Dealing With Guitars and Capos

[DeaconK]

Ok, I admit. I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I'm working on it. The guitars in my band love to make use of capos. Tonight we played a little pick up gig for our church youth group and they tossed out a request that I wasn't 100% familar with. They guitars capo'd up two frets. My question: Whey guitars capo up X number of frets, do I simply move up the same number of frets? For example, they capo up 2 and play an A chord. My response would be to play a B, correct? I'm almost embarrassed to asks this. I've only been playing bass awhile and while I've learned all of the notes in all of the locations on the fretboard, working on scales and modes, etc. this silly thing has been intimidating me for a while and I finally had to ask (after wading through 25 pages of "search". Thanks for your time.

[somedumbguy]

You are right.

If they Capo 3 and play a G, you play a Bb (three frets higher).

[electracoyote]

You are correct. Capo at 2 is one step above standard. If they play standard open chord shapes, just follow the new root. G chord becomes an A, A chord becomes B, and on up the musical alphabet.

[totallybacan]

Another way to do it (which is the 'easy' way out, as it does not help with with your thoery work, is to play exactly like them on the fretboard and ignore the capo. Generally, this is easier with bar chords. If you see them bar the 5th fret, and they have a capo anywhere, just imagine the root as the 5th fret. All a capo does is change open positions. YMMV

[electracoyote]

Originally Posted by totallybacan

Another way to do it (which is the 'easy' way out, as it does not help with with your thoery work, is to play exactly like them on the fretboard and ignore the capo.

This will work until the guitards play open-root chords. Then you have to remember the capo.