Capo on 4

Here is one of those posts about my playing the guitar.

Some time ago, I found some chords and tabulature for the song "I Need You" by Jars of Clay. Until this past Saturday, I was really confused by it:

I've only been playing the guitar since December 2003 (see "Early Christmas Gift - Acoustic Guitar", from the December 2003 archives), and while I've gained some experience and expertise with open chords and some barre chords, I haven't developed a lot of skill progressing up the neck.

For Christmas this past year my wife Jennie bought me a capo. Well, she gave me the money while I went inside the store and bought it myself.

The great thing about the capo, of course, is that it transposes the key a song is in and lets you play it using chords you're familiar with. For example, a song in the key of E-flat can be played in the key of D by putting the capo on the first fret. Although your fingers take the shape of a D major chord, you actually play an E-flat major chord.

On to the Jars of Clay song... I figured out that I can play the song, which is written in E major, best with the capo on the 4th fret and using the chords I'd play in the key of C major.

I was fired up when I figured this out late Saturday night.

After strumming the chords for awhile, I realized that my baritone voice strains to match Dan Haseltine's voice on the song. No problem, however. I just moved the capo down to the 2nd fret, meaning that the song was now in the key of D major.

I then found that I could play the song and sing without straining.

Now, I just need to practice it more to get good at singing and playing in tempo.