Changing Keys Without Changing Your Mindset: The Power of Using a Capo

Okay , so , for instance , if you knew a song that was in the key of G and you were playing G and C and D and a singer comes in and they're going to sing this song with you and you've learned how to play this in the key of G , but as soon as you start playing , you recognize that maybe this key doesn't work for this singer , for whatever reason .

You know , maybe the singer has a bit higher voice , or whatever it might be . So that's obviously the perfect opportunity to start using a capo

. You can still maintain all of the open chord , tonality , you can still maintain all your thoughts on how you're actually playing this song , how you practice it , all that kind of stuff . Everything can be the same . You're just going to add the capo and start changing the key . So I have a couple of different capos here .

This is kind of a typical capo that you would see . Okay , just something like that where you squeeze and right , it opens and closes . And then there are other capos there's , you know , fancier capos that have , you know , like a little , you know , trigger .

If you will , that work a little bit better sometimes , because with a capo , sometimes what happens is the capo might pull the strings a little bit and you'll recognize whether that is or is not happening on your guitar , depending on which capo you have and what you hear .

So anyway , what I'm going to use , I'm just going to use the traditional old school capo here , okay . So let's say I put this on the first fret , okay .

So now what would happen is everything that I was doing would now be one fret higher , which means if I was playing in the key of G , playing G , c and D visually I'm still seeing G and C and D , but the audio right , what's actually happening with the pitches would be one fret higher , which you want to know your chromatic scale , because that would be very

helpful to you to know the math conversion here . So now , all of a sudden , instead of playing G ,

I'd have to play it one fret higher , which means I'm now playing in the key of G , sharp , or more commonly called the key of A flat .

Okay , now it can be confusing when you're talking to other musicians , because you're still thinking G , c and D , and if you're with a bunch of guitar players , you use terminology like oh , let's play in the key of G , but just capo the first fret . Okay , that makes sense . G , c , d , capo , first fret . That's the language that we use .

But if you were playing with some other instruments , if you were playing with a saxophone player and a piano player and whatever , they're not going to understand that language unless they play guitar . So you've got to tell them what you're actually doing . So you , as a guitar player , are thinking G , c and D , but you've got a capo at the first fret .

So you're actually playing G sharp , c sharp and D sharp , which , again , commonly we might call these things A flat , d flat and E flat .

Now , if that terminology screws you up at all , you want to learn what those things are , understanding your chromatic scale , all 12 notes and then understanding that if you say C sharp , it has an alternate name which is D flat or G sharp has A flat , and again , you could learn all of that , but it's important to understand that .

So now you know we're getting closer , so we start playing the song again . Okay , so for us as guitar players , nothing's really changing other than the fact that we have the capo on the guitar . We're still visually thinking about the G , the C and the D .

We're still working on it the same way we did it when we were practicing at home , but maybe it's still a little too low , so now we've got to move it up . So we move it up to the second fret . Again . Nothing is changing for me in terms of my visualization .

Obviously , the sound is changing , but the way I'm thinking about the song is still staying the same . Now this G would be two frets higher , which means G is actually A , c is actually D and D is actually E . And you can see where that can get confusing .

That's why when you're working in the guitar world , people will just say oh , it's in the key of G , second capo , second fret . So we've got it cleared , because if I say A , then it's like well , why it doesn't look like A to me , right ? So that's where the confusion happens . So you always have to remember who are you talking to .

Are you talking to other guitar players that understand capo 2 ? We're still playing G , right , g , c and D , but capo 2 . Or are we talking to other musicians where we'd have to define this ? Now you can see where , in this case , g has become A , c has become D and D has become E , because we're two frets higher .

So then the question arises well , why not just play A , d and E then ? And the answer is well , you could , okay . What will change , though , is the tone will change a little bit , because when you were here , of course , you were playing like that D chord had a real high sound to it , right , so it kind of sounds like it's moving up .

When I play in the key of with these chords , you see , now it's the same chords ,

but it sounds a little bit different because we're going from A up here to D and then down to this low E sound . The other thing that's significant about this is that it's changed in your mind . Like , if you've been practicing and you've been thinking about G , c and D , well , now you've gotta convert this in your mind to A , d and E , and that's okay .

Again , if you have time , there's nothing wrong with that , right ? But if it's on the fly , and maybe that would confuse you , well , hey , that's a perfect reason that you'd want to use a capo . Okay , so if I put that capo back on , here's another instance . Let's say I was doing something where the melody is doing something where I'm going .

Well , let me just show you this . So that's what it sounded like , right , that's what the song was . That I was learning how to play , so , even though I could put this in A . That I was learning how to play . So , even though I could put this in A , I can't do that picking melody if I change this .

So that'd be a prime example of why a capo would be beneficial .

You see , when I was growing up , capos were considered these cheater things and I suppose in some way , they are like if you don't learn your bar chords or something like that , but a capo isn't always gonna be be the answer , because you're still going to wind up having to play bar chords at some point in your life , so it's worth learning them .

But I think a capo is really , really important for exactly what we're talking about now to keep the consistency of what it is that you're doing . Because if what I want to play is is that if I take the capo off and play it as A , d and E , I can't get that same

thing happening , the only way I can really do that is by playing the chord shapes that I'm playing now and then just moving this up and down relative to , again , whatever the limitation might be .

Now , limitations might consist of knowledge , right , limitations might consist of knowledge , right , you only know certain chords , or you don't know your bar chords , or other musicians that you're playing with can't do this or this , this . So physical limitations , skill limitations , right , knowledge limitations .

The second thing would be limitations of the instrument itself , and you think about a voice . That's a prime example . You know everybody can't sing everything in every key , like . Usually , the voice has more limitations . The guitar has less of those limitations if we learn enough about it .

But there are other instruments as well that might have certain limitations , and so that's where all of this conversation winds up , coming in to play . So for me , you know , if I wind up playing , for instance , a prime example of when I might use a capo would be in the church band setting . So I play in church once in a while and I'll learn songs .

I learn the parts , the specific parts of things . And then if I get to church and we need to change the key or something like that , that's fine . And as long as I can , still whatever the song might need , I could still do that .

Otherwise , if I switch chords and I'm playing it in different chord voicings and all that kind of stuff , I might not be able to do that anymore . Now , that's okay , unless it's really pertinent to the song . Then I might want to use that capo , right ?

Or if , for some reason , it just makes more sense in my head to stay using the shapes of G , c and D or whatever , it might be right , then I'll use a cable for that , okay .

So sometimes it's because of limitations , sometimes it's because you don't want to alter what you're thinking in your head , and sometimes because you really do need to keep it consistent to have that same tonality to be able to do the same execution of things . Okay . So if you think about it tonality to be able to do the same execution of things Okay .

So if you think about it , what you need to be able to do is use the chromatic scale and then readjust . Now , if you know your theory , which I would strongly recommend if you know your basic chord theory right 1 , 4 , 5 being major , 2 , 3 , 6 being minor , like if you know that , okay .

So if you're in the key of G , for instance , you know G , c and D would be the 1 , 4 , and 5 . And if you don't know that , again you can learn that it's something that's fairly straightforward . But G , c and D would be the 1 , 4 , 5 . So , if you think about it , if I needed to redo this

let's say , for instance , I need to go the other direction , I need to go down right , the key that's working isn't functioning and I'm not going to move up , I need to do something else . Well then I need to convert this and I need to think okay , so GCD is my 145 . Okay , so , as long as I've got a 145 available .

So if I wanted to move down , I'd be on F sharp . So if I wanted to move down , I'd be on F sharp , okay , which isn't going to work . Obviously , if I move down again , it's going to be F , which might work , but it'd put me in bar chords . So let's just say I was moving down one fret to F sharp , okay , so that's not going to work .

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to choose F sharp somewhere else . So I might take D , d , sharp , e , f , f sharp . D , d , sharp , e , f , f sharp . You see what I did . So G . We want to move down a half step . So G becomes F sharp . Well , I can't play that down there , so I'm going to find something else .

I could try C , but then I'm going to go C , d , e , f sharp . I'm going to be way up here , which is okay , but of course the further up you go , the smaller the frets get . So maybe a better choice would be moving E or D E F sharp up here .

Now , of course I could have moved E to F sharp , but let's say we're trying to stay away from the bar chords for whatever reason . Maybe we want more of that open chord kind of sound . So D E , f sharp , d E , f sharp , okay , so I'm going to put this on here . And now I've got F sharp . Now again it's a D shape in my head .

So if I think about it , one , four , five , it'd be D , g , a . So there I go . So I'm ready to go . So I'm ready to go , right , or whatever it is , I'm playing . Whatever it is I want to play , I've mathematically figured out where I need to go . Okay , it's just now .

I have to be aware that even though my brain is thinking D and G and A , in reality , of course , because the capo is here . That's not the case . It's actually going to be F sharp B and C sharp right . So it takes a little bit to get used to .

But that's what I want you to understand about the capo is why you would use a capo when it's good to use a capo . And in reality , as guitar players , sometimes we want to retain that thought that we've got on how we're playing something or we really do

need to keep it for a particular reason of the picking that we're using . And if we were to switch those shapes entirely , we wouldn't have the availability of being able to do that thing anymore . So just something for you to think about a little bit .