Question about using a capo

I think and I may be wrong because I never use one either, but the two main reasons would be to change the key of a song to match a singer's vocal range or to allow you to play a song with what might be easier chord fingerings.

If using a capo is cheating, then so are barre chords.

Don't worry about it. Many people use capos, because it makes changing key much easier.

You might ask why that isn't cheating. I'll tell you. Play an open G chord (320003), then play the barre equivalent (355433). Whilst it is the same chord, the open G sounds completely different to a barre chord - it doesn't seem to have that "ring" to it, that an open chord has.

Open strings sounds different - ask Brian May or Hank Marvin why they play in the position they do. They like the sound of open strings. A capo gives you the same effect as an open string - it is a movable nut, nothing else.

Sorry for the seemingly whacked-out question. Brain is working on circuit overload :oops:

From Musicnotes.com details about the song Gordon Lightfoot song Sundown, my question about this is in bold...

Instruments: Guitar, range: E3-C#8
Voice, range: A3-B6

^^^ What does all that mean?

Key: E Major He capoes @ 2nd fret and plays Emaj E7 B7 Amaj Dmaj just as if the geetar was not capoed.

Yet, a few people who saw my video said the key is not right for my voice. Is Emaj that unusual to sing with (or maybe it's my voice :shock: )?

Playing without the capo is the same sound, just a lower pitch, at least to my ears. The same applies to My Sweet Lord (capo @ 2). With no capo it sounds just lower in pitch, but otherwise the same, using the same chord shapes. I know they're going a whole step up; a half step or step and a half would probably sound horrendous and not be the same key (Bob Seger capoes Night Moves @ 1st fret). So then it's true that a capo is just a movable nut (as compared to me being a questionable nut :lol: ).

I could leave this for when I start lessons again, but I know you guys will know this. :wink:

Playing without the capo is the same sound, just a lower pitch, at least to my ears. The same applies to My Sweet Lord (capo @ 2). With no capo it sounds just lower in pitch, but otherwise the same, using the same chord shapes.

You are exactly right. No matter where the capo is located, or whether you are not using it at all, the song is exactly the same if you use the same sequence of chords. You are just changing the key.

IMO, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a capo to change the key of a song to fit your vocal range. I do it all the time. I am a bass, so a lot of time I have to lower the key of a song to fit my vocal range. If you are playing with others, of course, you will have to clue them in on what key you are playing in so they can follow.

Playing without the capo is the same sound, just a lower pitch, at least to my ears. The same applies to My Sweet Lord (capo @ 2). With no capo it sounds just lower in pitch, but otherwise the same, using the same chord shapes.

You are exactly right. No matter where the capo is located, or whether you are not using it at all, the song is exactly the same if you use the same sequence of chords. You are just changing the key.

IMO, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a capo to change the key of a song to fit your vocal range. I do it all the time. I am a bass, so a lot of time I have to lower the key of a song to fit my vocal range. If you are playing with others, of course, you will have to clue them in on what key you are playing in so they can follow.

Thanks Mike. I didn't consider it was as simple as that until now. Why do we make things out to be harder than they are!!?? :lol:

Capo's make it easy to change the key but you can still change the key to any song by transposing the song and playing without a capo. may lead to some weird fingerings or diffult chords for some songs.

Greybeard - But once you slap a capo on unless you are using one of those partial ones you don't really have any open strings anymore so they don't sound exactly like uncapoed strings or maybe I'm missing something.

I would think capo's are used predominantly on acoustic guitars cuz I can't ever remember seeing many rock n rollers playing electric guitars with capo's although I'm sure there are some.

Greybeard - But once you slap a capo on unless you are using one of those partial ones you don't really have any open strings anymore so they don't sound exactly like uncapoed strings or maybe I'm missing something.
Not exactly, but much closer than a barre chord. A capo has a hard, solid substance to hold the string down, a barre chord uses a soft, fleshy substance. The tone is different and a capoed string is almost the same as an open string.

I would think capo's are used predominantly on acoustic guitars cuz I can't ever remember seeing many rock n rollers playing electric guitars with capo's although I'm sure there are some.

*raises hand* :oops: I put the capo on the electric only if I'm using it for practice unplugged. But I can't recall seeing any electrics being used with a capo either.

*raises hand* I put the capo on the electric only if I'm using it for practice unplugged. But I can't recall seeing any electrics being used with a capo either.

Keith Richards is one guitarist who uses a capo quite a bit on electric. One example that comes to mind is "Happy" - his guitar's tuned to open G - DGDGBD - and capoed at the fourth fret. The song's basically just two chords - E and B, with a couple of add-ons, Esus4/9 (which can also be written as Badd9), Esus4/6 and Bsus4/6. The B chord, and variations of it, are played as open chords, ie at the capoed 4th fret: the E chords, and their variations, are played at the actual 9th fret, five frets from the capo.

So he's tuned to open G, but by capoing at the fourth fret he's actually in open B tuning.

:D :D :D

Vic

Instruments: Guitar, range: E3-C#8
Voice, range: A3-B6

^^^ What does all that mean?

Using names like C4, E3 etc usually refers to the various octaves. It's easier to understand if you look at a piano.

This was the best I could find with a quick Google. You can see that the lowest C on the left is C1, 'middle C is C4' . The final C at the highest end of an 88 note keyboard is C8.

However, I'm not sure off the top of my head how that relates to guitar. The guitar is a 'transposing instrument' in that if you play a 'middle C' as written on a guitar score the sound you hear is an octave out from the pitch you hear if you play a 'middle C' on a piano score. So C#8 looks kind of odd at first sight.....it looks too high. And that's a huge voice range too. :? So I'll need to do a bit of checking. Sorry if that's not been helpful.

Cheers,

Chris

Basically, I just want to make sure that I am not "cheating" by using a capo. Is this a shortcut/beginner tool that can be traded in for a more advanced technique?

Music is not an exam, and capos aren't "cheating". :wink: They are just another useful tool. Anybody who says that capos are "cheats" is probably just showing, off and doesn't really know what they're taking about either. If you find it handy - use it. The capo, (or 'capodastra', 'cejilla', etc depending on where you're from..) is not some mickey-mouse 21st century 'guitar hero' shortcut, they've apparently been used in traditional playing styles for perfectly good reasons since at least the mid 1700s.. :)

Cheers,

Chris

And that's a huge voice range too. :?

Sorry, "Huge" is overstating it. There are singers with that range, and more, but it's much more common to have less.

The usual range quoted for the traditional voice divisions are roughly a couple of octaves, although when you first start trying to sing it's probably common to only have control over a single octave or so. Practice and training soon pushes it outwards.

If I'm reading this right (which is never guaranteed... :? ) then my beginner singing book suggests:

Bass - from C2 to G4
Baritone - G2 to G#4
Tenor - C3 to C4, on up through Alto and Mezzo to
Soprano - A3 to D6

However, other charts seem to vary those quoted ranges by a few notes either way. Such as this one:

Soprano: C4 - C6
Mezzo-Soprano: A3 - A5
Contralto: F3 - F5
Tenor: C3 - C5
Baritone: F2 - F4
Bass/Basso: E2 - E4

There's a good article about finding your own vocal range, by David Hodge, here:

Home on Your Range

Cheers

Middle C is a pitch - 261.2Hz, if I remember correctly. The pitch doesn't change according instrument, even though some instruments, such as the guitar, transpose its position (and that of every other note) on the written staff.

Chris is right, a capo isn't cheating - it's a tool like any other, such as the plectrum, for example.

Middle C is a pitch - 261.2Hz, if I remember correctly. The pitch doesn't change according instrument, even though some instruments, such as the guitar, transpose its position (and that of every other note) on the written staff.

So what do you reckon about a C#8 on guitar Greybeard?

"Middle C" seems pretty easy to nail on a piano - it's the note half way between the top and bottom staves on a piano score (between the Treble clef and Bass clefs). It's shown as C4 in the above diagram.

If I play the same written note on a guitar score - i.e the one written on the ledger line just below the Treble clef - it doesn't play the same pitch - it's a whole octave out. Apparently guitar scores transpose by that complete octave for the convenience of writing guitar parts on the Treble clef.

But I don't know what effect that has on the naming??? :?

If the C at the 1st fret of the B string is the 'C4' on guitar, then my acoustic only seems to go to to C6.

If the naming follows the written notation (which seems less likely) then I'm still only seeing C7.

But I'm easily confused on this sort of thing... :shock:
:mrgreen:

Chris