Difficulty: medium

The Capodasto

Capodasto

The Capo acts as a barre. When we do a "Capo 3rd", we are barring the 3rd fret, and can therefore play a G Major Barre chord simply by fingering an E Major chord.

Normal - G Major Barre Chord              Capo 3rd - G Major

      G major Capo                G major

Explanation:

The first chord is a normal G Major Barre chord. The second chord shows how a G Major Barre chord is played with a Capo on the 3rd. It looks like an E major chord, but if you listen to it, its definitely G Major.

Here is a simple capo chord chart.

The 'No Capo' column refers to the original chord. 'Capo 1' means a Capo is placed on the first fret, and so on. The chords in each column tell you what the original chord will now be, with a capo on that particular location.

No Capo

Capo 1

Capo 2

Capo 3

Capo 4

A Bb B C C#/Db
Am Bbm Bm Cm C#m
B C C#/Db D Eb
Bm Cm C#m Dm Ebm
C Db D Eb E
D Eb E F F#
Dm Ebm Em Fm F#m
E F F# G Ab
Em Fm F#m Gm Abm
F F# G Ab A
G Ab A Bb B

 

For example, we saw above how the E chord played with a Capo on the 3rd fret is actually a G Major chord. If we look at E in the 'No Capo' column, and follow it to the 'Capo 3' column, we see that it is indeed a G chord.

As you have probably guessed, the capo will change a lot of the rules we have come to learn about the fretboard.