Learn what a Capo is and What it's Used For - Part 1

What's up everybody, its Aaron. This video here is—hopefully you're watching this on the www.freeandeasyguitar.com if you found it through the Youtube site that I am posting all this lessons and checkout the webpage. The kind of -- just the video right here is going to be kind of tips and kind of what a capo. A lot of people ask me -- this is what capo is, alright? A lot of people will say “Hey, what's the thing called its on the neck of your guitar?” “What's the thing called its on the head of guitars?” for the videos to capo. So what I want to show you today is basically explain to you what a capo does, the reason for using it and then kind of some tricks to get to different tunings using the capo, okay. The first thing I want to do is if you're not familiar with how the notes work on the neck of your guitar. Basically, the notes and music go from A through G, okay. And they going order A, B, C, D, E, F, G now in between those there is half steps. So if you have an A between your A and your B there is a note in between, okay. You can either use sharps or flats, so if you are using all sharps then it would be—you have your A and then you an A sharp and then a B, okay. You do the same thing all away from A to G there's a half step in between every all the letters, except for B and C there's no half step in between them and E and F. So basically it’s a 12 steps. 12 steps to get from one note to the other, so I'm going to take you, start real quick on the second string gap from the top, your fifth string, because that’s you’re A, it's your open A. The reason I'm starting there is just to show you that you know I want to start with the A. So if you play in standard tuning, D, A, D, G, B, D, is a standard tuning. The second string all the way from the top, your one, your two. This one here, that’s your A string, now the way and notes and music work is you have A, then next you have your A sharp, so if you are to cover the first fret, it’s A string when you're raising it up half of step. So A open, first fret is a sharp, second fret little more you go from the A sharp to another half step to B. Now, from a B to a C its tricky and I don’t know enough theory to really explain why. But there is no B sharp, there's not a note between B and C, it just go from -- like on the A string, you have A, the first fret, A sharp, second fret is B, third fret is your C, fourth fret you go back to the C sharp between C and D. So C fret, C sharp is fourth, fifth is D, sixth is a D sharp, seven is an E. And just between B and C just like between B and C there's no half step in between, it's the same thing of E and F. So working on A string, D is on your seventh fret, so you're eight one half step up, it takes you to F. Another one F sharp, another one G, 11th fret takes you to G sharp, and your 12th fret, once you get above G sharp, you actually start back at A. So after G sharp the next half step, that will be A. So that’s why I said it’s a twelve-step, so you have open, which would be zero, because you're not playing anything so open A, first fret A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp and at 12th step is you're back at A, because of G sharp, you don’t go up to H, you just go back to A, it starts over. So if you notice [Demonstration], those are the same notes. [Demonstration] The same for those strings, you can play the open E, if you go to 12th fret [Demonstration], those are both Es, the high E string [Demonstration] and 12th fret is the same on the B string [Demonstration], because your both B notes, just different alternatives. Alright, now we have now those established, the reason I want to establish that is to show you that you want to move with the capo, what the capo does, it allows you to raise up a step. So let's say you have song, let's take and try to think of one, off from my head, James Blunt song, actually let's go to John Meyer. The song “Say” by John Meyer, you can play it two ways, if you see him playing a concert, you’ll noticed that he doesn’t play with the capo on it. He just plays [Demonstration], I can't do it on a classical, it's starting to cut away. But you’ll notice if you watched some videos of John Meyer playing it, he doesn’t play with the capo. The version I thought with the capo is just because it's easier for beginners. Now, the reason, the flexibility the capo give you is with a lot of people that are just starting and beginners, sometimes you don’t like to use bar chords. But now if you can remember and if not, it's okay, I'm going to show you, but the John Meyer “Say” lesson, there was a capo on a sixth fret. So after little picking intro, your capo is on a 6th fret, and you had this formation, you had an E [Demonstration] to like an A sus up to your C sharp minor, down to this, I don’t know what that was. But the thing I want to show you is your first chords is in E here [Demonstration], that’s what it sounds like. [Demonstration] That’s how I taught you is this [Demonstration]. The way John Meyer plays is it, is if you notice he has the same fingering, but instead if using a capo, he’ll play a bar [Demonstration] like that. So basically, all the capo does is acts like a bar, so you don’t have to do a bar there, that’s useful-one, if you have a lot of chord formations that are in the same area. [Demonstration] And then its also useful, let's say you like to sing a song alright, so “Say” that song by John Meyer, “Say,” 6th fret capo and you play the chord formation, the chord progression that I taught in that lesson. Let's say that just a little high for you to sing, you can actually take the capo, move it down a half step you can move it down another half step which makes it a full step, you could move it down for half steps one, two, three, four which is two whole steps if you want it. But the good thing about that is when you move it down, the chord progression stayed the same. So if you want it to move it down, you're still be able to play— [Demonstration] Now if you noticed, that doesn’t sound exactly like the song because it has moved down two full steps okay. So if you have a capo and you are on a sixth fret and you're playing the song “Say” by John Meyer, you're playing along with Youtube [Demonstration]. If you want to lower the capo, so you can sing it, and you go down to the third fret, three half steps, it's not going to sound right, when you play it along with the CD, that’s just how it is, because you’ve lowered a couple steps. Another thing too, let's say I teach—I've taught a lot of songs with capos, let's say it's on the 2nd fret or “Here Without You,” the song I taught, capo on the first fret. [Demonstration] Some people would say, “Hey I don’t have a capo can I still play that song?” Yes you can play it, but if you don’t have a capo, the actual chord of song sounds like this. [Demonstration] Okay, like that, now you can play it, but if you take—if you don’t have a capo you just have to play like this. [Demonstration], but you see how’s that lowered. So this is the way of what sounds with the capo district court. Without the capo [Demonstration]. So— [Demonstration] You can tell it’s the whole step lower, so if you want to send me the videos, you don’t have capo, you’ll buy one, I suggest you go buy one, especially if you're playing acoustic guitar a lot, if you are going to play an electric, you don’t necessarily need a capo. Every once in a while you’ll see somebody – you usually don’t see any professional guitar or any, you know guys that have been playing for a long time, but every once in a while you’ll see beginner guitars with a capo or electric guitar neck, usually it's just because they just like to do it, it's their preference. But the electric strings are so much easier to hold down. You can really get away with not having any capo and just using your pointer finger. Acoustics, classical, 12 strings, it’s a little different because it’s a hard to hold down, since so you build that finger strength, you might want to use a capo.