Learn Acoustic Guitar

Learning guitar is one of the most rewarding, and sometimes frustrating experiences I can think of.

Whether you are learning acoustic or electric guitar you will need to prepared for sore fingers, squeaks, buzzes and the odd snapped string.

Even though it is difficult at first, with good advice and a willingness to practice it is within the grasp of most people.

Why then is there such a high drop out rate for new guitarists.

Personally I think that the way guitar is taught is a major set back.

The focus of most books, courses and teachers is on mindless repetition, pointless strumming patterns and learning dull traditional songs.

Learning acoustic guitar should be fun. Nobody ever picked up a guitar excited about getting to play amazing grace.

With the huge amount of free resources on the net there are so many options. Why not learn to play the Rolling Stones or the Beatles?. Their songs can sometimes be as easy to learn and readily available for home study on-numerous tab sites.

Maybe guitar teachers should encourage their students to search for songs they want to play and bring the fun back into learning acoustic guitar.

The capo is a useful tool if you are learning to play acoustic guitar. It allows the you to change specific chord shapes into different chords by changing what notes are available as open strings.

The main reason experienced guitarists use the capo is that some tunes simply sound better in a higher key than playing from the open position at the bottom of the neck.

For newer guitarists the capo makes changing key much easier without the need for a full understanding of each chord that goes in a progression in relation to the root note.

The same chord progression played on the open position becomes a different progression in a different key when played with a capo higher up on the neck.

What is a Capo?

Guitar capos are basically just bars, usually covered in rubber, that clamp to the guitar neck through a spring or nut mechanism.

Effectively they fret every note at the fret they are placed. Because each note is fretted there, any lower notes are no longer available for use. The notes at the capoed fret become the open strings and can be used without any fretting on the guitarist’s part..

Changing the Progression Root Note with a Capo

Finding the location to place a capo is fairly straightforward. Simply locate one of the root notes in the progression (it doesn’t matter what specific register the note is in, it just has to be any root note). Then count up the neck the number of frets to reach the new root note. Whatever number that is indicates what fret to place the capo.

Once the capo is in place, simply play the same progression as though the capo were the guitar nut. The chord progression will now be in the new key.

Bear in mind that a capo can’t be used to reach lower keys. In order to do that the guitar would either have to be tuned down, a baritone guitar would need to be used, or the progression would have to be rewritten (which may not be practical or possible in all situations).

Cautions of Capo Usage

There are a couple things to watch out for when using a capo.

The most major one is that some chords or techniques might be harder to use further up the neck. Take time to practice progressions in the new key, particularly for more dramatic key changes. If the part becomes too difficult to play in the new position, going down in register rather than up might be a better option.

Intonation can also be a more pronounced issue when playing with the capo high up the neck. If the intonation is off a little bit, it may be a fairly unnoticeable issue when playing low on the neck, but the further up the neck a guitarist is, the more pronounced any intonation problems will be.

While every guitarist should make sure their instrument is properly intonated, this is especially true for people that will be using the capo to reach higher than normal keys.

Guitars should not be tuned with the capo on. The capo will hamper any efforts to tune with it on, and the string is likely to be under the wrong tension, even if it is tuned to the right note.

The capo is a useful tool for someone learning acoustic guitar. Make sure to avoid the few minor issues that can arise when using a capo. Being able to change the key of the progression without having to learn a brand new set of chords can expand a guitarist functional repertoire dramatically.