Where I was able to make a break-through around here as far as using a capo was concerned was that I had taken classic guitar lessons for a few years before I started singing in coffeehouses and such, and every now and then I would toss in a classic piece between songs. Usually wowed the audience. Then, after playing something like this:   Fasten your seat belt—if I pulled out a capo and put it on, nobody much was going to try to say I didn't know my way around a fingerboard.

That's not me, incidentally. I'm old, bald, male, and nowhere near as good looking. But I could play that pretty darned well. All the notes! Every bleedin' one of them! Still can, if I've taken my vitamins and have a pretty good tail-wind.

Then, when the three flamenco guitarists who played at the Spanish Village during the Seattle World's Fair in 1962 used capos freely, nobody who'd been around at all said anything about using them when accompanying songs.

Don Firth