CUT CAPO
YOU ARE FREE TO MOVE AROUND THE FRETBOARD | Mitch Bohannon
The year was 1999 . I was in Montgomery , Alabama and Gary Sadler was leading worship at the Maranatha Worship Leader Workshop . It was an incredible experience . I can remember Glenn Pearce was playing lead guitar and Gary was on acoustic . We sang like a nine-minute version of “ I Could Sing of Your Love Forever ” and about seven minutes in to the song , Gary modulated and blew my socks off ! I had never before seen anyone move a capo in the middle of a song ! Move it to change songs ... of course , but smack-dab in the middle ? Never .
If you ’ ve heard my story , you know that I grew up very legalistic . Things were all black or white . To me , that capo change totally broke the mold . It may not be as mind blowing to you , but let me ask you , do you ever modulate ? For those that don ’ t even recognize the word ... it means to raise the key of a song by a half-step or full-step during the song .
Honestly , I have never been a huge fan of modulating and there ’ s a big difference between doing it three times in one service and doing it three times in a year . I am more of the mindset that three times in a year is much more effective . The idea is to take a song that your people are already engaged and singing loudly , raise the pitch , and add a chorus or two . This can be quite effective in bringing up the energy in the room .
To make this logical with your capo , let ’ s say you are playing “ Good , Good Father ” in the key of “ A ”. You could place your capo on fret 2 and play “ G-chords ” and then for the added chorus raise the key to “ B ” by sliding the capo up to fret 4 . And here is the beauty of using a capo . Let ’ s say that you don ’ t like the key of “ B ” for that song . Maybe it ’ s a little too high . Then start on fret 1 and slide to fret 3 . This would be going from the key of “ Ab ” to “ Bb ” and whoever is playing keys will love it !
Last week I was playing a song with my cut capo ( as I normally do ) and the worship leader had a modulation at the end of a song . So , I was moving 2 capos up a full step each while leading the song vocally . It was actually a challenge , but I just practiced at home and found the exact beat when I needed to change in order to pull it off . All ended up fine , however it would have been a train wreck without practice .
Now it doesn ’ t work in every instance to just say , “ I ’ m modulating with my capo ”. Years ago , I was collaborating on a set of songbooks that included cut capo charts for all of the songs in the book . As it turned out , some of the cut capo charts were actually harder to play than the standard chart . So , if you are frustrated , feeling like it ’ s not working , then regroup . Analyze where your capo is and see if there is a better key to be playing in . Perhaps for that key of “ A ” you would prefer to use “ D-chords ” by placing your capo on fret 7 . This may seem high up the neck , but if you give it a try , you may love the mandolin effect it can bring .
Here ’ s another little capo tip ... if you are playing a worship set and you know you will be using your capo on an upcoming song , try placing your capo on the nut and not the headstock . Placing it on the nut will not change the tuning / bend the strings . Leave your cut capo on your headstock and you still have room for a tuner if needed . You never know , placing it on the nut may intrigue those guitar players out there attending church against their will ... they ’ ll be wondering what you ’ re doing , and it could be in that moment that the Lord grabs ahold of their heart !
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