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How to use capo?

What is Capo?

Capo is a tool that makes playing stringed instruments easier. Let's give an example use case: F major chord in guitar is hard for beginners. When you put your capo on the 1st fret, you can play the same sound with a much easier chord E major. The important note here is that capo does not change the sound, it changes the shape of your fingering only. Actual sound coming off from the instrument is F major when you play E major with capo on the 1st fret.

A capo for guitar

A capo for guitar

F major chord on guitar

F major chord on guitar

E major with capo on 1st fret (F major chord sound )

E major with capo on 1st fret (F major chord sound)

How to change Capo on a song?

In order to change capo setting, you need to open Tone & Capo table. You can either open the Tone & Capo table by clicking Tone & Capo button in Chord Sheet Settings or clicking on the capo or virtual transpose buttons on instruments.

Tone & Capo button in Chord Sheet Settings

Tone & Capo button in Chord Sheet Settings

Capo on guitar

Capo on guitar

Virtual transpose button on piano

Virtual transpose button on piano

Capo on ukulele

Capo on ukulele

What about piano?

Same thing applies to piano. If you are using a keyboard. You can use the inboard transpose function on your instrument. It functions same with a capo on a stringed insturment. It makes the playing of chords on your keyboard much easier. Below you can see that capo makes the playing of the chord easier.

A capo for guitar

C# chord in piano

F major chord on guitar

C major with capo on 1st fret (C# major chord sound)

How to select the right capo?

In any song you want to play, Mychordbook calculates the difficulty of each chord progression for you. So you can simply select the one with the lowest difficulty

A capo for guitar

Easiest chord progression

In the above configuration, please note that although the chords on the chord sheet are Em, G, A, C, D (Capo 5 chords), sound coming out of your instrument is Tone 0 (Am, C, D, F, G). This seems difficult at first, but you can remember like this: purple represents the original sound and the orange represents the chords you play