Worship Musician Magazine September 2026 | Page 48

CAPO GUITAR
GUITARS WORKING TOGETHER | Mitch Bohannon
How big is your worship band? Are you open to adding multiple of the same instrument? It’ s common to have a piano plus keys and electric rhythm guitar plus electric lead guitar. But what do you do about the acoustic guitar? I encourage you to make room for extra instruments largely
will hear an“ Ab.” The second job that a capo does is to change the chord voicing( same chord, different voicing). Play an“ E” chord then place your capo on fret 4 and play a“ C” chord shape and you’ ll hear a different shape of that
“ E” chord.
because it’ s making room for someone else
to serve.
So, there’ s your answer for blending two
different acoustic guitars. If you’ re playing a song
I have been at a church that( silently) communicated to me that they had no need for me or my guitar. That’ s super disheartening for someone who feels called and gifted to serve in that way. When it comes to your instruments, as long as they are playing differently, it’ s safe to add multiple of the same. Obviously, keys and piano would be playing totally different sounds, but
in the key of“ E,” give your standard chart to one acoustic guitar player and then give a chart for the key of“ C” to your capo 4-guitar player.
When they play together, they won’ t be sonically fighting each other so much. Of course, it would be even better to have one playing more finger style and one flat-picking. That would be more like having both rhythm and lead electric guitars.
in the same way, multiple keys can play totally
different sounds. I can’ t say I’ ve seen anyone use two bass guitars before, but this can serve as a reminder that the keyboard can step on the bass guitar’ s toes( so to speak).
Consider this same lesson when recording. If you breakdown most song recordings, you’ ll find multiple stems of each instrument … including acoustic guitar and many of those will have a
variation of chord voicings.
I bring this up mainly to talk about the acoustic
guitar. I can think back to long ago when I first began playing in a band. I played with another guy also playing acoustic. It felt like we were
I used to tell a story when teaching workshops about the first NAMM show that we showed the
Short-Cut Capo. It was Summer NAMM 2002
having a guitar battle every
Sunday. It was sort of like
Comfortable Keys
plugging into a delay pedal, cranking it up, and then playing a full-strum rhythm. What a mess! We didn’ t have a clue how to complement each other in what we were playing.
Key
A
A #/ Bb
B
C
Capo 1
A
Capo 2
G
A
Capo 3
G
A
Capo 4
G
Capo 5
G
Capo 6
All these years of working with capos, it’ s really second nature to me … but hopefully this will spark some ideas for you. Capos do two different jobs. The first and most obvious job is simply to raise the pitch. Place your capo on fret 1, play a“ G” chord shape and you
C #/ Db
D
D #/ Eb
E
F
F #/ Gb
G
G #/ Ab
D
E
G
C
D
E
C
D
E
A
C
D
E
A
C
D
G
A
C
D
in Nashville. More than once, we had men walk by and just simply point and say,“ that’ s a cheatstick.” I recall being so offended. Now, 24 years later and all of us having lives on social media, it was so much like the people who pop up on your Instagram and say something hateful and disappear. Like, what?
Some people do have the mindset or opinion that playing without a capo is more skillful, but I disagree. What do you want the guitar to sound like? I believe that a skilled guitar player can make the guitar sound like what they hear in their head. It’ s kind of like singing. In our mind, we’ re thinking … singing in perfect pitch and rhythm. A skilled singer can make what’ s in their head come out of their mouth!
Most acoustic guitar players are comfortable playing in keys like“ A,”“ C,”“ D” and“ E.” So, I’ ve written a chart that shows how to use those“ Comfortable Keys” to play in a variety of different keys. Look at the chart. It shows me that if I am playing a song in the key of“ Eb,” I could have acoustic 1 playing with a capo on fret 1 playing“ D-shapes” and acoustic 2 playing with a capo on fret 6 playing“ A-shapes.”
Adding the Short-Cut Capo to the mix would either allow you to sonically separate your acoustic guitars even more or add a third!
Mitch Bohannon Mitch Bohannon and his wife, Noelle have been married for over 33 years with three adult kids and 6 grandchildren! Mitch developed the Short-Cut capo for Kyser and leads worship at Trinity Baptist in Orange, TX and is an English teacher in Louisiana. 48 September 2026 Subscribe for Free...