Difficulty: medium
The 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
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.