Next Steps

Putting It Into Practice

Now, you know how and why to use your capos. Assuming that you have your main and 5th string capo, try out some tunes that usually have a capo, or try to play a familiar tune in a new key with a capo just to experiment with the different sound. Remember to pay attention to the original tuning listed in the overview and details at the top of the tablatures. Angeline the Baker is a great example. The common jam key is D. As banjo players we have several options to get there. We could stay in open G tuning, spike the 5th string, and play with D shapes. We could also stay in standard tuning, play with C shapes and capo 2 - whenever you see this remember it's usually implied you capo the 5th string the same amount as the 4 main strings. Lastly you could also use an alternate tuning in the style of Sammy Shelor and capo 2.

Whenever using D shapes and the tuning says aDGBD you could tune up the 5th string to A, but if you have spikes or a 5th string capo it's usually better to just use that. This way the tuning won't effect any common licks or shapes if you are fretting notes on the 5th string(an advanced move)

So that would be a good one to try out, but remember, you can capo with any song. So try this out on tunes you know already. When learning in Tunefox, remember you can engage the capo feature to hear and practice along with the sound of wherever you might want to capo!

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  Free

  Song

  Three Finger - Key of C

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    C
  • Tuning
    gDGBD

  A lot of pickers play this out of C shape capo 2. Different shapes yield different licks and sounds. It's great for your fretboard k...

  Learn
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  Free

  Song

  Three Finger - Key of D

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    D
  • Tuning
    aDGBD

  Spike that fifth string at the 7th fret and lets go to work! Playing in D without a capo opens up some glorious new sounds. This bas...

  Learn
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  Song

  Shelor Style

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    C
  • Tuning
    gCGCD

  Sammy Shelor plays a lot of tunes out of Double C or Sawmill tuning. Those are a lot more common with old-time and clawhammer playe...

  Learn

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