Beginner's Guitar Guide to Using a Capo

Clipping a capo onto the neck of your guitar can make it feel and sound like a brand new instrument. In my early days of playing, I thought the chords I was strumming sounded much cooler with a capo strapped on my fretboard, even though I had no idea of what chords I was playing. If your at a point in your playing where you can strum some basic chords and finger down some bar chords but still don't know all the pitch names on the fretboard then this may help explain some of the sounds your getting without getting lost in theory, triad inversions, and other music jargon.

Attaching a capo onto your guitar is comparable to moving the nut of your guitar. The nut is the ivory or white plastic piece planted at the very end of the fretboard right next to where your head stock begins. You are basically shortening the length of the guitar when you attach a capo which is like, if you can imagine, playing a new mini-guitar each time you move the capo down the fretboard which makes it sound higher and feel tighter.

The clusters of chord shapes that you practiced, when you were first starting to play, are still going to remain the same but only the pitches of those chords will change. For example, a C major chord played with its signature downward angular shape, on a guitar with a capo clipped, let's say, on the 2nd fret would now transform into the pitch of D with your ring finger on the 5th fret of the fifth string, middle finger on the 4th fret on the fourth string, and index finger on the 3rd fret of the second string.

This chart graphs open chord shapes translating into chord sounds with each capoed fret beginning with chord shape then its chord sound.

capo 1st E=F, Em=Fm, A=Bb, Am=Bbm, D=Eb, Dm=Ebm, G=Ab, C=Db, F=Gb

capo 2nd E=F#, Em=F#m, A=B, Am=Bm, D=E, Dm=E, G=A, C=D, F=G

capo 3rd E=G, Em=Gm, A=C, Am=Cm, D=F, Dm=Fm G=Bb, C=Eb, F=Ab

capo 4th E=Ab, Em=Abm, A=Db, Am=Dbm D=Gb Dm=Gbm, G=B, C=E, F=A

capo 5th E=A, Em=Am, A=D, Am=Dm, D=G, Dm=Gm, G=C, C=F, F=Bb

capo 6th E=Bb, Em=Bbm, A=Eb, Am=Ebm, D=Ab, Dm=Abm, G=Db, C=Gb, F=B

capo 7th E=B, Em=Bm, A=E, Am=Em, D=A, Dm=Am, G=D, C=G, F=C

capo 8th E=C, Em=Cm, A=F, Am=Fm, D=Bb, Dm=Bbm, G=Eb, C=Ab, F=Db

capo 9th E=Db, Em=Dbm, A=Gb, Am=Gbm, D=B, Dm=Bm, G=E, C=A, F=D

capo 10th E=D, Em=Dm, A=G, Am=Gm, D=C, D=Cm, G=F, C=Bb, F=Eb

capo 11th E=Eb, Em=Ebm, A=Ab, Am=Abm, D=Db, D=Dbm, G=Gb, C=B, F=E

capo 12th E=E Em=Em, A=A, Am=Am, D=D, D=Dm, G=G, C=C, F=F

Remember, that the capo acts like a new nut on your guitar and chord shapes do not change. So to reiterate the point with a guitar capoed at the 2nd fret, an open G chord would sound like an A major and be fretted with your middle finger on the 5th fret of the sixth string, index finger on the 4th fret of the 5th string, and ring finger on the 5th fret of the first string. A D shape, on the same capoed guitar, would be sound like an E major with your index finger on the 4th fret of the 3rd string, ring finger on the 5th fret of the 2nd string, and middle finger on the 4th fret of the 1st string.

Have fun making up new chord progression and I hope the chart helps in discovering more about playing such a cool instrument.