Re: Guitars with capos

[Tom Cloyd]

On 01/31/2014 09:53 PM, Rachael Thomas Carlson wrote:
> In standard notation (without tabulature) you will often find that the 
> music is written with the pitch notated as if there wasn't a capo.  
> Very rarely will you find music that is written at sounding pitch with 
> a capo. 
I'm a classic guitarist. I assure you that in my entire life I've never 
seen music for guitar (classic) where I was directed to capo at some 
position but read music written at sounding pitch. That's just nuts. 
Guitar is NOT a transposing instrument, not in that sense anyway.

I have a lot of lute music that is transposed for guitar, and it is 
usually to be played with a capo in third position (3rd fret), then 
played as if that were where the nut is - i.e., as if there were no 
capo. That, of course, turns it into a transposing instrument. When I'm 
accompanying a singer (say, in a John Dowland song), they are typically 
in an entirely different key, so that we end up both actually making 
music in the same key.

I hope that clears this up. It's very simple, actually: we place the 
capo where indicated, and play the music as written. If there's a capo, 
what we're playing is NOT what is actually heard - because of the capo. 
But we, as instrumentalists, get to keep our sanity. Over time, this has 
certain advantages. :)

Tom

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Tom Cloyd, MS MA (LMHC, WA State)
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