The eternal question: Does using a capo mean you are a lesser player?

[rmp]

Originally Posted by boombox

It's not if you speak to many classically-trained musicians, especially pianists, but occasionally even guitarists! They really do think it. Even when you give them a piece of music which is blatantly written in a certain key using a capo, I've known guitarists try to come up with an alternative fingering which just doesn't work. And as for when you see sheet music books claiming to be in the correct key as the record with the most bizarre chords possible, don't get me started. After all, which guitarist writes a folk tune in Eb and as for the F#m>E/G#>A progression...

Piano players have no concept of the torture involved in playing in flat keys...

the struggle is real!!!

[Dru Edwards]

Not in the least. I use a capo to facilitate my voice but there's also a timbre you get with a capo on the higher strings that you don't get without a capo.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

I wouldn't want to hear Don Henley sing Hotel California in Em. Just sayin'

[Br1ck]

Definitely yes. Tony Rice ought to be ashamed he's never learned to play.

[ChrisE]

Originally Posted by rmp

Oh Gawd,, not this again..

Yes. It’s an eternal question. It never goes away.

[reeve21]

In golf they say it's not how, it's how many (strokes).

It's not about how you make the sound, it's about the the sound!

[llew]

Originally Posted by ChrisE

Yes. It’s an eternal question. It never goes away.

Shock therapy might help?

[hazmuz]

of course! and this guy is probably the "lessest" (demonstrating the dangers involved):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW8NpnbCsEk

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by El Conquistador

I came accros this Later With Bob Costas interview with Glen Cambell on YouTube. Go to 3:30 on the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZASiL58z80A&t=491s

At about 28 minutes, you'll see Willy Nelson with a pristine Trigger!

[El Conquistador]

O.P. here.

How many people actually went to the video and jumped to 3:30 to see what Glen Cambell said?

It was the point of the post, that he actually got jobs recording because he could get open chords in any key using a capo, whicy, aparently, many other recording pros did not know.

Oh well,

Steve

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by El Conquistador

O.P. here.

How many people actually went to the video and jumped to 3:30 to see what Glen Cambell said?

It was the point of the post, that he actually got jobs recording because he could get open chords in any key using a capo, whicy, aparently, many other recording pros did not know.

Oh well,

Steve

I've seen clips from him before. He said Phil Spector would constantly throw songs at him in B. He'd just slap a capo on the 2nd fret and be done with it.

[EZYPIKINS]

I went to 3:30 and watched the rest of the show. Have loved Glen Cambell since I found out he played the guitar part on Marty Robins , El Paso.

[KarenB]

No. Absolutely not.

[ljguitar]

Hi all

I'm surprised that nobody so far mentioned 'serious' players calling capos Cheaters (as well as those who used them).

I'm old (72 years), and in my mid-teens while a novice guitarist, the way some players who could play barre chords separated themselves from those who could not play barre chords was by ridiculing players for using capos. They shamed us for even owning them…and the word 'cheater' was part of that.

I'm hoping for their sakes they changed as they grew older.

If you ever get around serious jazz players, it is amazing what they accomplish without capos, and I don't think I ever saw Joe Pass use a capo…nor many other jazz greats.

But…I'm sorry, I grew up in church where pianists loved to play in flats (the way guitar players love to play in sharps). The capo became my friend early on, and it actually helped me develop a quick ear keeping up with them since hymnals had no chord markings nor keys listed on hymns.

It also taught me to play accompaniment since the pianists often 'drove' the songs, and I was not in charge. Helped me to learn to play along with, but different than the keyboards. Part of being heard over a piano was what I call playing in the holes (at the ends of phrases). And I often took hymns downward to sharp keys (Ab to G, Eb to D, Bb to A or G) instead of up (Ab to A, Bb to C, or Eb to G). They were easier to sing, which worked better at campfire sing-alongs.

Now I use partial capos, and capos a lot, and enjoy the creative potential they bring to the music. And as a teacher I bathed players in exploring all sorts of capo applications, and we built them their first cut capos. Im a more flexible player as a result.

[BoneDigger]

Doc Watson use to call them a cheater bar or something similar, but he still used them extensively.

Glenn may know more about this, but my understanding is that when Gordon Lightfoot hired his lead guitar players (Red Shea and then Terry Clements) he would sometimes require them to play electric with a capo "folk style". Not sure if that is true, but it seems I read that in an interview with one of them.