What is a Capo?

Question:I play acoustic guitar, and when I go for songs in chords, it has capo on ... fret... What is that and what is a Capo? Is a capo an object that press all the strings in the guitar in the same fret? please, help! : s

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I play acoustic guitar, and when I go for songs in chords, it has capo on ... fret... What is that and what is a Capo? Is a capo an object that press all the strings in the guitar in the same fret? please, help! : s

Instead of making my answer long like a few of the others and going into the history of the capo i'll make mine short.

Yes....

It is an object that press all the strings on the same fret. This can also be done with your index finger but is normally a little bit difficult. It makes the pitch higher for songs like Folsom Prison which you put it on the first fret for the entire song.

A frets are the little bitty bars that go across the neck of the guitar. When you press down on the string in between the frets it makes the pitch higher for that string allowing you to form different notes.

Hope I helped!

Irvine

capo (short for capotasto, Italian for "head of fretboard", also called a fret lobster or cheater bar) is a device used for shortening the strings, and hence raising the pitch, of a stringed instrument such as a guitar, mandolin or banjo. It was invented by the Flamenco guitarist Jose Patino Gonzalez[1].

There are several different styles of capo available, utilizing a range of mechanisms, but most use a rubber-covered bar to hold down the strings, fastened with a strip of elastic or nylon, a cam-operated metal clamp, or another device. Alternative terms are capo d'astro and capodastro, also Italian.

A simple version can be made with a pencil and a rubber band. Lay the pencil across the strings at the desired fret, and holding it in place by wrapping the rubber band around both ends and underneath the fretboard. [A pencil with flat surfaces works much better than a round one].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capo

If you use a capo on the first flet. The sound goes up. For like EADGBE should be like FBEACF. It goes higher and higher. If you put it on the second flet, it should be like GCFBDG. It is my guess.

A Capt. in the Italian Mob.

its just a piece of object that you clip on the different frets of your guitar..to make the tune or pitch higher than it usually does..

The other answerers---with the exception of the Mafia reference---have it right. One of the reasons why a capo is called a "cheater bar" is because it allows you to change keys without changing the chord formations. Say you know a song in the key of "G" but you want to play it with someone else who knows it in "A". What do you do? You put the capo on the second fret and use the same chord formations you do in "G". Get it? What you will find, using this technique, is that if both of you are fingerpicking in the same key but at different parts of the neck, you will get "automatic" harmonies out of it. It's any eay way for two people to make music that sounds a lot more difficult than it really is. Try it!

The first answer from Wikipedia is correct.....but they forgot to tell you that if you sing in one key and can't play in that key you can use a capo and wala you can play in your singing key....this is the simple answer !!!! I had to laugh at the answer thinking it had to do with the mob, how funny was that !!!!!!!!