WHY TO USE A CAPO

Using a capo to brighten the tone of the guitar

A capo is generally used for the convenience of guitarist ,,as well as the singer.Putting a capo help us to easily play chords,,with much less pressure.Also,,if  the  singer(or ourself) has vocal range better suited in some  other chord(other than we are using for a song),,we can modify it through Capo.

People also use a capo for a reason that has nothing to do with vocal ranges. If you place a capo on the neck (especially high on the neck), the guitar has a brighter sound. It can even sound more like a mandolin.

Capos can prove especially useful if you have two guitarists playing a song together. One can play the chords without a capo — in the key of C, for example. The other guitarist can play the chords in, say, the key of G with a capo at the fifth fret, sounding in C. The difference in Timbre between the two instruments creates a striking effect. In folk-guitar playing, the combination of open strings and fretted ones is the essence of the style. Sometimes these openstringcombinations can become quite intricate.

One more advantage of using a capo: Because the frets get closer together as you go up the neck, playing with a capo requires less stretching in the left hand, making some songs a little easier to play.

 A guitar capo is a clamp that you stick on different frets of the guitar to change the pitch or key of the open strings. Each fret on the guitar is a half step, therefore, if you put a capo on the 1st fret, all of the open strings will sound a half step higher than normal. This makes changing the key of a song very easy.  Have you ever seen a song which had really weird chords that you didn't want to really mess with?  With a capo, you can change the key or pitch of your guitar and make those tough chords easier to play.

For example, if you have a song in the key of G (usually, the first chord of a song gives away the key of the song) with the chords G, C, and D, you could change the song into the key of A. You would just put a capo on the 2nd fret, and play the chord shapes G, C, and D. These chord shapes will now sound a whole step higher. They will sound like the chords A, D and E.  

When learning more about using a capo, there are 2 basic ideas to understand. Chord shape, andchord sound.

No matter what fret you have the capo on, when you play a G chord shape, in your mind you will always think of it as a G chord. This is a G chord shape. If you were to capo the guitar at the 2nd fret and play a G chord shape, then the chord sound would be that of an A chord.

This is the main idea of using a capo. You are using familiar, maybe even easier chord shapes to get the chord sound of less familiar, more difficult chords. If you have a Bb chord in a song, you could put the capo at the 1st fret, and play an A chord shape. But you will get a Bb chord sound.