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I decided to help the 4pm Saturday Mass at the parish instead of assisting as deacon at Mass I played the guitar with the choir. They have one guitar player playing a flat top who uses a capo and just strums at bit. So, I sit down with my Hollenbeck and they start discussing the tunes and hymns. I ask what key and they pull out some sheet music and tell me the key and then say..........Capo 3rd fret. I am getting completely lost I mean it. I simply ask them what key they are playing the tune in concert of course. Then the guitar player says to me " you don't use a capo?" I said no never have ever used one, but I have 4 fingers and a thumb just tell me the actual key the tune is being played in and I simply play the chords.
To my surprise this was a bit confusing to the piano player and finally they figured out so but it is completely crazy. These hymn books have chords written about and then the transposing if you use a capo. I tell you all I want is a sheet with the melody and chords they are using. Anything else gets too busy and if you look at the wrong line you start playing out of key. I am just so used to normal fake books that these helpful items on the page are not helpful to me?
Ok, I will end this rant but is this me only who has this problem?Last edited by deacon Mark; 11-03-2023 at 04:11 PM.
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11-03-2023 03:50 PM
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Church musicians are a whole different world.
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Pro Tip: Under no circumstances should you ever trust what a guitarist declares is the key or the chords of a tune if his guitar is sporting a capo.
I was the guitarist for the host band of a weekly open mic for over ten years... spotting a capo meant needing to be prepared to transpose from what you thought and from what they declared to what the actual manifestation of the tune itself revealed.
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I use a capo occasionally and love it. In my view, the main purpose of a capo is not to change keys but to enable the use of open strings under certain chord forms, especially when fingerpicking.
That's how Simon and Garfunkel got those gorgeous sounds in their early tunes, and how Buddy Holly got his sound on That'll Be The Day. All the guitarists in the UK puzzled over how he achieved that, and when he finally toured there, they saw he just used a capo at the fifth fret and played it using the E form!
A capo and open strings changes the timbre of the guitar in a way unachievable by other means.
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Never used one never will. Just too darn confusing.
Someone once asked to borrow my capo, I said I don't use one, she looked at me like I was from another planet.
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Hehe, I understand this. I started playing at my church years ago and the two different lines of chords messed with me a little. Got used to it. I don't use a capo regularly either.
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I have a capo which I use when adjusting the truss rod to set relief for an initial setup. It's very handy when behind the first fret, letting me fret at the body with one finger, leaving the rest free to tap along the neck to make sure the neck is straight and there are no high frets. Otherwise I have no use for it. If I were a fingerpicker using open strings, I might try one, but I'm not, so I don't.
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I have not used one until recently, to play in a singer’s more comfortable range.
I’m like you—just tell me the key and the chords. Most of my music programs transpose the key automatically.
But…many pop songs are written or at least published for a capo. (Bonnie Raitt’s I Can’t Make You Love Me for instance.) And it’s just so much easier playing a song in C or whatever capoed up 2-3 frets, than playing in D#. Especially since there are a lot of open chords.
It’s fine if I stay close to the nut or capo and don’t worry about position. Going way up the neck is confusing.
I think Tuck Andress played with a capo a fair amount, which surprised me. Otherwise, seems rare in the jazz world.
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Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
That is a lovely tune.
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Isn't Tommy Emmanuel a virtuoso capo player? I don't really follow him but I saw a vid of him using it to great effect with open strings and then ripping it off and throwing it behind him for a key change.
I've only used one like Sgosnell does for set-up. But it's just another tool really.
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Capos blow my mind for doing anything other than open chord strumming...if I try to play up the neck, there's a certain point where my brain can't think "in terms of capo" anymore.
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I find it confusing to use a capo. And, I can't recall a situation where I thought "I wish I had a capo".
I am aware that it is a tool that can be used to make great music that can't be done any other way.
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Next time just respond
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Kids don’t try this at home—about 1:50 into the song—Dave Rawlings tearing it up, and never misses a beat.
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always blew my mind how iceman used em…all over the neck Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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The one genre where you can't go without a capo is Flamenco. Everything they play revolves around the singers key and has open strings. An eternal confusion for me when playing up the neck!!
And Albert Collins... a capo together with an alternate tuning..
You hear the notes and the visuals make no sense, but at least it's the blues so it's easier to find your way around.
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Spotted this vid a while ago......
Glen Campbell on using a capo :
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1074662279218628
: )
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Exactly. You won’t get the sound of “here comes the sun” without a capo. To mention just one of a zillion examples. Originally Posted by Tim Clark
Capos aren’t just for your musical inferiors.
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I use a capo all the time, it's my index finger.
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I have been using a capo recently for the first time ever. First picked up a guitar in '66. I've been doing Man I feel like a Woman in concert Bb but with capo on 1st fret. It's slightly weird as you think you are playing in A but when you do the solo you're in Bb!
As far as jazz guitar goes, we don't need a capo because we all know every tune in every key!!
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I place a capo at the fifth fret, to ensure I do not make any money. I find it very useful for pedal bass — ma non troppo.
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Last night at Mass the piano player just handed me the extra piano book he had for the Mass settings of music. He said just have this one because you can actually read music. Then they bring out these sheets of hymn that show the chords above the lyrics with no bar lines. That throws me off even more, but I get around that by simply finding the correct sheet music of the hymn. Does anyone else have this problem? I am asking because I really don't have any idea. Great players can simply sit down and figure things out in a hurry with little help, that of course excludes me, I need all the help I can get. It reminds me a bit or reading TAB. I don't want TAB please just write the tune out in straight up music.
I am actually not trying to sound uppity about my playing because we all know great musicians who did not really even read music. However, given I don't use a capo it does throw off my entire way I think when I look at the music. I do however object to TAB because they still have not really invented a better way to write music. TAB leaves out many things that are instantly known when you read music.
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i know right , it’s so weird Originally Posted by garybaldy;[URL="tel:1296610"
1296610[/URL]]I have been using a capo recently for the first time ever. First picked up a guitar in '66. I've been doing Man I feel like a Woman in concert Bb but with capo on 1st fret. It's slightly weird as you think you are playing in A but when you do the solo you're in Bb!!
i cannot get my head round it at all ….
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Some of the shows I've played like "Godspell"(the revised version for three guitars where I had to play a compendium of all three books)), "Dogfight" (a great musical about a female folksinger/guitarist, where I had to play her guitar parts while she faked them on stage) and even Mama Mia, have parts written out for capo.
I kind of learned how to use a capo, but the one I bought Schlubb, or something like that, wouldn't stay put on my piezo P/U solid body guitar, so I just transposed everything myself, and the MD didn't notice a thing.
I admire those people that can use capos on acoustic guitars, because they can play open string chords in flat keys like Bb, Eb, Ab etc..but I can get a steel string or nylon string sound from the piezo pickup, so I don't own a classical or open hole steel string acoustic guitar.
I'm playing a show now which calls for acoustic guitar sounds, and both I and the other guitarist can get acoustic sounds out of our solid bodies, and thankfully there's no call for a capo, so they can shove their acoustic guitars you-know-where.
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The capo dependent always cite tunes that can not be played without a capo.
I say why would you want to sound exactly the same as everyone else?
Johnny Gimble said if you try to sound like someone else Who is going to sound like you?
Use them if you need them. It matters not to me either way.
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