CUT CAPO
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? | Mitch Bohannon
Don’t you just love guitars? Can you remember
back to when you didn’t know the difference
between a $200 guitar and a $1000 guitar?
Boy, I can. How many guitars have you gotten
rid of only to wish you still had it to play? A few
months ago, I made a 20” x 30” collage picture
of most of my favorite guitars past and present.
I can remember how they sounded and how
they felt. Good memories and good times!
Blame it on the quarantine, but I just sold two
guitars and an amplifier to purchase an acoustic
that I’ve wanted for years.
The way I look at it, there are three reasons
we pick up a specific guitar to play whether at
home or on a Sunday morning. Number one
has to be the way the guitar sounds. Number
two, the way the guitar feels. Number three, the
way the guitar looks. Yes, I said “looks” and that
may sound strange to some, but sadly enough,
the people in the church congregation who
can only experience number 1 and number
3… often seem to only experience number 3
(meaning the guitar is seen and not heard).
With COVID Quarantine keeping us at home,
just like many of you, I have had the opportunity
to watch/listen in on church services that I’ve
never been able to. I have seen many of my
brothers-in-arms up there on platforms with
all of the right gear that honestly cost them
thousands of dollars and to no avail, none of
their practice or preparation, experience or
expense is even heard. One example I was
watching a couple of weeks ago consisted
of two acoustics, one electric, keys, and four
vocals. The electric guitar was playing reverb
swells and, other than vocals, electric guitar is
all I could hear.
Now I love swells. Keyboard pads and electric
guitar with reverb and some delay are so nice
in worship. However, I think many have lost
the understanding of the meaning of the word
“pad.” My son is building a house and they
poured his house pad last week. BTW, the pad
goes under the house – it just wouldn’t work to
put it on top! What I was hearing in the example
was a pad completely on top of the music…not
supporting from underneath.
You know, other than capos, I’ve also taught
many how to play with click tracks and
backing tracks. With backing tracks, we really
trick the audience by filling in the sound with
instruments that are not played live on platform.
Most people do not notice, but what they most
certainly notice is seeing an instrument being
played on platform and not hearing it.
Although I would love to, this is not the place to
insert a sound tech joke… it’s not completely
his/her fault. Sometimes it’s the vision or
philosophy of the people in authority above that
sound desk.
So, why am I writing all this in a capo article?
I have been teaching capos for almost twenty
years. Using capos helps to sonically separate
guitars. Using the cut capo creates a beautiful
open-tuning voice for a guitar (acoustic or
electric) and can help to build a rich and full
sound. But a rich sound cannot be heard if it
is mixed in such a way that it is covered up
coming out of the FOH.
My hope is that if you’re reading this and you
are a sound tech or a worship director or a
band leader… please don’t get so focused on
technique and aesthetics that the sound gets
out of balance. And guitar players, take your
in-ears out and listen to the room… maybe
ask the sound tech if they hear a specific part
you’re playing and use your capos to serve the
song.
Serve the song? Think about what the song
needs. A capo high up the neck can offer a
fantastic mandolin-effect, a cut capo creates
a rich open-voicing, and a full capo flipped
around to cover strings 1-5 is a quick way to hit
drop-D tuning (key of E).
Now, come on, do you hear me?
Mitch Bohannon
Mitch Bohannon and his wife, Noelle have been
married for over 27 years with three adult kids. Mitch
developed the Short-Cut capo for Kyser and is a
teacher/coach in Louisiana
92 July 2020
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