Using a capo to stay in the same key

Tips from the Official Guides / Approved Teachers
3

Notes

  • The capo position sometimes makes the chord shapes you must choose to keep in the same key as the open chord progression nice and easy to play. Capo 7 above is an obvious candidate for easy shape chords with the capo. Sometimes the capo position makes the chord shapes you must choose to keep in the same key as the open chord progression difficult and awkward to play. Capo 10 above is really a bit yuk, both because of the barre chords needed and because the access on an acoustic to those high frets is very difficult.

  • The initial chord progression was in the key of D, it started on the chord D, using a D shape. When the capo positions were applied, moving sequentially further up the neck, the starting shapes became C, A, G, E. Putting the five together gives: D, C, A, G, E

  • You should recognise those five letters. The starting letter is immaterial so long as the actual sequential ordering stays the same. If rearranged, you get: C, A, G, E, D

:+1:

Bingo. The beautiful CAGED system.

Let’s expand on that a little.

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