CUT CAPO
THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH | Mitch Bohannon
“ Three chords and the truth ” for years has been a reference to country music , which is what I grew up on . However , we are followers of The Truth and it ’ s our job to pass that Truth on . Many of us have had extra time at home during the pandemic , so what could be a better use of some extra time than teaching our kids the Truth and guitar at the same time ?
Have you ever tried to teach your son or daughter , niece or nephew to play guitar ? I did and I remember after two lessons , I couldn ’ t decide which one of us was more frustrated . Their fingers just wouldn ’ t listen !
For several years I was a middle school P . E . coach . Needless to say , I ’ ve had much experience with frustrating situations … but most of that is for a different magazine ! One of my major goals as a coach was to give the students opportunities for success . It ’ s incredibly fulfilling to see a child pleased with their own progress . For instance , If a student had difficulty making a free-throw , instead of having them get more and more discouraged , I would move them closer to the basket . Eventually , they could begin to move farther away . The motion is the same , just the position is different .
The same goes with teaching the guitar . It is very rare that you ’ d find a child ( 7-9 years old ) that can easily form a 3-finger chord shape . On top of that , having them hold that chord and strum without dropping the pick or raking across the strings like they are using a clawhammer . I ’ ve found that the cut capo is a great place to start … the motion is the same , just the position is different .
After I started cutting capos and developing my instruction method , I began again to teach my kids … and they began to be successful in playing guitar ! The bonus here is that the finger positions are partial shapes of standard , open chords – and , they get to strum all the strings ! There ’ s no need to tell them to only strum four or five of the strings for particular chords .
Our daughter , Sara , started as a nine-yearold and our son , Sam , began at age seven . Sara had a couple years of piano lessons and already understood notes and rhythm ’ s pretty well . Sam began the guitar as a first instrument . I started them first with simply strumming the open Esus chord ( cut capo with no fingers ) and then eased into one finger versions of the E , B , and A chords . Three Chords and the Truth ! This kept their middle finger only in the 2nd fret ( above the capo ) and prepared them for the full shapes . Sara and Sam both took to these chords very quickly . Sara , being older and having already had some music training , was able to strum in tempo immediately and we played a modified version of “ Here I Am to Worship .” I had her playing a single strum only on each chord change . Try this :
E B A Light of the world You stepped down into darkness E B A Opened my eyes , let me see E B A Beauty that made this heart adore You E B A Hope of a life spent with You
E Here I am to worship
B Here I am to bow down
E
A Here I am to say that You ’ re my God E
You ’ re altogether lovely B
Altogether worthy E
A Altogether wonderful to me
This is a wonderfully simple song played this way ! Strum through it with these one-finger cut capo chords and then play and sing this with your young player . How wonderful it will be to train our children in Truth to be worship musicians !
So , if you ’ re a father , a mother , a brother , or a sister … let ’ s commit to teaching the younger generation to play for Him !
I ’ ve got to add that our oldest son , Seth was old enough when I started teaching the cut capo that he was more interested in sports . However , it ’ s so cool to watch the other two begin to teach him chords now that they are adults . That ’ s the biggest confirmation as a teacher when your students begin to teach others !
If you ’ d like my chord charts or my notes from my classes at the Christian Musician Summit , please email me at cutcapo @ gmail . com
Simple Chord Shapes Esus E B A
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