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Using a partial capo on your guitar can open up new musical horizons and entice your creative powers. We all experience those times when we maybe get bored with what we already know musically and hunger for something new and different than the norm. A partial capo can help that scenario by changing the tuning of your guitar, and it can change the tuning without altering the tuning keys.  When you remove the partial capo, your instrument is returned to standard tuning or whatever tuning it had before you put the partial capo on.

Recently I was interested in purchasing a partial capo for my guitar to maybe foster some new creative music ideas. The product I found, and decided on was mentioned to me on a music forum and is called the Creative Tunings SpiderCapo. Also I was searching around on Google and happened upon an article about partial capos which brought more clarity about what a partial capo accomplishes versus using a standard capo that just basically bars all six strings of the guitar. Basically the article was saying that using a  partial capo at the  second fret on the bass side of the guitar, might be described as emulating DADGAD tuning. So, when you play the capoed (–not the fingered–) strings, then the notes are: EBEABE, the  relationship is the same as DADGAD, but now it’s  a full step higher. Some might think that this would be the same as tuning into DADGAD and capoing up two frets, but, it is not!

It’s important to realize that if you don’t re-tune some strings, you are still in standard tuning.

Let’s say you’re playing a barre chord above the capo…it’s the same as if the capo were not there.  So then, any notes that you fret above the capo are then not effected by the capo, make sense? In other words, only notes that would have been open fifth, fourth, and third strings are going to be effected. Below is the Creative Tunings SpiderCapo which works selectively across all six strings and is available at  Musician’s Friend, this is an absolutely ingenious device!!! So to recap…you can capo one string at a time, or all six strings at a time, or, any combination of 1 to 6 strings you choose. This opens up a ton of possibilities for those who love using different tunings which can add greatly to putting your creative juices in overdrive. The Creative Tunings SpiderCapo is like the Swiss Army knife of partial and full capos all in one, adjustable tool! Happy playing, no matter how you look at it, the guitar is an amazing instrument whose sound can be altered a thousand ways! – Jeff

…See also the SpiderCapo official website here.

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