A couple of blog posts ago I wrote about how a student and I were going through a song by Pink called "Just like a pill". It involves the chord of F# minor and was proving a bit of a problem for my student. However- she asked what we could do to continue to learn the song and make progress while not getting held up by the problematic F# minor. 

My response was that although we should not give up on the F# minor chord and we should continue to dedicate time to getting it right we can also move forward by using a Capo.

Let me explain........

A Capo is a small device that is used by guitarists that clamps to the neck of the guitar thus making the stings and playable length of the guitar shorter. This raises the pitch of the strings and is used to transpose a song from one key to another. An example of this is for instance if you knew how to play a particular song using the chords G Major A major and D Major but the problem was that the key was far too low for you to sing in - a solution would be to clamp a Capo to a higher fret on the neck of the guitar. If you clamped the Capo to the second fret for instance but continued to use the chords you were using (in this case G,A and D) you would actually be playing in the key of A major! So the capo in this example has raised the key from G to A.

This was the approach I used for the song "Just like a pill". The song is in the key of A major and the chords used in the song are: A major, F# minor, D major and E major but when we put the Capo on the second fret we can play the chords G major, E minor, C major and D major but the song will still be in the key of A major and we would have avoided the troublesome F# minor.

Now as a guitar teacher here in Tunbridge Wells I just want to be clear that bypassing chords that are a bit difficult is not something I would recommend. Regular practice and pushing yourself is all part of making progress. We haven't given up on the F# minor chord and eventually she will find it easy. When that day comes she will have the added bonus of knowing how to play "Just like a pill" in two different keys plus learning the benefits of using a Capo!

Click the link below for a full video tutorial.

How to use a Capo! - Daniel Berry Guitar Tutorial

Happy Playing

 

Daniel Berry guitar teacher Royal Tunbridge Wells