What Does A Guitar Capo Do?

When you play any note on the guitar with your fingers, you are make the notes go higher in pitch. A capo is a device that clamps down on the guitar strings to raise the notes higher without you having to use your fingers. Basically, this process is called transposing when you move to higher notes or using different chords. A capo helps to transpose in an easy way!

There are 4 reasons why guitar players will use a capo. We used the first two on this list in the examples above.

To Make Songs Easier To Sing:

If a song was written with a lower voice in mind, it will be hard for someone with a higher voice to sing the same song in the same key. That is where the capo helps out tremendously. All you would need to do is keep trying the song at a higher capo until all the notes of the song are singable. It also works if the singer’s voice is too low for a song. You would just have to work backwards by starting with the capo at the 12th fret and put the capo lower and lower until a comfortable singing range is reached for the song.

To Make Songs Easier To Play For Another Player:

Just like the first reason, we can change the key we are playing to help out other instrument players. There are some keys that are really hard to play on other instruments. You can use the capo to pick a key that will be good for everyone.

To Make Songs Easier To Play:

Some chords can be very fatiguing on the hand, especially if the song is very long or the set of songs being played are full of harder chords. We can use the capo to take the same song but use different chords that are easier to play (while still staying in the same key).

To Make Songs Sound Different:

Playing songs in different keys have a different quality to them. Just put a capo on and try the song again. Also, playing songs in the same key but with different chords gives a song a different character to the song overall. You can do this if you are the only one playing to give a different sound. If you are playing with more than one guitar player, you can make the overall sound bigger. One guitar player can use one set of chords and another guitar player can use different chords with a capo (but still be in the same key).

TUNE YOUR GUITAR
Before you do anything with the capo, make sure that you tune your guitar without the capo first. This will assure that your guitar is in tune when the capo goes on.

WHICH WAY DOES IT GO ON?
You can put a capo on from either side of the guitar’s neck. While holding your guitar in the playing position, the capo can be placed either from the bottom up or the top down on the neck of the guitar. The best way is from the top down for a couple of reasons. Overall it is slightly easier to take on and off. If you place the capo from the bottom up the parts of the capo that stick out the most (such as the handles that open and close the capo) get in the way of your playing hand when playing lower notes and chords.

WHERE TO PLACE IT?
The best place to put a capo is about a 1/4 inch right behind the fret bar. This will give you the best sound. Too far back and your notes will start to buzz. Too far forward and the notes will sound slightly muted.

DO NOT PUT ON TOO TIGHTLY
There are a couple of reasons why not to put your capo on too tightly. The harder you push down on a string, the note being played goes slightly higher in pitch. With that being said, if you had a capo that was put on too tightly, your guitar will be in tune with itself but be out of tune with everyone else.

If you clamp down too hard on the strings, this can cause bumps on the strings to appear where the string is pushed against the fret. These bumps do not go away and will cause overall intonation problems. Your guitar will be in tune but when you start using your fingers to play, it will be slightly out of tune. At that point, there would be nothing else to do but to change your strings.

PUTTING IT ON AND TAKING IT OFF QUIETLY
In some situations, such as doing a live recording or playing at church, you will need to have control over every single noise that is made. Putting a capo on and taking it off can be a messy and noisy process. The capo can get caught on the strings as you are trying to put it on or take it off. Also, the strings can get stuck in the padding of the capo and can cause the strings to play as you release the pressure of the capo. If you need to be quiet with your capo, here are a couple of things you can do:

Without getting too much into it, we are basically using the capo to push the song higher and higher. Let’s say there is a song that you are trying to sing and the notes are way too low to sing. You use the capo push the notes higher and higher to make all of the song singable. I wrote a guide on how to transpose guitar chords. It further explains the many way of how to do this.

There are many different styles of capos out there. I took all of the capos and grouped them based on how they work: how does it achieve the pressing down of the strings? The 4 different types of capos are:

I wrote a post detailing all the pros, cons, and comparisons of each type of capo. For each type, the post also shows the ease of use, ability to adjust, cost, and more.