JFRocks UNplugged Acoustic Lesson

The Capo is mightier than the Sword

Written by: Jeff Fiorentino

These lessons are structured much the same way I do things on the main site jfrocks.com. These lessons will cover various aspects of acoustic guitar and things to practice. Mostly dealing with steel 6 string acoustic as that's what I play. However, some lessons will deal with Nylon string acoustic guitar as well. Either way the lessons covered here are interchangeable between the two guitar string types. Although I recommend learning and practicing on Steel string acoustic. This is because its more difficult to play and you will improve your electric playing immensely because you will build finger strength. Also acoustic is less forgiving than electric. Mistakes can and will be heard and are not covered up by effects or heavy reverb. Updates to this page will be as often as I can. I'm only human and while I have help with jfrocks.com, I'm on my own with this off shoot. LOL I will strive for an average update of 1 per week. To be alerted of updates to this site or the main site, please sign up for our alerts on the main website. You will receive an email when updates to either site have been made.

Lesson Title

The Capo is mightier than the sword

CD Category

Expansion on Acoustic Guitar 101 CD ROM Topics

Jeff's Guitar's tuning

Standard E, A, D, G, B, E

Key of

Lesson Features

The song track

The Jam along track

The Video Guitar Lesson

N/A

Tabs & Lesson

Original score by: Jeff Fiorentino

Transcription by: Jeff Fiorentino

INTERNET EXPLORER IS THE SUGGESTED BROWSER TO VIEW THIS PAGE PROPERLY.

Fonts may look weird, or not line up properly in Firefox or some other browsers if you have not set them up correctly..

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This Lesson's difficulty level 1-10 scale

Performance notes

The Capo is a very misunderstood thing sometimes. I have friends who have had Capos sitting on the headstock of their guitar for years now, never having been touched. The dust on them almost hides their true color.

Truth is the Capo serves a purposes. The capo changes the pitches of the open strings. It does not affect the fretted notes of course. In fact when you fret a note your finger is acting as a capo really. Think of the capo as a robot finger holding down the strings for you.

There is some basic math involved with guitar and understanding the fret board. I strongly urge everyone to get a copy of my Beginners 101 and Acoustic guitar 101 CD ROMs if you do not understand the basic principles that govern the fret board.

The Capo is a very simple device that raises the pitches of the open strings enabeling you to do open position chords in higher keys.

Our example here is in F# but every chord I'm doing are ones we would have to do bar chords for if we did not put on the capo. I will try to give you a visual of what I mean on video but really capo is not that hard to figure out but what is hard to figure out is what it can do for you. Usually it simply makes life easier by eliminating the use of bar chords as I said for playing in higher keys. BUT, it can also make some of your speed runs sound very complex, when in reality they are quite easy as you are just using open strings, but because the capo is there those open strings are higher in pitch than what people are used to listening to and because of that everything sounds new.

Our lesson here is a Spanish style piece. Sort of a blend of Spanish fly and Little guitars with a pinch of Gypsy Kings thrown in for good measure. Hopefully it gives you some inspiration for some things you can do with a capo, instead of just letting sit clamped at the end of your guitar for years and years.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Main Lesson

**NOTE** ALL fretted notes i.e 5 or 2 or 1 or whatever are what they are. All open strings i.e 0 assume a capo is on the 2nd fret of the guitar. So instead of the open string pitches being, E, A, D, G, B, E. Because the capo is on the 2nd fret the open string pitches are now the notes at the 2nd fret on each string, F#, B, E, A, C#, F#.

Natural harmonics below are 2 frets higher than they are without the Capo, because our capo is on the 2nd fret and that shifts all natural harmonics up 2 frets or 1 step. If our capo was on the 4th fret then all natural harmonics would be 4 frets higher or 2 steps etc etc.

F#__________________7h________________________________
C#_____________________7h_____9h______________________
A________14h__________________9h_____________________
E____14h_______7h____________________________________
B____________________________________________________
F#___________________________________________________

F#_____0___________9h_______0______________________0___0___9h_
C#__0____0_______________0____0________0_0_0__0____0___0______
A___4______4_____________3______3______3_3_3__3____0___0______
E___5________5___________4________4____4_4_4__4____6___4______
B___5____________________4_____________4_4_4__4____7___5______
F#__0____________________0_____________0_0_0__0_______________

Riffing examples with Spanish flowing feel to it.

I will embellish and give you additional picking ideas and fill ideas on the video. What is tabbed is geared for beginner and intermediate levels.

Use your fingers or be very, very, very light with the picking.

F#________________________________________________
C#__________________________________________0_____
A______3______3_______3______3____3____3____4_____
E______4______4_______4______4____4____4____5_____
B___________________________________________5_____
F#__0_____0_______0_______0_____0____0______0_____

F#______________________________________________
C#______________________________________________
A_______________________________________________
E_____________0_4-0_____________________________
B________0-4-6__________________________________
F#__0-4-6_______________________________________

F#__________________14h________________________________
C#_____________14h_____________________________________
A___4-6-4-0_____________________________________________
E__________6___________________________________________
B______________________________________________________
F#_____________________________________________________

F#_______________________________________________
C#_______________________________________________
A______________0_________________________________
E____________9___0_______________________________
B_________0______________________________________
F#___0-4-6________________________________________

F#______________________________________________________7h___
C#__________________________________________0___7h__7h_______
A______3______3_______3______3____3____3____0________________
E______4______4_______4______4____4____4____4________________
B___________________________________________5________________
F#__0_____0_______0_______0_____0____0______0________________

Cool double position full scale you can use. You can slide this up or down the fret board depending on where you have the capo placed.

F#____________________________________________0_7_9______
C#______________________________________0_7_9____________
A____________________________0_7_0_9_11__________________
E______________________0_7_9_____________________________
B_________0_4_6__0_7_9___________________________________
F#__0_4_6________________________________________________

Cool single position scale for use with a capo to fully utilize the open strings. Which is the whole point of the capo or at least one of them anyway.

F#________________________________0_4_6____________
C#__________________________0_5_7__________________
A_____________________0_4_6________________________
E_______________0_4_6______________________________
B_________0_4_6____________________________________
F#__0_4_6__________________________________________