Capo chart for every key, and the maths behind it

01Capo versus transpose, until it is actually clear

These two words get used as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and the confusion is why a guitarist arrives at rehearsal with the capo on the right fret and the wrong key in his hands.

Transposing changes what key the music is IN. Every note moves — bass, vocal, everything. A song in A minor transposed up three semitones is now in C minor. If a recording is involved, it has to move too, or you and it are in different keys.

A capo changes what SHAPES your hand makes. It clamps across a fret and turns that fret into a new nut, so every open string starts higher. You then pick the shape that lands on the key you want. The music has not moved.

Both reach the same sound from opposite directions. Everything below is just counting frets.

02The arithmetic: capo fret + shape key = sounding key

That one line is the whole calculation. One fret is one semitone; count from C and wrap around at twelve.

C   C#  D   D#  E   F   F#  G   G#  A   A#  B
0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11
    Db      Eb          Gb      Ab      Bb

Say the song is in E flat and every shape you know is an open one. E flat is 3, C is 0, so capo 3 closes the gap:

  capo fret           3
+ shape you play      C   (C = 0)
  -------------------------------
= what everyone hears Eb  (0 + 3 = 3 = Eb)

  so:  C  Am  F   G   shapes
       sound as
       Eb Cm  Ab  Bb  to the band

Backwards, when you already know the key: sounding key minus capo fret is the shape you need. Song in B flat (10), capo at 3: 10 − 3 = 7, which is G. Capo 3, G shapes, out comes B flat.

03The capo chart

Every major key, with the position most players reach for first and the sensible alternatives after. Read it as: capo here, play these shapes, this comes out.

The chart proves something worth knowing. The five open major families sit at 0, 7, 2, 9 and 4 semitones — spread evenly enough that no key is more than two frets from one of them. D flat is capo 1 from C, E flat capo 1 from D, F capo 1 from E, A flat capo 1 from G, B flat capo 1 from A; only G flat and B need capo 2. If your maths said capo 8, the same row holds a friendlier answer.

Minor keys

Three minor shapes — Am, Em and Dm — cover all twelve, with the capo never past the fourth fret.

04The singer wants it lower — and a capo only goes up

This is where charts run out, and it is the most common place people get stuck. Your singer says the chorus sits too high, take it down two. You reach for the capo. But a capo cannot go down: it shortens strings, and shorter strings are higher.

Three honest answers, one of them a trick:

• Transpose the music down. If a recording is involved this is the real fix — the audio has to move, or you are playing in F over a track still in G.
• Play the lower key straight. Down two from G is F, and F is a barre chord. Unglamorous, but correct.
• Capo up and drop your shapes further. The trick: the two movements subtract.

song was in    G    G shapes, capo 0
singer wants   F    two semitones lower

capo +1  shapes -3   (G shapes -> E shapes)
   1  +  E (4)  =  5  =  F

net: down two, though the capo went up.

The capo went up one fret while the key went down two, because the shape family dropped three. Capo 3 with D shapes reaches F too, and capo 5 with C shapes — same key, different open strings underneath, so pick by ear.

What you cannot do is stay on G shapes and find a fret that lowers them. "Capo 10 to go down two" gives the right note an octave too high, so the guitar floats above the vocal instead of sitting under it.

05The eight shapes that make a capo worth owning

A capo is only as useful as the shapes you put in front of it. Eight get you everywhere:

• C, G, D, A, E — the five major families. A capo between frets 0 and 2 covers all twelve major keys.
• Am, Em, Dm — the three minor families. A capo up to fret 4 covers all twelve minor keys.

Learn what goes with them, because a key is not one chord: the C family is C Dm Em F G Am, the G family G Am Bm C D Em, the D family D Em F♯m G A Bm. Once a family is fluent the capo turns it into twelve keys, and a progression like Am–F–C–G sits anywhere on the neck without a barre — open strings ringing in keys where open strings should not exist.

06Why two guitarists use different capos on purpose

Two acoustics on the same song in C, both on C shapes at capo 0, give you one guitar twice as loud. Every note doubled in the same octave, in the same space.

Capo the second guitar at fret 5 and give it G shapes. 5 + G (7) = 12 = C. Same key, different instrument:

• The notes stack in a different order, so the top voice moves differently. The parts weave instead of doubling.
• Different open strings ring, landing on different chord tones — where the accidental suspensions come from.
• Shorter strings give a brighter attack that sits above the other guitar instead of fighting it in the low mids.

Am–F–C–G becomes Em–C–G–D shapes at capo 5. Two hand positions, one key.

07What a capo does to your tuning

A capo pushes each string onto a fret, and pushing stretches it. Stretched strings go sharp. On a well set-up guitar with a gentle capo that is a few cents and nobody notices; with a budget spring capo on high action it can turn the wound E and A audibly sour.

• Sit it just behind the fret wire and straight, not centred between frets: close in needs less pressure, and angled capos pull one side sharper than the other.
• Use the least pressure that works. Screw and lever capos let you dial it; a fixed spring gives you more than you need.
• Tune with the capo on, in the position you will play, and re-check after every move. Tuning open then clamping is how you end up sharp.

High positions make it worse: the same stretch is a bigger share of a shorter string. Our browser tuner works with the capo fitted — clamp it, strum, fix what it pulled sharp.

08How kords.in handles capo and transpose

The studio keeps the two ideas apart, because merging them is what makes other tools confusing.

• Transpose moves the recording. Not just the chord labels — the audio you uploaded is pitch-shifted, so what you hear and what your hands do agree. Three semitones either way, which is as far as a finished mix takes gracefully. We are not the only tool that does this — Moises shifts real audio too. What differs is that this runs in the browser on a phone or a laptop with nothing to install, and three semitones is more than the two a free tier elsewhere stops at. Tools that play a video inside an embedded frame cannot do it at all, because they never hold the audio.
• Capo changes the shapes only. Set the fret from 0 to 11 and the chart redraws as the shapes your hand actually makes, while a banner keeps naming the key the room is hearing — so you can still tell the band the right name. Worth knowing: the piano diagrams follow the capo setting too, so set it back to 0 if your keys player is reading from the same screen.
• The chords are the ones we detected, moved by however much you transposed. If it was not detected in your file, it is not on your screen.

Transpose and capo sit side by side under View, one tab away from section looping and speed, so you can settle a key without leaving the song.

09Questions people actually ask

What capo position do I use for a song in E flat?

Capo 3 and play C shapes — three frets above C is E flat. Prefer D shapes? Capo 1. A shapes at capo 6 and G shapes at capo 8 also land on E flat, but that high the frets are cramped and the tone thins.

Does a capo change the key of a song?

It changes the key you are playing in, not the key the recording is in. A capo raises every open string, so the same shape sounds higher. Playing along with a file? The file has to be transposed to match — a capo cannot move a recording.

Can a capo lower the key?

No. A capo only shortens the strings, so it can only raise pitch. To come down, either transpose the audio or capo up a little and play shapes that sit further down: capo 1 with E shapes sounds F, two semitones below open G shapes.

How high can you put a capo?

The seventh fret is the practical limit on most acoustics. Above it the frets are narrow, the tone thins and small intonation errors are exaggerated. If your arithmetic says capo 9, find a lower position with a different shape family.

Do I need to retune after fitting a capo?

Check every time. Clamping stretches the strings slightly sharp, most on the wound low strings. Fit the capo where you will play, tune with it on, and check again whenever you move it.

Is using a capo cheating?

No. Singers pick a key that suits their voice, not one that suits open shapes. A capo keeps open strings ringing in a key that would otherwise be all barre chords — a different and often better sound.

Does the same capo arithmetic work on ukulele?

Yes. Capo fret plus the key of your shape is what is heard, on any fretted instrument; only the shape names change, because ukulele tuning is different. Piano has no capo, so transposing is the only route.