Capo Chart

Capo chart for guitar. Drag, tap, play.

Slide the capo along the neck and pick a shape to hear which key comes out. Or start from a song's key and find the easy shapes.

Shape you playShapeGopen shape
Capo fretCapo33 semitones up
You hearYou hearB♭major

Capo on fret 3, play a G shape, and you hear B♭ major. G is an open shape, no barre needed.

Capo 3

Drag the orange capo, or tap any fret.

Pick the shape you play

open shape, no barre

Easy ways to play in B♭ major

The full capo chart

Rows are the shapes your fingers make. Columns are capo frets. Each cell is the chord you hear. Tap any cell to load it into the calculator.

open shape your pick other ways to get B♭

Swipe the chart sideways to see every fret.

Capo chart for guitar: the chord you hear for each shape and capo fret
ShapeCapo 0Capo 1Capo 2Capo 3Capo 4Capo 5Capo 6Capo 7Capo 8Capo 9Capo 10Capo 11
C
D♭
D
E♭
E
F
F♯
G
A♭
A
B♭
B

Need it on paper? Print a clean black-and-white copy.

Got a whole song? Find its best capo fret.

Type the chords from the sheet. We check every fret and rank them by how easy the shapes are.

FB♭CDm

Capo 3 turns that into D · G · A · Bm, three of them open shapes.

Open the song helper

Questions players ask

What key is capo 2?

A capo on fret 2 raises every chord by two semitones, one whole step. A C shape sounds as D, G sounds as A, D sounds as E, E sounds as F♯, A sounds as B, and Am sounds as Bm. So if you play G shapes with the capo on fret 2, you are in the key of A.

What key is capo 3?

A capo on fret 3 raises every chord by three semitones. C sounds as E♭, A as C, G as B♭, E as G, D as F, Am as Cm, Em as Gm and Dm as Fm. Playing G shapes with the capo on fret 3 puts you in the key of B♭.

How do I use a capo chart?

Find the shape you play in the left column, then run along to the capo fret you are using. The cell shows the chord that actually sounds. To work backwards from a song, find its key in the row of the shape you want to play; the column heading is the capo fret. For a whole song, type its chords into the song helper.

Does a capo change the key?

Yes. A capo raises everything you play by one semitone per fret, so the key you hear is higher than the key of the shapes under your fingers. The chords still relate to each other in exactly the same way, so a song that goes G, C, D is still a one, four, five progression in the new key.

What is the best capo position for singing?

The one that puts the melody in your comfortable range. Start where the original recording is, then keep your shapes and move the capo up a fret at a time if the song feels low, or down if you strain on the high notes. Positions above fret 7 are rarely needed.

Why do some charts say A♯ and others B♭?

They are the same note on the same fret. The name is chosen to fit the key: B♭ major has two flats, while A♯ major would have ten sharps, so most charts write B♭. Some charts and apps simply use sharps for every note. Both names sound identical, and the note names setting on this page lets you see either.

Can I use a guitar capo chart for ukulele?

Yes for the note names, because each fret raises every string by a semitone on any instrument. A C shape with the capo on fret 2 sounds as D on a ukulele too. The easy-shape marking is for guitar, though, because the easiest ukulele chords are different. Buy a capo made for ukulele, as guitar capos are usually too wide.