Of all the really fine guitar-playing folk singers I know (and know of—and that's a whole bunch), I know very, very few who don't use a capo. Richard Dyer-Bennet? He didn't use one, but then I don't regard him as a folk singer in the usual sense (nor did he—but that's a different argument).

I've heard the business about Segovia using a capo before, usually from some folk singer who wants to use a capo but seems to think that it's an object of shame, therefore it must be justified. In an undoubtedly futile attempt to put it to rest, I submit the following:—

I have seen Segovia many times in concert, I've seen him several times on television, I have met and talked with him on two occasions, and I attended a question-and-answer type workshop that he gave for the Seattle Classic Guitar Society back around 1960. In conversation with him and in articles and books he has written, the word "capo" has never come up. I have many of his records, so I have a good idea of the repertoire of music that he played, and indeed I have a lot of sheet music for the same pieces, many fingered by Segovia (not that I can actually play very many of them). I have never seen him on stage, on television, or in photographs ever using a capo. And none of the music he played required the use of a capo.

I believe that anyone who says they haveseen him use a capo is either prevaricating or mistakenly thinking of someone else (perhaps one of the Flamenco guitarists—Montoya did use a capo, but he played a different kind of music). Anyone who makes that claim that they know for certain that he actually did use a capo would have to have incontrovertible proof before I would believe it. And if I were shown such proof, I would be very surprised indeed.

If a person wants to use a capo, he or she should go ahead and use the bloody thing without feeling that they have to drag Segovia into it.

Don Firth