Post by Phil Taylor on Apr 16, 2013 20:31:58 GMT
Having read Robbie’s superb and very detailed thread on this subject I thought I could add something from my limited knowledge. I am very much a novice using partial capo’s and can in fact only play two self penned pieces. However, descriptions of how they developed may be of interest to show how simple the use of partial capo’s can be.
Whiddon Down
This piece was actually written and finished in standard tuning. Whilst trying to record a video of it I realised the first section was missing the low drone that dropped D tuning would provide to get some ‘atmosphere’. The problem was, if I actually dropped the low E to D I knew that some chords up the neck would not work – that’s when it came to me. I added the partial capo across the top 5 strings to artificially create a dropped D when playing the low E string open yet I could finger the chords up the neck as though in standard tuning.
After Clouds, Sunshine
Now this piece was the opposite to Whiddon Down in that it was written by just noodling around with the partial capo on with only the title in my head. I had just stumbled on this YouTube version of Ashokan Farewell and was trying to figure it out:
I incorrectly thought he had the capo across the bottom 4 strings so I put the capo on and basically played around a bit then realised if I dropped the low E to D the open strings would be like DADGAD. I wanted an echo type feeling at the start due to the remote location of the memorial bench and this capo arrangement gives you the benefit of two open strings at the top to get interesting runs/scales and droney type things going on. It also means you can play some 'normal' standard tuning chords.
With regard to the other capo on the first fret, it is there because moving the notes up the neck gave me slightly more space to finger the open strings near the end of the partial capo, it sounded a little sweeter as well to my ears.
Daddy Stovepipe’s comment on YouTube was ‘Wonderful tune, and with two capo's, wicked!!’ – if that’s not a good reason to have two capo’s on I don’t know what is
So only brief but I hope it can be of some use.
Regards
Phil
Whiddon Down
This piece was actually written and finished in standard tuning. Whilst trying to record a video of it I realised the first section was missing the low drone that dropped D tuning would provide to get some ‘atmosphere’. The problem was, if I actually dropped the low E to D I knew that some chords up the neck would not work – that’s when it came to me. I added the partial capo across the top 5 strings to artificially create a dropped D when playing the low E string open yet I could finger the chords up the neck as though in standard tuning.
After Clouds, Sunshine
Now this piece was the opposite to Whiddon Down in that it was written by just noodling around with the partial capo on with only the title in my head. I had just stumbled on this YouTube version of Ashokan Farewell and was trying to figure it out:
I incorrectly thought he had the capo across the bottom 4 strings so I put the capo on and basically played around a bit then realised if I dropped the low E to D the open strings would be like DADGAD. I wanted an echo type feeling at the start due to the remote location of the memorial bench and this capo arrangement gives you the benefit of two open strings at the top to get interesting runs/scales and droney type things going on. It also means you can play some 'normal' standard tuning chords.
With regard to the other capo on the first fret, it is there because moving the notes up the neck gave me slightly more space to finger the open strings near the end of the partial capo, it sounded a little sweeter as well to my ears.
Daddy Stovepipe’s comment on YouTube was ‘Wonderful tune, and with two capo's, wicked!!’ – if that’s not a good reason to have two capo’s on I don’t know what is
So only brief but I hope it can be of some use.
Regards
Phil