Partial capos

SuzukHammer

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 2, 2010
Messages
1,623
Reaction score
1
I had never heard of partial capo chords before but it looks like guitar players have this as a nice option.

I would imagine its for extending 2 string fingering.

Is there anything for uke with this or is 4 strings too many for a partial capo?
 
A "cut capo" is most often used on acoustic guitar for making certain chords easier. A lot of worship leaders use them because so many 2 and 4 chords are used in worship songs and the leader can more easily strum away without giving much thought to the fingering when using a cut capo.

I think any kind of capo on a uke is pretty much overkill. With only four nice soft nylon strings and short scales it is pretty easy to make almost any chord using a barre. :)
 
A "cut capo" is most often used on acoustic guitar for making certain chords easier. A lot of worship leaders use them because so many 2 and 4 chords are used in worship songs and the leader can more easily strum away without giving much thought to the fingering when using a cut capo.

I think any kind of capo on a uke is pretty much overkill. With only four nice soft nylon strings and short scales it is pretty easy to make almost any chord using a barre. :)

thanks for that information. What do you mean by a 2 and 4 chord?

I pretty much thought a cut capo would be too much too ; but I've had to really stretch on some chords because I have short stubby fingers. It seems my cut capo is to either play up the neck or switch to a soprano if I can't make those long stretches on a concert.
 
Last edited:
I've used just a regular Kyser-style capo on a guitar before, but shifted down to only cover the highest 5 strings. If you do this on the second fret, you can get a great "Drop D" sound without having to actually tune the low E string down.

Never thought about doing the same thing on a uke, but I guess you could...

JJ
 
thanks for that information. What do you mean by a 2 and 4 chord?

On the "2" chord the third is missing and in its place is the second. So, a C2 would be CDG instead of CEG. Note that sometimes people write C2 when they really mean add9 (i.e. CEGD). The two chords have completely different purposes so it's kind of important to know what the person charting the song meant when they wrote C2 - in praise music they most often mean the real C2, not add9. The C2 is very light and airy with very little tension - i.e. you can play it indefinitely without building tension and anticipation of movement to another chord. The add9 is just the opposite, it is mildly dissonant and creates a great deal of tension until it resolves to another chord.

The 4 or "sus" chord (suspended fourth) has a 4th instead of the 3rd. In other words, the third is "suspended" up to a 4 (CFG in the case of a C chord). Some people mistakenly call the 2 chord a sus2 but, obviously, the third wasn't suspended so that isn't technically correct - I guess you could call it a dep2 (depressed 2). LOL Anyway, the sus4 is similar to the 2 in that it doesn't build tension, there is no "rush" to resolve to another chord.

John
 
Thanks for all the information.

I do play the sus chords both 4 and 2 ( as defined in one of my books) and they are wonderful chords to use.

Well, if the Jumping Flea can experiment with a capo, it must be allright.
 
Top Bottom