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Guitar help needed fast and desperately
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Guitar help needed fast and desperately |
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Subject: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: GUEST,Sarah Date: 23 Jul 00 - 02:01 PM PLEASE-I am a beginning guitarist who has to play a song in the key of E. Where do I put my capo if I want to use the chords associated with the key of G???? |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: GUEST Date: 23 Jul 00 - 02:07 PM 3rd Fret |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: GUEST Date: 23 Jul 00 - 02:11 PM Sorry, I misread and put it the wrong way round. You'd need to capo at the 9th fret to play a G chord and have it sound as an E. The 10th fret is pretty high though. You'd probably be better off using some different chord shapes. If you post a bit more detail, of the song that you're trying to play, we'll try to help |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: kendall Date: 23 Jul 00 - 02:17 PM how about tuning your guitar down to D, and using the key of F? same chord pattern as G. And, of course, F is only one half step above E. You sound nervous enough to handle the half step up! |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: Jon Freeman Date: 23 Jul 00 - 02:21 PM I would suggest you try either 2nd fret and use D chords or 4th fret and use C chords. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: Mooh Date: 23 Jul 00 - 06:19 PM I like Jon's advice, but try this if you've time. Capo the first five (five highest pitched) strings at the second fret. Using key of D chord changes instead of E, E becomes D (and the open low E string gives the tonic more balls), A becomes G, B becomes A, C#m becomes Bm, and so on. If you prefer G changes, this still has some of them. Otherwise forget about partial capoing and just capo everything at fret 2 and use the same D changes. Capo at the 9th fret to use G changes. Carefull that you double check your tuning, capoing can mess up your tuning sometimes. It will sound kinda tinkly way up high, but depending on the song and other instruments, it may work out better this way. Good luck, let us know how you do. Peace, Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: Marion Date: 23 Jul 00 - 11:23 PM Sarah, you might want to learn how to count semitones so the next time you need to know where to put the capo you'll be able to calculate it yourself. the notes go:
A The gap between each note and the next one on the list is called a semitone. Guitar frets correspond to semitones; if two notes are 5 semitones apart, then they will be 5 frets apart on a given string. So let's say you know how to play a song in C, and someone asks you to play it in E: C to C# to D to D# to E means that E is four semitones above C, so you can do this easily by sticking the capo on the fourth fret. You can use the same principle of counting semitones to transpose a song without a capo - it's a question of adding the extra semitones to each chord in the original. Suppose your song in G contains the chords G, C, D, Em, and Am. And suppose you decide to take Jon Freeman's advice of playing the D equivalent with the second fret capoed (which is probably the easiest route suggested here, unless you don't want to play the barre chord Bm).
Since D is 7 semitones above G, you just add 7 to every chord in your song: Note that major chords stay major, and minor chords stay minor. And when counting semitones, note that usually there are 2 semitones (AKA one tone) between consective letter names, EXCEPT that there is only one semitone between B and C and between E and F. I know this seems odd, and there's probably some profound historical reason for it, but you should just accept this oddity. If you're familiar with the keyboard, you will remember that there is no black note between B and C, or E and F. Good luck Sarah. I hope this info was neither over nor under your head, but if so, maybe it will be useful to somebody. I remember a time when I would only play songs that I found in G because C songs had Fs, and D songs had Bms, and A songs had F#ms, and I was afraid of barre chords... it was a totally liberating experience for me to discover that with a little math I could make those songs be in G, where none of the standard chords are barre chords. I don't have a terror of barre chords anymore (now it's more of a healthy respect), so I don't do this as often anymore, but it's a nice tool to have. Marion
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: GUEST,JamesJim Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:34 AM Sarah, the first response you received was correct. 3rd fret, playing in the key of E fingering, will result in the key of G. Have fun and I hope you are no longer desperate. Jim |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: GUEST,JamesJim Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:36 AM Sarah, the first response you received was correct. 3rd fret, playing E fingering, will result in the key of G. Have fun and I hope you are no longer desperate. Jim |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: Marion Date: 24 Jul 00 - 12:53 AM Sarah, there seems to be some confusion over what your question meant. Do you know the song in G, and have been asked to play it in E? Or is it vice versa? Marion |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: M. Ted (inactive) Date: 24 Jul 00 - 02:57 PM Sarah, I think it would be easier just to learn the fingerings for the chords in the key of E than to fool with all that retuning stuff--Seriously, unless you have a really good capo, and a pretty good guitar, you will have some intonation problems playing with that capo on the 9th fret--If you don't know how to play in E, maybe you could play it in D, and put the capo on the second fret-- |
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Subject: RE: Guitar help needed fast and desperately From: flattop Date: 24 Jul 00 - 03:10 PM Sarah, if you just slip the capo around the singers neck, you can play in whatever key you like. |
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