Capo Cheat Sheet

The perfect guide to helping you use and understand how a capo works.

"A capo is a device that clamps down across the guitars fingerboard at a particular fret. Capos shorten the length of all the string at the same time, creating, in effect, a new nut. All the “Open” strings now play in higher pitches than they do without a capo.

How much higher? A half step for each fret. If you place the capo at the third fret, for example, the open E strings become Gs (three half steps higher in pitch than E). All the strings become correspondingly higher in pitch as well — B becomes D; G becomes Bb; D becomes F; and A becomes C. You can’t play anything below the capo — only above it on the neck."*

*Mark Phillips, Guitar for Dummies

Download our free Capo Cheat Sheet and never worry about where to put your capo or what key you're playing in ever again.