Article by Tim Coleman
It’s one of the most common guitar accessories we sell and for good reason. Whether you are a beginner or you’ve just discovered Johnny Marr, this is one accessory every guitar player should have in their case along with their tuner!
From a beginners perspective, the capo allows you to use the simple chords you know and have learned to play songs with chords you haven’t learnt yet. A capo on the 2nd fret changes the “D” chord to an “E” Chord.
The “C” Chord becomes “D”, “A minor” becomes “B minor” etc etc. This can simplify things opening up the number of songs you can now play!
It also allows you to easily transpose a song. Now there’s no need to try and sing notes higher or lower than you actually can. You can take this song and bring it into your or your singers range.
Boom! The band just gained the ability to play 10 more songs at their next open mic!
Dunlop Advanced Toggle Style Capo Curved $11.95
Dunlop J83CD Trigger Style Curved Acoustic Capo $39.95
D’ADDARIO ARTIST CAPO BLACK $49.99
Maybe you’ve just discovered Johnny Marr. Say hello to a capo on the 2nd or 4th fret cause this guy uses it a lot! Perhaps it’s the brighter janglier sound that the capo lends to the instrument by having higher open notes, but take a simple progression like “D”, “A”, “E” and play this with a capo on the 5th fret. This is now “G”, “D” and “A” and the guitar sound is a lot different to how it would sound when playing these in your traditional shapes without a capo.
Open notes have a different sound to notes that are fretted, they tend to sustain longer and the capo allows you to take advantage of this. It also frees up the fretting hand to make playing simpler.
If these aren’t enough then I have one word “Wonderwall”… I believe that’s one word. You just can’t play this song as was written by the godlike genius that is Noel Gallagher without a capo on the 2nd fret. Now that I think of it, I probably should have just said this to begin with and you’d have realised already that you need a capo.
