Guitar Lessons For Beginners   Expert Beginner Guitar Lessons, Tips and Tricks

Guitar Capo

There are many different designs of guitar capo’s. All of them try to do the exact same job however not all of them do it equally well! A lot depends upon the actual design of the capo itself and upon the shape of your guitar neck which is directly related to the kind of guitar you own.

For example, there are some guitars, such as nylon string classical guitars, which have significantly wider fretboards than steel string acoustic guitars. While one capo will fit a wider neck perfectly, it may well struggle to fit properly over the other. This is why it’s always important to check that the capo you wish to purchase will in fact fit the neck of the guitar you own.

Not all capos are created equal!

Why Do You Need A Capo? What Does It Do?

Well, a capo will allow you to play songs in many different keys without having to actually change the chords. What this means for beginners is that you can essentially keep using all the open beginner guitar chords you already know yet play across a wide range of keys.

To do this you simply move your capo to a different position along your guitar fretboard and play the exact same sequence of chords in front of it. Simple! You have basically transposed the song into a totally new key. This can help you to play along with the original recording without having to employ barre chords and also help you to adjust the overall tonnal center of a song to better suit your singing voice. Both are very useful applications.

In other styles of guitar such as flamenco guitar, a capo is used is primarily used a device to change over all sound quality of the music and nothing to do with making the song easier to play or to change its key.