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When Guy’s Capo and you don’t know the Song


Dutchman

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This just happened Wednesday night. Throw together band no rehearsal just winging it. The vocalist/acoustic guitar player capo’d almost every song and would use the “normal” name uncapo’d for the song structure. The bass player and I did a lot of signaling back and forth as to what key he was playing in!! I couldn’t see him but the bass player could. Quite a challenge, but turned out ok, crowd didn’t notice and his voice was awesome!! But for those whom capo it’s really helpful to know what key the resulting capo position puts the song in. Lol!!

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1 hour ago, BoogieMKIIA said:

Just attend a bunch of Bluegrass jams. Once you know the standards (and the chords in addition to the shspes), whip off the capo and see what happens

I seldomly capo, I like to have the whole neck available. The Singer/songwriter capo’d most songs. He did seem to like Ab and Eb alot though.... I have used the partial capo that covers 3 strings like and A chord for bluegrass and that can be a lot of fun!!

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As a theater music director you find many many people fall into the flat keys as their natural vocal range. E A are uncommon compared to Ab Db Eb and F. I often wonder if this is why its so hard to find a wailing male rock singer

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2 hours ago, it's me HHB said:

As a theater music director you find many many people fall into the flat keys as their natural vocal range. E A are uncommon compared to Ab Db Eb and F. I often wonder if this is why its so hard to find a wailing male rock singer

This oftentimes happens with my wife.  I bought an Ovation longneck that has a longer scale and is intended to be tuned to D.  Solved a lot of problems for us.

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23 hours ago, Dutchman said:

This just happened Wednesday night. Throw together band no rehearsal just winging it. The vocalist/acoustic guitar player capo’d almost every song and would use the “normal” name uncapo’d for the song structure. The bass player and I did a lot of signaling back and forth as to what key he was playing in!! I couldn’t see him but the bass player could. Quite a challenge, but turned out ok, crowd didn’t notice and his voice was awesome!! But for those whom capo it’s really helpful to know what key the resulting capo position puts the song in. Lol!!

I used to back up a fellow, always off the cuff, who would do the exact same thing.  Fortunately I could see his left hand (usually).  However, to him, "in tune" meant that his guitar was in tune with itself, not necessarily in tune with anything else.  I started bringing a fretless bass to those deals.

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I used to play with a guy who played a variax. I never knew what key we were playing in (It changed like his mood).  I bought a five string bass to keep up with him dropping keys and still play a fiver to this day.

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