How to use a capo – Transpose a song

What is a capo?

‘A capo (short for capotasto, Italian for “head of fretboard”) is a device used on the neck of a stringed (typically fretted) instrument to shorten the playable length of the strings, hence raising the pitch. It is frequently used on guitars, mandolins, and banjos. G.B. Doni first used the term in his Annotazioni of 1640, though capo use likely began earlier in the 17th-century.’ – WIKiPEDIA

Using a Capo can be quite a difficult thing to get to grips with.

A lot of songs on the internet will state whether a capo is used a few don’t.

But besides playing a song in the way it was intended we can us a Capo for other reasons.

transposing a song to our voice without having to change chord shapes or when trying to avoid too many barre chords.

Why avoid barre chords?

The first obvious reason is that when we start playing guitar the barre chord is a deal breaker.

It’s damn hard for new guitarists to move freely to a barre chord and sometimes dammit you just want to play that song!

The other is that when finger picking we can use open chords to play more elaborately, also the preasure needed to apply barre chords while picking can be very wearing on the fingers and hand.

Below are some tables showing the transposed open chords when the capo is applied to each fret.

The ‘Black‘ letters indicate the Original Chord, mainly Open Chords apart from the ‘F‘ and ‘Bm‘ which can be Barre Chords.

The ‘Red‘ letters indicate the new chord.

I’ve used the most common chord shapes to keep things simple.

The way to use these tables is to write out your chords on a peice of paper and then look for the best solution.

Find the chords you have in the red row and then move the capo to that fret. Using the chord shapes form the black row will now give you the transposed version.

 Capo 1st Fret

S	T	R	U	M		P	A	T	T	E	R	N
S	T	R	U	M		P	A	T	T	E	R	N
1		(2)		3		4	+	1	+	2		3		4	+
G
D

Capo 2nd Fret

S	T	R	U	M		P	A	T	T	E	R	N
S	T	R	U	M		P	A	T	T	E	R	N
1		(2)		3		4	+	1	+	2		3		4	+
G
D
1	+	2		3		4	+	1	+	2		3		4	+
C								D
C								D

Capo 3rd Fret

1		2		3		4		1		2		3		4
1		2		3		4		1		2		3		4
Down		Down		Down		Down		Down		Down		Down		Down
A								D
A				D				A				D
A								D
A		D		A		D		A		D		A		D

Capo 4th Fret

S	T	R	U	M		P	A	T	T	E	R	N
S	T	R	U	M		P	A	T	T	E	R	N
1		2	+	3		4	+	1		2	+	(3)	+	4	+
G
Cadd9
Em								D
C				D				G

Capo 5th Fret

Function	Value	Value	Midi Number
Function	Value	Value	Midi Number
Wah Pedal			1
Volume Pedal			7
Amp Gain	0-127		12
Amp Treble	0-127		13
Amp Mid	0-127		14
Amp Bass	0-127		15
Amp Vol	0-127		16
Presence	0-127		17
Reverb Mix	0-127	*2	18
Amp Type	0-32	with default cabinet *3	19
FX Type	0-15	with defaults *1	20
FX Off/On	0/127		21
Reverb Send Off/On	0/127		22
Cabinet Type	0-15	*5	23
Reverb Type	0-8	*4	24
Noise Gate Level	0-15		25
Drive Off/On	0/127		26
Wah off/Position	0/1-127		27
pre Effect Type	0-2	*6	44
pre Effect Parameter 1	*6		45
pre Effect Parameter 2	*6		46
pre Effect Parameter 3	*6		47
pre Effect Parameter 4	*6		48
Delay Type	0-2	*7	49
Delay Time high	0-117	*8	50
Delay Time low	0-127	*8	51
Delay Spread	0-127		52
Delay Feedback	0-127		53
Delay Mix	0-127	*9	54
post FX Mode	0-6	*10	55
post FX parameter 1	1	*10	56
post FX parameter 2	2	*10	57
post FX parameter 3	3	*10	58
post FX Mix	0-127	*11	59
Assign FX control	0-15	*1	60
Amp Type without cabinet change	0-32	*3	61
TAP	Value>63		64
Request Controls	Value = 80		80
Set Position	0-15	Set Character 32-127	81
Tuner Bypass Volume	0-127		82
Tuner Center Frequency	25-55		83
Configuration	0-4	=S1,S2,S3,L1,L2	84
Live EQ Treble	0-127		85
Live EQ Mid	0-127		86
Live EQ Bass	0-127		87
Digital out	(44.1/48/96/ext; bit 2:pro)		88
Preset	0-124	127=Tuner	Program Change

Capo 6th Fret

	BANK	A		B		C		D		E
	BANK	A		B		C		D		E
	1	Street w/o Name	1	SRV	2	Every Breath U T	3	Sultans o’Swing	4	ZZ’s Lovin’	5
	2	Highway To Hell	6	Ain’t Talkin b.	7	Crazy Diamond	8	Under The Bridge	9	Wring That Neck	10
	3	You Oughta Know	11	Little Head	12	General Lee	13	Wheatherman	14	Larry w/o Lee	15
	4	Straight Rhythm	16	Straight Crunch	17	Straight Drive	18	Still Got Blues	19	Money For Nothin’	20
	5	Ultimate Rhythm	21	Big Venue	22	Ambience Crunch	23	Long Clean Delay	24	Make Me Dizzy	25
	6	Dry Rhythm	26	Eddie’s Tapping	27	Crunchy Chorus	28	Heaven’s Ballad	29	Savage Ultra	30
	7	Blue Rhythm	31	Blue Lead	32	Voxy Drive	33	Clean Comping	34	Robben’s Blues	35
	8	Dry Funk	36	Full Blown Solo	37	Quack	38	Less Is More	39	Edge ’n Bite	40
	9	Nu Bad Rhythm	41	MAKE MY D(el)AY	42	Doubled Solo	43	Is This Love?	44	Automatic Solo	45
	10	Ambience Combo	46	Canyon Rock	47	Run To You	48	Bathroom Champ	49	Twins?	50
	11	Solo Force 1	51	Rhythm Force	52	FX me!	53	A-Wah Attack	54	Innocent Clean	55
	12	Solo Force 2	56	Solo Force 3	57	Richie’s Dream	58	Paganini Solo	59	Dizzy Lizzy	60
	13	Timebomb!	61	Uni Rhythm	62	Clean & Loud	63	Clean & Broad	64	Saga Solo	65
	14	Tune 2 D	66	Strat Solo	67	L.A. Clean	68	Dist. Rhythm	69	Dist. Solo	70
	15	Rhythm Crunch	71	Blues Lead	72	Tele Twang	73	Tele Jazzy	74	Ch+Del Lead	75
	16	Recti-Rhythm 1	76	Recti-Rhythm 2	77	Recti-Solo Bal.	78	Dynamite Crunch	79	Heavy Funk	80
	17	Spacy Clean	81	2H Tap Clean	82	Clean Accomp.	83	Bluesy Tremolo	84	Dry Riff Clean	85
	18	Balladeer	86	Breakin Blues	87	Westm. Abbey Rock	88	Rectified Chorus	89	SLO Lead Chorus	90
	19	Raw Crunch	91	2x12 Crunch	92	V-heaven	93	Flying Crunch	94	Drive 2 Space	95
	20	Slow Motion	96	Whale Watching	97	Wah ’ts dat	98	Wet Dreams	99	Stratosphere	100
	21	Fractal Blubber	101	Driving Duck	102	Parcival’s Virus	103	Fat On Stage	104	Watch The DJ	105
	22	Next To U	106	Virus Fat	107	Didgeridoo	108	Sonar	109	303 Flubber 135b	110
	23	Delay Line	111	Centrifugal Power	112	Parcivals Drum 1	113	Parcivals Drum 2	114	Bad BD 2	115
	24	Blubbb	116	BD Fat 1	117	BD Fat 2	118	Bad BD 1	119	Percussion Tube	120
	25	Steam Industry	121	Soft Shaker Perc.	122	Percussion Delay	123	C64 Percussion	124	Percussion Spin	125

Capo 7th Fret

BANK	A
BANK	A
1	Street w/o Name
2	Highway To Hell
3	You Oughta Know
4	Straight Rhythm
5	Ultimate Rhythm
6	Dry Rhythm
7	Blue Rhythm
8	Dry Funk
9	Nu Bad Rhythm
10	Ambience Combo
11	Solo Force 1
12	Solo Force 2
13	Timebomb!
14	Tune 2 D
15	Rhythm Crunch
16	Recti-Rhythm 1
17	Spacy Clean
18	Balladeer
19	Raw Crunch
20	Slow Motion
21	Fractal Blubber
22	Next To U
23	Delay Line
24	Blubbb
25	Steam Industry

Capo 8th Fret

BANK	B
BANK	B
1	SRV
2	Ain’t Talkin b.
3	Little Head
4	Straight Crunch
5	Big Venue
6	Eddie’s Tapping
7	Blue Lead
8	Full Blown Solo
9	MAKE MY D(el)AY
10	Canyon Rock
11	Rhythm Force
12	Solo Force 3
13	Uni Rhythm
14	Strat Solo
15	Blues Lead
16	Recti-Rhythm 2
17	2H Tap Clean
18	Breakin Blues
19	2x12 Crunch
20	Whale Watching
21	Driving Duck
22	Virus Fat
23	Centrifugal Power
24	BD Fat 1
25	Soft Shaker Perc.

Capo 9th Fret

BANK	C
BANK	C
1	Every Breath U T
2	Crazy Diamond
3	General Lee
4	Straight Drive
5	Ambience Crunch
6	Crunchy Chorus
7	Voxy Drive
8	Quack
9	Doubled Solo
10	Run To You
11	FX me!
12	Richie’s Dream
13	Clean & Loud
14	L.A. Clean
15	Tele Twang
16	Recti-Solo Bal.
17	Clean Accomp.
18	Westm. Abbey Rock
19	V-heaven
20	Wah ’ts dat
21	Parcival’s Virus
22	Didgeridoo
23	Parcivals Drum 1
24	BD Fat 2
25	Percussion Delay

Note:

These charts show only the basic chords so as to avoid confusion.

Only one 7th chord is used and no sus chords have been used.

If you find that your chord progression has any of these follow the chart below to replace or add.

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