Should I Use A Capo? Here's 5 Benefits & Uses! ⋆ Chromatic Dreamers

Capos…

Some love em with a passion, some refuse to use them.

Some see them as a useful tool for their playing, others see it as a lazy man’s tool or crutch.

As a beginner, how should you see it? Should you avoid it and work hard on your barring skills? Are there times when it’s acceptable? Will people judge you for using it?

My Experience With Capos

When I first picked up guitar, I did buy a capo early on because I noticed a lot of songs required one. However, I personally wanted to avoid it because I didn’t want to become reliant on it. I know how it felt to be in a box when it came to learning other instruments, and I didn’t want to feel stuck again.

Adding on, the feeling of needing a capo but not having one sucks. There have been times where I found a song that required a capo, but just my luck, I couldn’t find it that day. Sure, I could learn it in an open position, but it’s hard playing a long when you’re playing in a different key.

I am now at a level where I could transpose a capo song into it’s original chords and play barre chords easily, or just play the listed chords in an open position because it fits my vocal range better anyways. However, I have nothing against capos and I see how others utilize and benefit from it.

Before writing this article, I was scrolling on Facebook and someone asked a guitar group what are the benefits of a Capo, and the majority were telling him ‘it’s for lazy people’ and to ‘get rid of it’, but I think they’re wrong.

Thus, I’m writing this to help anyone who is being told not to use it or criticized for using it, what the real benefits of it is.

Scenarios Where A Capo Is Beneficial

Scenario 1: Transposing

You spent the last 2 months learning a song in open position for a performance. You finally meet the singer and you practice together. You then realize, oh no, she isn’t comfortable singing in such a low key. She asks if you could raise the song 3 semitones.

Sure, you could relearn the song, which may require you to learn new chords and start over…or you can just put the capo on the 3rd fret and play the way you have been. If she decides 3 was too high, then you can just lower it by 1 fret. Capos are a great quick fix for scenerios like this.

Scenario 2: Move Open Chords

Capos are also great if you want to make more use of open chords. As much as one may love barre chords, open chords do sound more beautiful a lot of the time. If you’re someone who likes to add embellishments to your songs, this may be necessary. You need that extra finger to add that extra flare.

For example, the C chord uses 3 fingers, so you can use your pinky to change it to a Cadd9, but if you were playing a C barre chord on the 8th fret, or a C# chord, you don’t have that option anymore.

Same with being able to easily switch between Asus4 and A Major or Dsus4 and D Major. You won’t have as much flexibility anymore. Here’s some examples of what one can do if that pinky was available.

In one of the video below, one of the biggest guitar teachers on Youtube, Paul Davis, plays 30 acoustic songs. The second half of the video has most of the capo songs. I’ve also included a video where someone demonstrates a variety of beautiful chords you could only do with a capo.

Scenario 3: Less Barre Chords

You’re not comfortable with barre chords just yet. You are trying, but it does take months to really get to the point where you can utilize it or play it for a whole song. You are a beginner after all, and barres take a lot of muscle and finger strength.

However, there’s this song you really like, and sadly, most of the chords are barre chords. You don’t want to transpose it because you want to play along with the original track.

If the song was in the key of C#, pretty much every chord is barred (C#, D#m, E#m, F#, G#, A#m). But if you put the capo on fret 1, you can (technically) get rid of all the sharps (C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am), and now the only barre chord you need to play is F.

In other cases, if there was a B chord (major or minor) and an F# chord (major or minor), if you put the capo on fret 2, you can play the B chords using an A shaped chord and F# chords using an E shaped chord, because the capo works as your index finger in a barre chord.

It will be hard to avoid barre chords completely (and I wouldn’t recommend it cause your song choices will be greatly restricted), but a capo will allow you to ease more into it while still playing the songs you like.

Scenario 4: Fingerstyle

If you’re interested in fingerstyle songs, you may have noticed that a capo is used in quite a few arrangements. There’s no doubt that these guitarists are talented. They’re combining chords and licks, and using all their fingers to strum different strings at different times, yet they’re using a capo…why?

Well, fingerstyle guitarists will try to make the most use of open strings. They only have 4 fingers to fret with after all, and these songs can be quick. There may also be a big gap between notes and chords, or they want to use the open strings for the bass between and during the melody.

If most notes they need to play are around the 9th fret, but they also need to make use of notes on the 3rd fret, it would be easier for them to just put a capo on the 3rd fret, than to jump back and forth and waste time/energy.

Is it laziness? Not at all! Do you see how much they have to play and do at once? They’re probably some of the most talented guitarists in my opinion! So if they’re using them, why should you feel ashamed?

Scenario 5: Experimenting

Lastly, capos can be a great experimental tool. Just like how some guitarists like to lower their tuning or experiment with other tunings (especially in math rock/midwest emo where tapping is the name of the game), capos can be used to raise and change the tuning without needing to retune or possibly snap their strings.

Why is changing the tuning or using a drop tuning not seen as cheating, but using a capo is? You see the hypocrisy!?

If you ever want to find your sound or playing style, you should feel free to use whatever tools you need to produce the sound you want.

This includes items like a fret wrap that will mute open strings so you can go crazy with solos, or the use of pedals to change your tone. Sometimes you need to retune AND use a capo to be able to play a creation.

If you have a higher singing voice or tend to prefer higher pitched music, you shouldn’t have to barre all the time to make that happen. That’s not good for your hand either. It takes a lot of strenght and energy to play a 3-5 minute song with just barres. So don’t feel pressured if others make you feel it’s a must to be a good guitarist.

Conclusion

It’s not always about being ‘lazy’ or using a capo as a ‘crutch’. Capos are a valuable tool for guitarists of all levels and backgrounds!

According to some Facebookers, there are some genres where capos are a must, like folk and bluesgrass! Here’s a video one member recommended on the many uses.

And as others have mentioned, there are some songs that are impossible to play without a capo, like “Here Comes The Sun” and “Hotel California”.

In the end, music should be about the output, not the method used to get there.

Sure, some guitarists may love to show off by doing fast and crazy things, but honestly, non-musicians will be impressed with anything you can play. Heck, they’re impressed with basic 3 chord songs and fake musicians on Tiktok after all. They really don’t know what’s going on.

So don’t let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t use a capo. Do what you feel is best…just don’t use them as an excuse to avoid learning your F and B barre chords haha 😛

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Happy playing 🙂