hey guys,

so i've been playing guitar for a few years now and i never really needed to or wanted to use a capo. but, as i start to write songs i want to experiment with it. i recently got one, i just dont know how to use it. and please dont say "just clip it on, duh", yeah no crap, genius. i'm more intrested in keys and stuff like that. any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. thanks. b

so what exactly is the question?

As a for instance, if you put the capo on the third fret and then play an open E major chord - at the third fret it's a G. Looking at the 'CAGED' chord system will help you figure it out....

A capo can produce some interesting voicings, but that often comes as a side-effect of using it to transpose keys.

For example, if you want to transpose a song from the key of G to the key of A, install the capo on the 2nd fret, and play the song. All of the notes are now raised by two semitones, producing the correct pitch for the new key, without changing the chord shapes. An open G chord fingering will now actually be an A chord. Barre chords are similarly shifted, provide you position them the same distance from the capo as they were from the nut.

Go the the web site
www.logue.net

There you can go to the chord finder, then the capo/transpose chart. (print the chart.)
This shows what key you change to with a capo (depending on where you put it.)
Then you can use the transpose chords window to type in the chords you play (put several spaces between the chords when you type) then select the original key, then put in the new key (from the chart) and press transpose. It will show you what chord shapes you now play with the capo.
The original key is most often the first chord of the song.

It takes some experimentation, but it works well.