Last month, the Old Town School of Folk Music broke the record for the largest music lesson in the world. Almost 1,400 people gathered in Welles Park with their guitars to participate, with Old Town’s veteran teachers leading the lesson. Among the students gathered were myself, Paul, Scott, and Scott’s fiancee Alisa. Although I’ve played guitar for almost 15 years and currently teach the instrument to beginners, I’ve never actually had a formal lesson so this was my first.

You can read more about the event at the Chicago Tribune’s online edition here. If you zoom in on the second picture you can barely make out Scott, Alisa, and me in the background, but unfortunately Paul is obscured from view.

The event was part of the Old Town School’s 50th anniversary. The school has been very supportive of Tangleweed over the years and we’re proud to have collaborated with them on numerous projects, including their new Songbook series recordings.

I wrote this piece as part of the introduction to my book, The American Country Music Tunebook, to help my students become more comfortable with transposition. I’m posting it here for the same reason — with a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of practice, anyone can become comfortable transposing songs and tunes on the fly.

Although the capo is referred to derisively as a “cheater” in some circles, it can be a valuable tool–handy for the guitarist, almost essential to the banjo player. Capos are also available for mandolins and other stringed instruments (even dobros), and these might prove handy for beginning players. When buying a capo, avoid the cheap elastic variety, as they can be hard to use and tend to pull the instrument out of tune. I prefer the “one hand” spring-action capo, such as a Keyser, for ease of use, although there are a number of well-made capos in different styles on the market which will do the trick for under twenty dollars, Dunlop and Shubb being two of the more popular brands.

The reasons for using a capo are quite simple. You may need to transpose a song to accommodate a singer’s range. You may find yourself playing with folks who play familiar tunes in unfamiliar keys. Most commonly, however, you may find that you need access to notes on open strings to play a tune comfortably.

In guitar playing, the ideal flatpicking keys are C and G. These are also the two easiest keys on the five-string banjo in standard tuning. The trick to using the capo, then, is using it to play tunes in other keys as though they were in C or G. The process is quite easy once you get the hang of it. Just count up from the nut in half-steps. To play in D, capo on the second fret and play as if you were in C. To play in A, capo on the second fret and play as if you were in G. To play in B Flat, capo on the third fret and play as if you were in G, and so on.

Most old-time songs use a limited number of chords–a “tonic” or I chord, which represents the home key; a “dominant” or V7 chord which tends to show up near the end of phrases and is used to lead back to the tonic; and a “subdominant” or IV chord, a whole step below the dominant, which is used to add some variety to the mix.

Here are the I, IV and V7 chords for the most commonly encountered keys:

Thus, if you want to play a tune in D as though it were in C, capo on the second fret and play C, F, and G7. With the capo in place, they will sound as D, G, and A7. With a little bit of practice, a capo can make your life a lot easier.