Ever wondered what a guitar capo is?  Heard the term used in forums and discussions and made that akward smile like you knew what they were talking about when you really thought it was a type hat which you were supposed to wear while playing guitar?  Maybe not you, but that's what i thought!

Anyway, a guitar capo is a clamp that you stick on different frets of the guitar to change the pitch or key of the open strings. Each fret on the guitar is a half step, therefore, if you put a capo on the 1st fret, all of the open strings will sound a half step higher than normal. This makes changing the key of a song very easy.  Have you ever seen a song which had really weird chords that you didn't want to really mess with?  With a capo, you can change the key or pitch of your guitar and make those tough chords easier to play.

Just click on the picture to go buy your guitar capo now!

For example, if you have a song in the key of G (usually, the first chord of a song gives away the key of the song) with the chords G, C, and D, you could change the song into the key of A. You would just put a capo on the 2nd fret, and play the chord shapes G, C, and D. These chord shapes will now sound a whole step higher. They will sound like the chords A, D and E.  

When learning more about using a capo, there are 2 basic ideas to understand. Chord shape, and chord sound.

No matter what fret you have the capo on, when you play a G chord shape, in your mind you will always think of it as a G chord. This is a G chord shape. If you were to capo the guitar at the 2nd fret and play a G chord shape, then the chord sound would be that of an A chord.

This is the main idea of using a capo. You are using familiar, maybe even easier chord shapes to get the chord sound of less familiar, more difficult chords. If you have a Bb chord in a song, you could put the capo at the 1st fret, and play an A chord shape. But you will get a Bb chord sound.

All this sounds wonderful but, how do i use a guitar capo?