Stop 4 of 6
G, C and the capo
Two essential chords and the capo to change key.
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Stop 4 of 6
Two essential chords and the capo to change key.
Your strumming hand now goes both up and down. Time to give your fretting hand two new chords that turn up in thousands of songs: G and C. With them and the ones you already know, you can play the most famous progression on the acoustic guitar. And at the end of this stop you'll meet a small invention that multiplies everything you know: the capo.
G is an open chord that sounds all six strings and spans from fret 3 of the lowest string to fret 3 of the highest. That's why it sounds so full. There are several ways to finger it; here are the three most used:
The first two give exactly the same notes; only the fingers change. The third changes one note: string 2 sounds D instead of B, and the chord becomes tighter and brighter.
Listen to the chord's notes, from string 6 to string 1. There are only three different notes —G, B and D— repeated in several octaves:
C is played on five strings: the sixth must not sound. The hand stretches diagonally from fret 3 on string 5 to fret 1 on string 2.
The two tricky points of this chord:
A has three notes: the , a major third above it and a perfect fifth. G = G, B, D; C = C, E, G. Notice they share the note G: that's why they sound "related" and moving from one to the other feels so natural. In the harmony stage you'll see exactly where those distances come from.
With the 3-2-4 fingering of G, the change to C is a block movement: fingers 3 and 2 keep their shape and move down one string together (from strings 6 and 5 to 5 and 4); finger 4 lifts off and finger 1 lands on string 2.
Practise the movement in the air, slowly, before playing it. Then strum it with the pattern from the last stop, one bar per chord:
A good gauge of your progress is : count how many times you can change from G to C and back in one minute, with one strum per chord. Write the number down every day. Going from 15 to 40 in two weeks is normal.
There's another change you'll make constantly: from Em to G. If you play Em with fingers 2 and 3, finger 2 stays where it is (string 5, fret 2) and acts as the anchor for the 3-2-4 G fingering: finger 3 jumps from string 4 to string 6 and finger 4 lands on string 1.
G, C, D and Em make up one of the most played groups of chords in popular music. It's no accident: all four belong to the same , G major, which is why they sound good in almost any order.
Try this other order too, very common in ballads:
The Roman numerals under each bar show the role of each chord within the key. You don't need to understand them yet: you'll study them on The Blues Highway and in Harmony City. For now, notice that the same sequence of numbers will work in any key.
A is a clamp that presses every string at one fret. It acts as a new : the open strings sound higher and all your chord shapes go up with them. Each fret raises the sound by one .
Compare: the same hand shape, with and without a capo at fret 2. In the second diagram the bar at fret 2 stands for the capo:
Here's the previous progression with the capo at fret 2. Your fingers play G – C – D – Em, but this is what you hear:
Moving a whole song into another key, raising or lowering all its notes by the same distance, is called . The capo transposes for you: each fret adds a semitone to every chord. To know what sounds, raise the root of each shape by as many semitones as frets: G + 2 semitones = A; C + 2 = D; D + 2 = E; E + 2 = F♯. The Roman numerals, though, don't change: it's the same song, just higher.
If a song with G shapes doesn't suit your voice, try these positions. The progression and your fingers stay the same; only the key you hear changes:
| Capo | The G shape sounds | Handy for… |
|---|---|---|
| No capo | G | The original key |
| Fret 2 | A | Lifting a song a whole step for lower voices |
| Fret 3 | B♭ | A common key for horns and higher voices |
| Fret 5 | C | A bright, almost mandolin-like sound |
Goal: Make at least 30 clean changes in one minute, with six (G) and five (C) strings ringing.
Play the progression over the backing from the previous scene. Start at 60 BPM, two bars per chord. When it's clean, add 5 BPM. If one change always fails, isolate it and spend a minute on that change alone.
Goal: Play G–C–D–Em twice in a row with the ↓ · ↓↑ · ↑↓↑ pattern at 80 BPM, without stopping your hand.
Put the capo at fret 2, check your tuning and play the same shapes along with the "Capo at 2" backing. If you sound right with it, everything is in place.
Goal: Play the progression with the capo at fret 2 along with the backing in A, in tune and buzz-free.
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