Capo Question

With both notation and tablature showing, if I apply a capo I would think that the tablature would remain the same and the notation would be transposed, but the opposite occurs. Am I missing a step?

Thanks. ::: Bill

The opposite is right:
If you play an ā€˜e’ on the 5.fret 2. string, it is notated as an ā€˜e’ -note between the two upper lines in the score, and in the tabulature it would be notated on the 2.line with the number 5. Right?
If you put a capo at the 2. fret, the ā€˜e’ will still be the same note but the tabulature would counting from 2.fret an notate it as number 3 on 2.line.
Jon

Thanks, but I don’t see it that way. If you put a capo on, all the pitches go up, but what you play remains the same.

::: Bill

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My solution is to NOT use the capo tool, but to make the instrument transposing. I’m not sure why marking it to sound down a step actually makes it sound up a step, but it works for me. ::: Bill

I’ve actually seen it both ways. In lute tablature transcriptions, e.g., Downland’s book of songs, the voice and the tablature are written at key and the guitar part is written (usually) a 3rd down with capo 3. So voice and tablature are in Gm and the guitar is notated in Em with capo 3.

Then there are tabs that keep the voicing independent of which fret the capo is on: an open 1st string is 0 regardless if it represents an E (no capo) or a G (capo 3).

I don’t subscribe to any one solution. I’ve seen and played many permutations.

I got confused by this thread. In a lot of songbooks, I will see ā€œCapo at 2nd fretā€ and then the chord names as though you were playing open strings; so, the chord name is G even though the capo makes it sound as an A chord.

That makes sense to me because it is consistent with transposing instruments.

If I am not adding value here, you can ignore me. :slight_smile:

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Dorico always stores notes using their sounding pitch, not their fret position, so if you’ve already input some notes and decide later that you want to apply/change a capo then this won’t affect the pitch of the notes you’ve already created - it will change the tablature instead. You can choose to make the notation transpose as well as the tablature, which is what the ā€œUse fretted instrument transpositionā€ option does in Layout Options. And you can manually transpose all the notes to put them back at their original fret if that’s what you want.

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Thanks, Richard (and others). If I am playing a banjo tune in G and want to play with a fiddler in A I put on a capo. I thought Dorico would respond to the capo the same way, but it doesn’t. So the transposition route is best for me.

::: Bill