Capos? Seriously? WTF!

Been hunting down songs for students every now and again, and I just want to know WTF is up with all these people posting chord charts on the interweb using a capo on the x fret on songs that basically work out to be E A and D?

Can't they play a Bm, barred or otherwise?

/rant.

 

Probably not. People are lazy and can't be bothered practising anything remotely difficult (to a new player) to actually master the skill.

 

Sure their reasoning might be due to laziness, but don't forget the voicing of the chords completely change.

 

If they just want to be able to play the chords and sing along, why not? Sure it's lazy, but not everybody wants to become the next EVH. First and foremost, playing an instrument should be fun.

 

Yeah bugs the shit out of me, especially when the song is played in a standard tuning without capo by the artist

 

Sometimes I get a little surprised. I was doing Barenaked Ladies "One Week" in an acoustic duo, trying to get that happening. Watch the official clip, he's pretty clearly playing an A at the 5th fret, and then in a live bathroom version he's doing the whole G w/capo2 thing. Same thing, different method obviously.

No.

It is not.

It is about becoming rich and famous and scoring hot chicks.

 

It's amazing how many of those never came together for me

 

Well, what do you expect playing the clarinet?

 

Chicks dig the Recorder.
This one time at band camp..

 

Just as an appendium to my rant, every now and again you get artists actually using the capo... but it seems to be country artists in my fairly small sample. Taylor Swift capos pretty constantly, and then you get Lady Antebellum doing a video lesson for a 4 chord song capo'd at the 4th. Not a bad lesson actually (and his other ones are pretty cool too).



There's nothing wrong with using a capo, but it does bug me when it seems to be for nothing (like, tuning down a full step and capoing at the 2nd and playing an A using the G shape).

 

I love my capos! It sounds very different, even when playing regular chords in the same place, especially on my 12 string and even more so when playing in DADGAD on the 6. There are sounds that you can make with a capo that you can't without. I reckon they have their place.

(I don't use it on my high tension nylons though, that would be wrong.)

 

I am a fan of Capos. But fuck me sometimes people are lazy, i use the capo to make a different sound, nothing more.

 

No one I play with uses a capo. I was of the opinion that capos were used to change key when the guitarists lack of ability made changing key a "little" challenging for them

 

Hardly, I capo the shit outta my acoustic for different sounds and feels way more often than I do to change the key of something.

 

Useful tools. I use them when I want a particular sound, and yes, sometimes to make it easier too.. I'm no Tommy Emmanuel, I'm just happy to make it easy enough to play, sing along, and enjoy.

Not everyone wants to be a guitar hero.

 

An ability to play barre chords does not make a guitar hero... Having said that, they're not a basic technique, but is it really necessary to capo 2 and play D E A shapes instead of E B and F# ?

 

also consider the instrument the person who tab'd the song might be using. I find baring on a 25.5 scale electric almost impossible but easy as on a 24.75.

 

A lot of people can't play Bm or bar chords. Especially young girls.

 

Pigs bum.

I can point you to a number of my female primary school age students who have been doing so for the last year (and the rest). You don't have to barre either. Using x3321x as an F is fine (although it's probably closer to Fmaj7/C), as is xx4432 for Bm. Those shapes are easily moved up/down as necessary and I teach those shapes before barres. In a pinch you could even substitute them with power chords, which I'm not a fan of teaching early on.

I will agree though, barres are hard to execute cleanly - especially on a beginner nylon string guitar... but to say they "can't"... no, that's just blatantly wrong.

I'm not saying capos shouldn't be used. I'm commenting on the number of internet tabs/charts/interpretations that seem to use capos for no real reason at all other than to stick with open chords.

 

I've only ever used a capo when providing accompaniment to a female singer to enable them to sing in their preferred range..

Other than that, nope.