How to Use a Guitar Capo

Choose a capo. There are several styles of capos, the function of which is to press down the strings at a certain point on the neck in order to raise the pitch of all the strings. With a capo, you can barre all the strings at the fret you need.

Tune your guitar. Before applying the capo to the guitar's neck, you should make sure that your guitar is in tune. Remember that using a capo implies changing the tone of all the strings. It does not matter at this point if you do not really understand what this means - the important point is to tune your guitar before you use your capo.

The next step is applying the capo to your guitar at the desired fret. Always apply the capo directly behind the fret instead of halfway between two frets.

Now your guitar will sound in a transposed key. The capo will change the key of the guitar in its open position. If you play an open position E minor chord with a capo in the first fret, you will have a natural F minor chord. This example gives you an example of one of the most important uses of the capo - trying to play the same chords with easier shapes.

Other example. If you play an open position A minor chord with a capo in the fourth fret, you will have a natural C sharp minor chord.

Experiment with the possibilities that a capo allows. Look for some songs in the box that use a capo and try to play them transposing the chords to different capo positions. You will see that using the capo in some frets will make the song really easy to play.