barre chords, and your mastery of that transposition makes you a true musician using both theory and your ear.

How do you use a capo on guitar, when each chord requires the capo to be on a different fret?

I think you may have misunderstood how a capo works. You don’t want to adjust the capo every time you play a new chord—that would be a nightmare (and quite impossible). Instead you place it once at the beginning of a song, and play the whole song with your capo in the same position.In simple terms, a capo allows you to raise the pitch of a song, without playing different chords. You play the same chords, but they sound higher when you place your capo.Let’s say, for example, that you are playing a song which has the chords D G Bm and A. If you place your capo on your fretboard, it’s going to make that progression sound higher, even though you will be playing exactly the same chords.If you place your capo on the 2nd fret, for argument’s sake, that progression will sound like you’re playing the chords E A C#m and B, even although you’re playing D G Bm and A.In other words, a capo transposes the key of a piece of music, without you having to play new chords. In the case above, you will have transposed the song from the Key of D, to the Key of E.A capo can also come in really handy if a song has difficult chords that you want to play more simply (barre chords and that sort of thing in difficult keys). For example, if you know how to use a capo well and you see the chord progression: Bb Cm7 Bb/D and Ebmaj7, you can pop your capo on your 3rd fret and play the chords G Am7 G/B and Cmaj7 instead. That’s a LOT easier and it will sound like you’re playing the chords from the original key.That’s putting it in very simple terms—there’s more to it than that. It’s difficult to go into great depth in a blog post. You should understand a bit more music theory if you’re going to use a capo well.Remember, using a capo is not ‘cheating’—it just gives you one more tool to work with. You should still advance and learn new, challenging concepts, but knowing how to use a capo correctly just makes you a more versatile player.I’ve actually written a book on the subject, which goes into great detail as to how you can use a capo expertly. You can find it here if you’re interested: Guitar Capo Mastery.

Does a beginner guitar player need to learn how to use a capo?

Does a beginner guitar player need to learn how to use a capo?If you put the emphasis in the word need then the answer is no.As others have pointed out, if you’re trying to match a singer with your early skills, the capo gives you an easy way to play in other keys without learning new chords. At first, that may seem like a plus, but I think that it has a tremendous downside. The downside is that it becomes a learning prevention tool.Let me give you an example from my daily life. I go to jam sessions in the nearby towns. The players have learned the chords to get them by in the key of G. Any other key, they pop the capo somewhere up the neck and still use their G chords. I find it’s a crying shame when they want to play in A, a key with very simple chords, and they use the capo on 2 and play in G. Bottom line, they have allowed the capo to arrest their musical development.I don’t own a capo and never have. While I’ll never be Tommy Emmanuel on the guitar, not using the capo has made me a better musician than most on the people I get to play with.Here’s how I did it. I started by learning the E form of the barre chord. I’d play in C and take the same chord form from the 8th fret for C to the 1st and 3rd for F and G. Totally inefficient, but it helped make me feel at ease using the barre chord. Get past that, and nothing is tough!I added on the Am form barre chord, an easy transition because the fingering is the same except one string further south. I then found that the A is also portable…and the C7….and…and…and…the learning is endless. You begin to see your guitar as a system.There is one situation where I accept the capo as a valid tool. When you’re finger picking and the song requires pull-offs or hammer-ons against the nut but you have to be in a different key for the vocal part, the capo will allow you to maintain the integrity of the picking while accommodating the vocalist.I have had one Quoran respond to my support of barre chords by saying that using barre chords is for lazy guitarists who don’t want to learn how to finger specific chords. Since most users of barre chords also know the standard chords, I think his response is wrong. Instead, it demonstrated his unwillingness or inability to learn more.So, for beginners thinking about the capo, I’d suggest not investing in one. Instead, invest in lessons and effort. It will serve you better on the long run.

Is a guitar capo really necessary to play songs in a different pitch?

It depends on the song and what compromises you are willing to accept.First, it’s important to point out that a capo is generally useless for playing songs in a lower pitch.If you are just playing chords and you don’t care about voicings, transposing to a different key can be relatively easy. If you wish to preserve your voicings it becomes more complex.Often it is just a matter of moving the chords higher on the neck and using a barre chord (where the index finger substitutes for the guitar’s nut at the higher pitch). The barre chord will not sound the same as the original if it had open strings, however, because open strings have different acoustic properties than fretted strings.But what if the original chords had fretted notes at, say the fifth fret or higher as well as open notes? No human on earth has fingers long enough to create such a barre chord — your only choices become either a capo or changing the voicings.And then there’s the case where you aren’t just strumming chords but also picking melody notes along with the chords. Transposing becomes much trickier (if it’s possible at all) in such a case. The capo can make it possible and even easy.There are a lot of creative people out there and there are some unconventional ways people have found to create music where conventional fingerings would be difficult or impossible (such as hammering on notes with the right hand) so I wouldn’t use any absolutes here — but a capo can make things easy where otherwise they’d be hard and makes some things possible which might not be possible otherwise.

Is a capo a crutch, or would even the best guitarist still need one under the same circumstances?

It’s a device. It has its uses.If someone who can’t play an Eb chord needs to play a song requiring that chord, you might say they’re using it as a ‘crutch’. I’m not going to claim to be the best guitarist (but playing guitar is my full time job); I would not need to use a capo in a similar circumstance. But I don’t think any less of a guitarist who’s more comfortable using a capo.Now if you ask me to play “Here Comes the Sun”, you’re darn right I’m going to use a capo. The song is in the key of A, with voicings high up on the fretboard. I can play it without a capo, but it’s easier (and sounds better) if I capo on the 7th fret.Playing it without a capo requires difficult barres and awkward fingerings. The only time I play that song without a capo is if a student wants to learn it and they don’t have a capo - then I give them mine, demonstrate it in open position so they can see the fingerings they’ll use, and then play along with them using barre fingerings.But the fact that I can do it doesn’t mean that I should do it. If I have to perform the tune, I use a capo.