What a Capo Is Actually For (It’s Not Just a Beginner Shortcut)

What the heck is a capo and why should I care/use one?

We’ve all seen one clipped on somebody’s guitar. And there’s a mild snobbery around them that I want to knock down before we really jump into this..

You’ll hear people call it a cheater bar, but those people are wrong, and I’ll explain why once we get through what it is and what it does.

What a capo is for

A capo is used to transpose a song into a different key. Transpose just means to move into a different key, and we actually have a free transpose tool you can use here!

Say I have a tune that goes G, D, A, but maybe I want it in a different key.. I can clip the capo on the second fret and play the exact same chord shapes, and now I’m playing A, E and B.

Essentially, the capo becomes a movable nut, and everything above it behaves like a normal guitar that happens to be shorter.

Why you’d want to use a capo

There are a few reasons you might want to use a capo.

For your voice

Maybe you’re a singer and your voice doesn’t go down that low. Or maybe you’re just more comfortable in a different key. That’s legit.

A capo is a great way to very quickly put a song into a key that suits your voice without having to do big, crazy, stretchy barre chords to get there.

For the sound

If you’re a guitar player like me, transposing into a higher key can give a different timbre to a song. Timbre just means the sound or the character of it.

So say I have an A minor 7 moving to a D major 9. That’s a really cool sound, but maybe I want it higher because I think it’ll sound neater up there. I capo on the fourth fret, and I’m not in A minor 7 anymore; it’s a different sound to work with.

For open strings

Play in the key of F without a capo and you’re doing barre chords. Essentially, every note is fretted, and it sounds tight and controlled. But if you capo the first fret and play E shapes, it’s the same key, but now you’ve got something different. You have open strings ringing, notes hanging over into each other, and the big shimmery thing an open chord does (IYKYK).

You cannot get that sound any other way, and that’s why session players carry them.

For two guitars

If somebody else is playing the same song in open position, you capo up and play different shapes. Now you’re in the same key but different registers, and it sounds like an arrangement instead of two people playing over each other.

Where to put the capo

Pretend your capo is taking the place of the nut of your neck.

In a G chord, my root note is down on the low E string with the barre shape behind it. So wherever I want that root note to land for a G shape, my capo needs to be three frets behind it.

Let’s say I want to play the G shape and I want it to come out as a B.. I look at the B note on the 7th fret, count backwards one, two, three, and my capo goes on the 4th fret.

Play the G shape from there and you have a B major chord.

The shortcut version

If you don’t want to think about root notes, there is a shortcut version.

Whatever fret your capo is on is how many half steps everything moves up.

If you capo 1, a G shape becomes G#. If you capo 2, it becomes A. If you capo 3, A#. If you capo 4, B. If you capo 5, C.

Count up the alphabet, remembering there’s no sharp between B and C or between E and F, and you’ll always land perfectly.

Most people eventually memorize the common ones. Capo 2 playing G shapes will give you A, and capo 2 playing D shapes will give you E. Those two will cover a LOT of songs you probably already play or want to play.

Positions worth memorizing

Capo 2 with G shapes gives you the key of A, which is where a HUGE number of songs sit. Capo 2 with D shapes gives you E.

Capo 3 with G shapes gives you B flat, which is a miserable key to play open and a very common one for singers, especially with horns involved.

If you learn those three, you’ll rarely be stuck.

What kind of capo to buy

Not all of them are equal, and the cheap ones cause the tuning problems people try to blame on their guitar.

Spring clamp

This is the trigger style you squeeze on. They’re fast, easy to do one handed, and the most popular by far. The downside is you don’t control the pressure, so on a guitar with light strings it can pull everything sharp. Womp womp!

Screw or lever

For these, you set the tension yourself. They are slower to move, but much kinder to your tuning. If you play one song in one position, or you’re recording, this is the better tool.

Elastic or strap

These are cheap and they work, but the pressure tends to be uneven and they wear out. That said, they are fine if you’re in a pinch.

Partial capo

This one only covers some of the strings (usually three). It leaves others open, and it gets you sounds you genuinely cannot make otherwise; a bit like being in an alternate tuning without retuning.

They are worth trying once you’re comfortable with a normal one.

My best advice is don’t spend a fortune on a capo, but truth be told, the twenty dollar one is an upgrade over the five dollar one and it’s mostly in tuning stability.

Two things people get wrong when clipping it on

Put it forward in the fret, not back

Closer to the fret wire makes the notes ring clearer and takes less pressure to press down.

If you put it back near the previous fret, you have to clamp it much harder to stop buzzing, and clamping harder is what causes the next problem.

Make sure it comes down straight

You don’t want it pulling a string slightly out of tune.. Essentially, the higher up the neck you go, and depending on how well set up your guitar is, the more likely it is to start pulling notes sharp.

To test this, clip it on, then play every string one at a time. If something sounds off it probably is. Take off your capo and reseat it rather than trying to tune around it because tuning around a crooked capo means you’re out of tune as soon as you take it off.

Another note about tuning

Even a perfectly placed capo will nudge your tuning a little, especially above the fifth fret and especially on a guitar with high action.

So the order of operations matters here. Tune your guitar first, then capo, then check.

If you’re recording, or playing with other people, check it every time you move the capo.

What most people don’t know

Don’t leave a capo on longer than you’re playing.

If you leave a capo on your guitar overnight, for a week, for a month, that’s metal on metal and your strings will start creating grooves in your frets, which we do NOT want.

It also keeps constant extra tension on the neck in one spot, which is not doing your setup any favors over months.

Therefore, you should take it off when you put the guitar down.

When not to use a capo

Since I spent the intro of this post defending capos, it’s only fair to say where they’re the wrong answer, yeah?

When the song needs low notes

A capo at the fifth fret and your lowest available note is an A. If the riff is below that, you’ve just deleted it.

Above about the seventh fret

Most guitars start sounding thin and banjo-ish, and tuning gets unreliable when you capo above the 7th fret. There are exceptions of course, but if you find yourself up at the ninth fret, consider whether you want a different key or a different arrangement.

When you’re avoiding learning bar chords

If you feel called out from this.. sorry, not sorry!

This is the one grain of truth in the cheater-bar thing. The capo is not a substitute for being able to play an F. Learn barre chords, don’t use the capo as a crutch.

When you’re playing with a horn section or piano

Horns and pianos live in flat keys and they’re not transposing for you, so sometimes you just have to play in E flat.

If you need help finding the right fret

We built a free Chord Transposer and Capo Calculator on the site right here.

There you can plug in your chords, pick the key you want to play or sing in, and it tells you exactly where to clip your capo so you’re not counting frets backwards in your head.

Go play with it tonight and let us know what you think!