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Music vocabulary · Performance and Practice

Capo

Meaning in music, with examples

nounCommon term

In music, capo means: A device clipped across the strings of a guitar or similar instrument to raise the pitch of all open strings together.

In Turkish: kapo

How it is used

Used mainly by guitarists to change key while keeping familiar chord shapes. Common in rehearsals, live sets, and acoustic accompaniment.

Example sentences

  1. She put the capo on the third fret so the singer could keep the same chord shapes in a higher key.

    Here, capo is a tool for transposing the instrument upward without forcing the player to relearn the chord pattern.

  2. Before the acoustic set, he checked that the capo was tight enough to avoid buzzing on the lower strings.

    In this example, capo refers to a physical clamp whose placement and pressure affect sound quality and tuning stability.

Common collocations

  • put on a capo
  • capo on the second fret
  • adjust the capo
  • chordThree or more different notes played or sung at the same time. Chords give a piece its harmony and are named after their root note and type, such as C major or A minor.
  • keyThe group of notes and chords that a piece is mainly built on, centred on one home note. A song in the key of G major keeps returning to G as its point of rest.

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