Play Guitar In YOUR Singing Key

I learned to play guitar to accompany myself while singing.

It took me a while to work up proficiency to play in any key, but some songs sound better in one key than another.  An “E” chord has a distinctive sound and a “G” chord has a different sound.  If you like the key of E but sing in the key of G — what will you do?

Well, there is this little gizmo called a capo (KAY-poe) that adjusts the guitar strings so that you can play with your fingers on familiar chords, but be in a whole different key.

It also works great if you are jamming and the other folks play a song you know in a key different than what you’ve practiced.

Details and pictures after the jump —

You can get a cheap one made of elastic & plastic …

… but these types don’t work real well and your strings buzz if they aren’t clamped down tight.

A better design uses a screw-controlled bar on the back to adjust the tension.

The type I prefer is spring-loaded and you don’t have to use two hands to screw it on or off.  You can add it on the fly and take it off in a jiffy with just a squeeze of the hand.

It’s a model by Planet Waves, called the ‘Dual Action Capo‘. Here’s a picture of it attached to the guitar:

It’s lightweight and adjustable (lower frets take more tension to keep strings from buzzing and the neck gets thicker the higher up you go).

Here’s a different view of it being used at the 2nd fret:

In the long, long time I’ve been playing, my voice has changed several times.  I don’t have to re-learn the songs — I just move the capo up or down and I can hit that low note or high note that used to be over there!

An example of how this is used —

If I hear a song and determine that the recording is in Eb, I can play it in the key of C with a capo on the 3rd fret.  That’s all — just play the C, Am, F, G7 and whatever chords the way you always would, and they will be magically transposed to the key of Eb.

Well, that’s a creative use of the term “magic.”

But the guitar capo is a useful accessory to keep in your guitar case.  It doesn’t take up much room and it can save the day when you need to be singing in a different key.

WADE — thanks to The Guitar Lesson Review Blog