Quick Help: Capo on 4th, down a step
 

If I'm playing a regular F chord tuned down a whole step with a capo on the 4th, what am I actually playing?

You're playing a G chord.

...tuned down a whole step using a capo? i'm beginning to think guitarists just LIKE over-complication. a lot of things would surely make more sense if that were true, i'll say that much.

yeah, that's a G chord.

what piece? there was another guitarist who asked about the same tuning arrangement the other day.

Why not just put the capo on the 2nd fret in standard?

+1 :confused:

If it's an F shaped chord, does it matter where the capo is? Rhetorical question.

^It does if he's trying to tell a band mate that doesn't have a great ear what chord he is playing so that they can play together.

Though he could always tell them he's playing an F chord transposed down a whole step and then up two whole steps hahaha!!!

Aside from playing cover songs on my acoustic, the only time I use my capo is to bring my seven-string to C or something.

What's the logic behind putting a capo on a guitar when you can play what you're trying to play in standard?

that even made my brain hurt

- Use of open strings
- Unique timbre
- Some things are a lot easier, if not only possible with use of a capo (eg letting a note ring out on one string while doing stuff on the others

In this situation it's more likely that the dudes are totally hardcore with their downtuned guitars but decided to put a clean ballad in for the ladies, and as we all know, ballads require capos.

...but this one goes to 4....

Aside from timbre none of that made any sense to me. The only tangible benefit is it allows someone to sing in their most comfortable range by shifting the open keys to more accommodating keys.

Well would you agree that an open string sounds different from a fretted string (same note, same string)?

I can hear a difference, I can listen to a recording and go "that's an open string". It's a different sound.

It also allows for different chord voicings that use the lower strings:

Consider an E chord with an open on the bass:

7
9
9
9
7
0

Now do the same voicing with an F.

8
10
10
10
8
1

Etc.

Yeah, hence the timbre part.


Yea but all you're really doing is making the F the "open" tuning. Again, it's kinda like the whole turning up to 11 thing. Yes there are some slight timbral differences but other than that and vocal range, the capo is extremely arbitrary.