partial-capo-new frontier book 2

8/6/2019 Partial-Capo-new Frontier Book 2

1/30

The Third HandCapo:A New Frontier in Guitar

Harvey D . R eid


2/30

1\ N EW FRONTIER IN G UITA R

Foreword

It is always an unusual and an unexpected thing w hen a totally new idea pops uright in the midst of all the old ideas, and is such a basic and obvious thing thaeveryone turns to each other asking"Why didn 't somebody think of this a long timeago?" A nd this is especially surprising w hen the new idea is something that is to talpractical and saves much effort, and w hen the new idea has basicaUy been starine veryo ne in the face fo r years.

The new idea, of course, is the subject of this book.It is a var iable , cho rd -fo rm ingguitar capo that. instead of clamping all six strings of the guitar dow n at once liken orm al capo , is divided in to six pieces fo r clam pin g o nly selectedstrings, Gu ita r ca po shave been around for centuries and banjo players have been using for years a capo thonly clamps one of the strings, yet no one seemsto have put all this together, untilrecently. The problem for w hich the chord-form ing capo is the answ er is aiso an oone.

M ost guitarists use the standard tuning from bass to treble E-A -D-G -B-E, but thuse of all sorts of different or "open" tunings has become more and more w idespreaam on g gu ita rists o f all styles. A nd the cho rd-fo rm in g capo o ffers the gu itarist the besolu tion ever to the problem of how to deal w ith the open tunings, There are mannice and new and full sounds that can be achieved w ith different tunings, but thhassles of re tuning and relearning the fingerboard seem to prevent many from usith e o th er tu nin gs.

A lthough crude and alm ost-w orkable chord-form ing capos can be m ade by slicin

norm al capos in to six pieces. the only one available commercially is theThird Handcapo, available from the Third Hand Capo Company of N ashville , Tennessee. Thdesign is based on a very clever m echanism invented and patented by Lyle ShabramJ r. o f P aci fie G ro ve , C alifo rn ia, an d is by far the best an d s.im plest m etho d o f achievingthe desired results. Since "variable chord-forming capo" is such a m outhful, I havchosen to caU the things "Third Hands," w hich seems to be as good and simple angeneric a nam e as any.In the future, it m ayw ell turn out that all capos w ill be m adeinsix pieces, since the six pieces can all be lined upto make a normal capo, and the w ord"capo" m ay come tomean a T hird H an d.


3/30

jj 'fHE THIRD HAND CAPO

Table o f Con te nts

1 . Introduction 1

How it Works 2Who Needs One? 2

2 . How to Use the Third Hand 4

Imitating Dropped 0 Tuning 40- Modal Tuning 6Open A Tuning 7The Dropped-C Effect 9Half-Open A Tuning 1 0Dropped A 11

HighE 123 . Using More Than One Capo 1 3

With a Normal Capo 13Elunin g 13B Effect 1 6Almost Open B 1 8OpenC 1 8Long A 1 9

4 . U ses w ith O pen Tunings 2 0

5 . The Futu re 2 2

Appen dix A .Short Course on Capos 2 3

AppendixB. For B an jo Players 2 5

About the Autho r 2 6

to Lynn ho t herrrich

_I .~;


4/30

A NEW FRONTIER IN GUITAR 1

Chap te r One

Introduction

I assume that if you are reading this book, then you know something about guitaalready. This is not a how -to-play guitar book, but is in tended to show the immenusefulness of the Third Hand capo to guitarists o f all tastes and backgrounds. Somtopics are mentioned w ithout explanation; you must know what barre chords are,YOLImust also be able to play chords that are given w ithout fingering directions. Oof the big problems when explaining capos is how to explain that you "think" youplaying in D, but because you have a capo on the second fret you are actually playiin E. If you say you are playing in E, which in fact you are, then it may confussomeone into thinking that you should play chords for the key of E, which, due tocapo, would put you really up to F#. So 1 have chosento say instead that you are

playing in Dposition, which means the same thing as saying thatYOLI playas if youw ere in D. A ppendix A , page 23, w ill help to explain this further,

The terminology is confusing enough w ith a conventional capo, but is even morew ith a Third Hand. If you realize that when you playa C chord w ith the capo on t4 0 1 fret you are really playing an E chord you w ill be ableto see the logic of theexplanations that appear here, w here this is often referred to as just a C chord. Thisnot done in musical ignorance, but for the sake of clarity in the explanations. It is doin the hopes that it w ill seem confusing only to people who know enough to figureout; and hopefully those readers w ith less theory know ledge w ill be happy thsomething that feels like a C chord is called a C chord.

Another problem that 1 don 't deal w ith in these rages is the naming of chord

Many common chords have familiar names and symbols, but there are just as machords that can be easily played that do not really have official names. This seemsbother some guitarists w ho are accustomed to chord pictures and symbols and whoto know the name of what chord they are playing, but the fact remains that sometimthere is really no convenient name. In fact, many chords that now have names habeen given them recently, as the guitar becomes more and more prevalent in omusical culture. A nd many names that are used for guitar chords are unclear aconfusing, or actually conceal as much information as they reveal. For example, tosomething a G6 chord tells you that it has the note G as its tonic or root note, and thait also contains the note E, w hich is the6(h note of the G scale.1t probably also has a Band a 0 and may have also an F , and the notes may be scrambled lip from bass

treble in any of many ways, and yet it is just called aG O chord. There are many ways toplay G6 chords, and there are also minor sixths and major sixths, and sixths w ith adde9ths and all kinds of other things that are attempts to describe the structure of the chofrom its name. There is no officially designated system for this as yet, and differesources w ill use different names for the same chord. In this book, 1 have attemptedavoid this issue, but there still are chords that are shown in diagrams for whichname is given. 1 feel that this is often a better w ayto do things than to make up somecrazy name; but w herever possible a chord name is given.

A lso, the chords that have been given as examples are merely examples, and shou


5/30

2 THE THIRD HAND CAPO

not be taken as a com plete list of all chords that you need to know. I have just selectedthe examples to show the usefulness of the particular situation , and to show w hat canbe done and the kinds of sounds that can be produced. I hope that the chords givenw ill give readers an idea of w hat kinds of sounds they m ight look for, and then they cango on and develop their ow n chords and w ays of playing certain songs. G uitar playersshould be used to this sort of thing by now, since rarely are they ever given the correctand complete chords. 1 hope that most of those w ho findlISC for the Third Hand w illu nderstan d w ha t is m ean t here, an d n ot feel slighted becau se there are n o n ote- fo r-n otetra nscriptio ns o f Bob Dyla n so ngs give n he re .

How it Works

T he T hird H and chord-form ing capo, show n in F igure1 on page 4, looks very m uchlike a n orm al gu itar ca po , except that it allows the gu itarist to cho ose w hich strin gs areclam ped by the capo. It consists of just six rubber discs, one for each string, each w itha flat side, and mounted off-center on a metal rod. The discs can then be rotated toeither a "down" position , where the string is clamped by the disc, or to an "up"positio n, wher e th e str in g is le ft u nto uched.

Since the w idth of the neck and the spacing of the stri ngs may vary from one guitarto the next (and also from one fret position to another on the same guitar) it may benecessary to adjust the position of the discs accordingly. The plasticside-supportshould rest on the edge of the fingerboard for stability, and is especially needed w henonly a few strings are to be clamped by the capo. It may be necessary to reverse theposition of the capo on the guitar depending on w hat configuration is being clam ped sthat the side-support is on the side that gives the best stability. For example, if youw ere only clam ping the high E string, then you w ould have to have the side-support onthe ba ss side o f the fin ge rbo ard.

It is also often a good idea to actually remove the rubber discs entirely w hen theyare not being used to clam p the strings, to allow you to gain better accessto the n ote sthat lie under or behind the capo. This w ill be discussed in more detail later, but isw orth m entioning from the start. Let's look at w hat the Third H and is rea lly good for.

W ho Needs One?

A lthough w ith all six rubber discs in the "dow n" position the T hird H and w orks justlike a n orm al capo ,its gre ate st va lu e lie s in u sin g it to clamp o nly ce rta in combin atio nsof strings. A t first glance this may seem to be only a novelty or a gimmick, but oncloser inspection it can be seen to be a tool of untold value to guitarists of all levels andstyles.

One of the greatest problems facing m odern guitarists is w hether or not to use thevarious non-standardtunings, There are m any many of these so called "open" tuningsthat a re gain in g favo r w ith3 1 1types of guitarists because of the new range of sound andfullness that they offer. However, thelise of the new tunings involves a10l ofproblems: you either have to change the tuning of the guitar betw een songs, or else


6/30

1\ NEW FRONTrER IN GUITAR 3

carry a separate guitar for each tuning. N either of these is very convenient, and ta re th ou sa nds o f g uita ristswho lo ve a nd appre ciate thesound of the open tunings, butwho find it impra ctica l touse them .. The constantretu ning o f thegu ita r makes it hardto kee p the gu ita rin tune at all, and causesa great deal more w ear and tear on strings.

A lso , each time you put the guitar in a new tuning, you have to relearn the chordsthe f ingerings.

How ever, the Third H and capo allow s guitariststo duplicate the sound a/theopen tunings (as well as many new sounds that cannot be achieved even withretuning) without retuning the guitar and without having10 relearn thefingerboard

R ead this again .T fyou have never playedin an open tuning, the Third Handwi l l le tyou sound like you do, and if you are at all familiar w ith open tunings youwill beshocked. You can gain virtuallyall the benefits of opentunings without th edraw backs. In fact, until you have put one (or tw o) on your guitar and tried playyou might thin k tha tit could not possibly w ork - but in truth it works better than yocan imagine. It takes very little time to get used tousing a Third Hand, and if youwanted to, you cou ld completely fo ol someo ne w howas liste nin g in to thin kin g tha t yo uw ere in standard tuning or likew isean open tuning. Andyou can a lso p roduce allkinds of n ew soundsthat do n ot belon gto the re alm o f e ithe r.

Figure 1: The Third IfandChord-Forming Capo


7/30


Chapter l\vo

How to Use the ThirdI-Iand

The primary use of the Til ird Hand is to im itate tunings, and th is is as good a placeas any to present the general theory of Third Hand capos. The basic idea is simple(once you know how to do it):

If you are trying to imitate a tuning where strings are tightened abovestandard tuning-just fret those strings at the appropriate fret w ith thethird hand to get the pitch you w ant.

If the tuning is reached normally by loosening strings, you can't get theexact tuning, since capos can't low er the pitch of strings. But you coo get agood im itation by raising up the pitch of all the other strings w ith the thirdhand the same amount thatYOLI were going to loosen one string. Thatso un ds hard, but it m akes sense-if yo u ca n't lo osen o ne , ra ise the o thers.

A lmost all the examples in this book use one or both of the above rules. Ifyou want to imitate open G , D .. o r other tunings that usually involvelo ose nin g strin gs, yo u m ight sta rt by tu nin gyour whole gu itar down 2 frets.T hen things w ill be pitched w here you are usedto them.

Imitating Dropped DTuning

The most common variation of guitar tuning from standard is the so-called"Dropped-D" tuning, w here the bass E string is low ered tw o frets to D. This tuning isw idely used by guitarists of all styles, and it breathes new life in to the key of D bygiving you a deep, rich bass root note that is not available in standard tuning. But, asw ith all non-standard tunings, you get non-standard chord fingerings, and you have tore -le arn the fin ge rbo ardto a certain extent. Here, since only one string has beenretun ed, the change in the chord fin gerings is n ot drastic, bu t it is great en ou gh to cau seproblems. The D, D7 , and Dm chords sound great, but o ther common chords must befingered differently as show n: ,000 o 0 0 o o o x o o o 0 0

.~ 4 ~ ~.

I

4 ~

4D G

. .' . 4 t : 4lI

-1A

I 4 . '4 ~

,

1-

41 . 4' 1 t4t ', - ~

c Em


8/30


Now, w ith the guitar in standard tuning, place a T hird H and on the second fret, wthe bass E string le ft undamped or open. Then when you playaD chord above thecapo, it has thesam e sound as the D ropped-D tuningD chord, w ith the bass root.(A ctu ally, it so un ds like D ro pped-D w ith a n orm al capo o n the seco ndfret.)

o

Dropped-E

o o x 6 0 0

A7D G c E'nl

But when you try to play aG cho rd, yo uwill find that there is no need for the alteredform w e used w ith the Dropped-D tuning, and w e can pJay a normal G chord, juststa n d ard tu ning. The sam eis true ofC, F G7, and v ir tua llyall other chords. W hen youplay A or A7 you have to avoid the bassE strin g, bu t this isno w orse than having toavoid the string w ith aD chord like you do in standard tuning. A lso ,a ll n ormal b arrechords and runs w orkT h e sam e as they do in standard luning.T his is because you stillare in standard tuning. This is a rea] bonus. There is no good w ay to play barre cholike Bm andFit m in D ropped-D tuning, but w henyou use the Third Hand they canbe played normally. A lso , any chords like the A or Am orE or Ern that n orm ally u sethe open bassE string can be played as barre chords. Remember that theA is really aB and the Em i s rea llyp# m, and so on, because of the capo. (The bassE note now liesunder the capo, and canbe fre tte d by re achin g o ve r the ca po if de sire d.)

T his first example of how touse the Third Hand works well asa su bstitu te fo rDropped-D tuning, but unlike rea! D ropped-D tuning, it is useful for playing in othkeys. If you playaDm chord, you find the same rich bass as before, but now youcanplay the other chords that are usually found in the key of Dm(C, F, G, Gm, Bb, ando the rs) ju st a s in sta nda rd tu nin g,In real D ropped-D tuning, m ost of these chords areha rd to pla y.'

1Actu ally, this is a w ay to pla yin Em, bu t it has the flavo r o fthe key o fDm.


9/30


This is also a great w ay to play in G or C position . D ropped-D doesn 't w ork w ell atall for this, but now w e can play the G , F , and C chords normally if w e w ish, and stillget the exceptionally rich sounding D , D 7 andDrn chords. This is an excellent w ay toplaya song that starts in C (actually D because of the capo.right?) a nd th en modu la te s

(change s key )lip to D in the middle ofthe song. M any songs do this, and here w e havea way of sounding totally normal in the first key, then sounding like we changedtu nings w hen w e chan ge keys.

111is "D ropped-E" use of the Third Hand, as w e might call it, isalso a great w ay toplay blues in the key of E. If you play in D position , you can playa good solid w alkingbass w ith the open, undamped E string as the root Most common blues chordprogressions then change to G or G7 and then A or A7, and you can keep the w alkingbass go in g thro ugh these cho rd chan ges relatively easily. T his is n ot sim ple, an d takeslittle know ledge of the guitar, but it is easier and sounds just as good as doing it in E instandard tuning. And since you are using a Third Hand, you can play barre chordversions of the G and A chords as you would do in standard tuning, and you can use

an y o ther cho rds an d ru ns from stan dard tu nin g. Blues an d ragtim e style fin gerpickerwi ll f ind th is ir re si stible .

D -Mo dal Tuning

A nother comm on non-standard tuning is one in w hich both E strings are loosenedtw o frets to D (D-A -D-G -B-D). This is often called the "D-M odal' tuning, and it isthe simplest w ay to get the characteristic drone-like sound of an open tuning byretuning the few est number of strings. The Dropped-D tuning still sounds a lo t likestan dard tu nin g, bu t this o ne sou nds n oticeably differen t. B ut as is alw ays the casewith

new tunings, the more new and different all the chords become. In fact, it is hard toplay no rm al so un din g cho rds at all in this tu nin g.

How ever, as you may have suspected by now . w e can sound just like w e are in thistuning by using the Third Hand in standard tuning. Simply set up the Third Handw ith both E strings undam ped, and w ith the capo on the second fret:

o

If you have ever played in D -M odal tuning before,YOLl will p ro bably r ecogn ize th esound of some of the chords that are show n in the first row below . (There are severaw ell-know n songs by N eil Young and Leo Kottke that use this tuning.) These chordare the most familiar ones in this tuning, and help to give the tuning its distinctive


10/30

A N EW FRONTIER IN QUIT AR 7

sound. N ot only can you get the identical sound w ith the Third H and, but you can alplay norm al chords, too, plus m any runs you m ight already lise. R em em ber that thisactually in E because of the capo, andif you w anted the exact pitch of the D-M odaItunings you w ould have to start w ith a guitar w ith all the strings tuned dow n tw o frets

Q 0 0

4 _(

t t_

D

o0 0

_ .1-

4 ._4l4lo

O pen A Tuning

o

Gadd9

F

x 0 o

o 0 0

li t4 . ~ .

G Om

Probably the most common of the "open" tunings, w here the guitar is tuned tochord, is the Open A tuning. OpenA is structurally the same as Open G , also verycommon, Wi~l the A tunin j just pitched tw o frets higher. Open G is D-G -D-G -B-D .and Open AIS EA -E-A -C -E.

TIle A tuning (and G tuning, too) gives a rich and full sound. and is w idely used bnovices and professionals to get a different m ood and flavor from the guitar. G tuninis m ore common among acoustic players, since you don 't break strings tuning up toitWith the open chord, you can play chords and melodies against the constant droninbass in the m anner of the banjo. dulcim er, or o ther "drone" instrum ents. How ever,e xpected , it is a big hassleto chan ge back an d fo rthfrom this tu nin g, an d also the cho rdfingerings become totally different from norm al. You can achieve all the sound anrichness of A tuning w ith the Third H and by placing the Third H and on the second frin the form of a norm al A chord. Put the side-support on the bass side for stability:


11/30


o 0 o

Open A

Now when all the strings are strumtned open,it sounds absolutely identical to Atuning. We can now playas if we are in G , and wecan get all the drone andfull-sounding effects fromA tuning, along with the option of using normal barrechords and scale patterns. The nature of A tuning is that intricate scale work is veryhard, and it takes a good deal of effort to get usedto .new fingerings. W iththe ThirdHand, we not only get all the advantages of the open tuning, but we can doth in gs s uchas play minor chords or minor sevenths as normal barre chords. In real Open.A tuning,there is no convenient way to play good minor or minor seventh chords, or for thatmatter, lots of other common chords.

A nother great featureof this simulated A tuning is that you can still play many ofthe 'fam ilia r tra demark cho rdsthat normally go w ithA tuning and that are used inallthe songs normally played iii the open tuning. but that are not playable instandardtuning. For example, the twomost commo n such chords are show n below w ith theircounterparts in the Third Hand A tuning. If you have ever played in AOf G tu ning,yo u will no doubt recognize these chords, and evenif you have never played in thetuning you might have heard the sound in a Joni Mitchell song or somewhere else.

(Joni Mitchell's name is mentioned because she plays and writes extensively in Gtuning.)

E A E.A C# E EA DGB E E A D G B E

4 ~

4 t4 t

4 . -- 4 t4 .-_ .-

4 .~,These chords in A tuning Same chords in Third Hand A

You might also try playing some of the chords shown bela",'. They illustrate theusefulness of the Third Hand A tuning;


12/30

A NEW FRONTIER IN GUITAR

G

G

o 000

L4.4 ~

00000,

"

( 4 .(

G

The D ropped-C Effect

9

o 0 0

8m

o o

4 '4 '~ .Em add11(?) Gmaj7

4 It

4.

4~ Cadd9

o O){ 0 o 0

Gadd9

T he previous exam ples of uses for the T hird H and involved finding w ays to imthe sound of common open tunings. There are also many many things you can dohave no counterpart in open tunings, but that soundgreat a nd a re immedia te ly u se fu l.One of these is w hat w e m ight call the "Dropped-C" effect. Put the Third Hand on4th fret, w ith only the bass E string undam ped, as show n:

If you then playin C, you are actually in E because of the capo, but you get a muricher sound than usual, since you now have a deep buss note that w as not there be


13/30

10 THETH1RD HAND CAPO

We now get all the convenience of thekey of C position, but w e don't get the thinsound that usually comes from having a normal capoon the 4 th fre t. This is ideal fo rfolk, and b luegrassand blues picke rs wholike to piny in C posi tion . The C. F; G , and -G7 chords can all be playednormally, but if the Cor F chordis played w ith the bass

string open, you get an unexpected richness in tone:o o

~t'4~

(D ~~

c

o 000

G

o 0

!

. .

4 t 0~~

D

Another bonus isthat with thi s arrangementof the Third H and,you canalso play inthe key of B by playi ng in G position. If you do th i s, you w ill have a nann a I G and D,and an unusually rich C and F ..There are som e variations onthis "D ropped-C' effectthat require the use of more than one Third Hand that w ill be discussed a little later,and that w ill be o f special in terestto you if you lik e th is "Dropped-C".

Half-Open ATuning

F

With the Third Hand on the second fret, w ith the bass E and A strings undamped,you can duplicate the sound of stillanother common tuning. G uitarists often loosenthese tw o bass strings dow n 2 frets each to obtain w hat is often called a "Half-Open G "tuning, w hich is sort of a compromise betw een Open G tuning and standard tuning.W ith a Third Hand capo, you can get what might be called "Half-Open A", whichgives you the rich bass support of theopen tuning, but that still lets you play norm allyin the treble. Theo nly difference betw eenthis and the pre vio usly discu sse d ThirdHand Atuning simulation is that you don't lo se any n otesunder thecapo in the treble,and so you can play familiar chords and runs in the treble w ithout having to

com pensate for the T hird H and:o 0 0

1 - 1

~ .. a 4 .

G

4 t 4 ~J I t .

Gc D

F


14/30


Many guitarists w ill find that in a lo t of situations this is preferred over the O penso un d, a nd it is ce rta inly m uch e asie rto adapt to . Blu egrass pickers w ill fin d that this isa wonderfu l way toplay fiddle tunes in G position w ith fam iliar fingerings, but alsow ith a resonant bass support that is usually not available in the key of G . In standatuning, you get the bass support by playing in the key of A , but most find that the scpatterns and fingerings of the notes in the treble are m uch easier in G . F or flatpickw ho have nobody to play rhythm for them, this is a great help. Open A tuning w onot help much here, since the scales and chords are unfamiliar to most, and it is nwo rth the e ffo rt in ge ne ra l to re -le arn a ll the fin ge rin gs fo r su ch in trica te tu ne s.

A lso , as alw ays w ith the T hird H an d, yo u can play in this co nfigu ratio n in keys o tthan G , something that is aw kw ardif you w ere to actually play in a different tuning.So we could play in C position quite readily, and find that the C and F chords canplayed totally normally but the G and G7 chords sound am azingly rich and full. Thisis a great w ay to play in C (actually D because of the capo) for songs that spend a lo

time on the G chord, or for songs like "San Antonio Rose" that change keys inmiddle from C to G . On a song w ith akey cha nge like this, it w ill so un d a lmost n ormalw hile you are playing in the first key (C), and then w hen you change keys it w ill soua s if yo u somehow su dde nly cha nge d tu nin gs.

Dropped A

Another nice effect, something w e can call the "Dropped A ." is obtained ifThird Hand is placed on the 7th fret, w ith the bass E and A strings undamped. Then ifyou playas if you were in D , then you actually are in A , but you get a rich, fu ll b

along w ith the sound of the treble chords being played very high on the neck:o c

"ropped-AOrdinarily, if you capo up as far as the 7th fret w ith a norm al capo. you need anotherguitar or som ething for support, since you have very little bass in the guitar sound.this sounds very full, and is a great way to playa song like "Here Comes the Sun"the B eatles, that is u sually played w ith a capo high o n the n eck.


15/30

1 2 THE TI-IIRD HAND CAPO

H igh E

If yo u already play ban jo,or w ant to get som e banjo-like sounds, youca n do any ofse ve ral thin gs. Youcould t ry puttinga Third Hand on the12th fret, w ith o nly thehighE string clam ped, and play inE. You'll have to have the side-support on the bass side,and you may even haveto remove 5 of the discsi f the string height of your guitar ism ore than a certain am ount.This w ay you can drone this highE n ote a gain st n orm alchords played on the other 5 strings, and can geta uniq ue e ffe ctsimilar to the drone5th string of the banjo.

II 2th fret

HighE


16/30


17/30

1 4 THE-THIRD HAND CAPO

ju st p itched 2 frets low er. (Open 0 is D-A -D-F# -A -D, and Open E is E-B-E-G#-B-E.111e fingeringsof cho rds in these1\1,10 tu nin gs a reth e same , in exa ctlythe same mannerthat Open G and Open A both have the same fingerings.)

Open E

, . '

Now when the strings are strummed open,you hear an E chord that soundsabsolutely identical to Open E tuning. But w e don 't have to re-tune. so we can usechords and scales from standard tuning as usual. .The richness and fullnessof the opentuning are present, but so is the familiarity of standard tuning. .

Just as with any open tuning, there are.a certain number of chords that are easilyava ilable thatseem to be used by almost everyone who uses the tuning, and that toth etuning. Usually these chords are easy to play in the open tuning, and very difficult orimpossible in standard tuning. W ith the Third HandE tuning, w e can play these exactsounding chords, and thus im itate exactly the soundof Open E if desired. Of course asalw ays w ith the Third Hand you can still playa lot of normal sounding chords,something that can 't be done always in the open tuning. Some of the more commonOpen E flavored chords are show n here,with their counterparts in theThird Hand

imitation E Tuning:


18/30

A NEW FRONTIER IN GUITAR

# II

EBEGBE EBEGBE

4 .

-

o o o 0

- .~. _Aa d d 9a d d 9 ?

# #

EBEGBE EBEGBE

a - --4 --

?E# #

EBEGBE EBEGBE

. ~

Emaj7

4

--r--

1 5

o o 0

eft. Emaj7

o

?

E

o o o (' o

e{{i

If you try to ' play the chords show n here, youwill no doubt discover that several ofthem require reaching over the capo to fret notes that lie underneath. This is mmuch easier w ith a little practice, -and much much easierif you rem ove entirely thediscs that are not being used. A t first, the idea of reaching over the capo may sebit far-fetched. but it is not that hard once you get used to it, and has the added vof startling observers. There is no real need to do this. since there are alw ays plengood chords available above the capo. but the examples are given to show thatpo ssible and feasible to du plicate n early perfectly the so un d o f rea! O pen E . T herebe people w ho may wantto p lay tu nes that are11 0 1111 3 11 ydone in the open tuning, andhence they w ould w ant to get the exact soundif possible. There are m any John Faheyw nes. for example, that he plays in Open Ear D and that can be done nicely w itThird Hand. There is of course no reason w hy you w ould have to lim it your use oThird Hand to sim ply im itating w hat people now do w ith open tim ings, but it is a gp la ce to sta rt.

Since the Third Hund is holding dow n an E chord here, it is now pretty easy tosome de lta blu es style gu ita r, w ith go od stro ng bo ogie woogie w a lkin g bass lin es.


19/30

16 THETHLRD HAND CAPO

guitarists normally playa great deal in Open E tuning, and now we have a way tachieve much of thesound and mood of the open tuning w ithout the hassles. Andagain , you can use chords andruns from standard tuning,which is this case isa bighelp. One of the reasons that guitarists resist using opentunings in general is that theylose their fam iliarity w ith the fingerboard,an d have to do a lot of w ork learning theirriffs and lines in thenew tuning. If you already know some blues riffs in standardtuning, you can combine them here w ith the fullsound of the open chord, and addawhole new dimension of sound to your bluesplaying.You'll have to do someexperimenting, no doubt, but most guitarists of my experience are alwayexperimenting anyw ay, and one more thingto doodle w ith is actually a bonus.

B6 E ffect

If you tried the "Dropped C" effect discussed earlier and foundit to your liking,then you will want to experiment w ith this variation that uses tw o Third Hands. Puthe first Third Hand on the 4th fret, but leave both the bass E and the A stringsundamped, and then put the other Third Hand2 on the second fret w ith the bassEundamped:

aSixth

This way we get the rich sounding C chord, and also a richer than usual F and Gand a very warm sound overall. A ctually, because of the placement of the capos, theare E, A , and B chords, but again we'll just call them by the names of the chords yoseem to be playin g for sim plicity . Th is co n figu ratio n0 f capos gives you almost an openB6 chord when the strings are strummed open, and is typical of some of the uses of thThird Hand that are not at al1 obvious, even if you have spent some time using thcapos. This one is one of my favorite uses of the Third Hand. Some of the chords tha

you might lise are show n below :

'This makes it a Fourth Hand, right?


20/30

A NEW FRO TIER IN GU ITAR

c

1 7

o 0 o o

~i~ .

~ .

Cdd11

Remember:C is really E; G is really B,etc.

Just as w ith many applications of the Third Hand, the variation on "Dropped Cuseful for playing in other keys thanC. If you play in G (actually B) then you have arich and full G and C bo th, a nd o nly slightly awkward0 and D 7:

X :l. 0 x x 0

o

If you remove the unused discs from the capo, and can learn to reach over the cbar, then you can play good-sounding Em, E, A , Am, and many other chords. Ttakes a bit m ore skill and practicethan some of the other things w e've done, but thereis nothing w rong w ith things in life that require a little skilland practice:


21/30

1 8

Almost O pen B

THE THIRD HA ND CAPO

000

A slightly better way, perhaps, to play in G position here is to alter the capoarrangement to where the high E string is clamped at the 2 nd fret instead of the 4th:

This gives almost an "Open B" tuning effect, and gives a good G, a lovely C, and abetter D than before:

G

Open C

Almost Open B

D

It is a bit harder to imitate the sound of Open C tuning (C-G-C-G-C-E) although itcan be done with three Third Hands:

o 0 o

c


22/30

A N EW FRONTIERTNGUITAR 1 9

This is actually open E tuning but the arrangement of strings creates the flavor of theOpen C tuning. This is not a perfect imitation of open C, because it is pitched 4 fretshigher to E, but it is still simpler than returning to C tuning, which requires loweringthe bass string 4 frets to C, and changing the pitch of three other strings. Try some ofthe chords shown below, and try making up some of your own:

Amaj7

Long A

o 0 o o o 0 o o 0 o

II

0 4 .slsus

Emaj9

o

Esus4

You might also try forming a "long A" chord (below) as a variation on the open Asound, to get a banjo flavor. You will probably want to remove 5 of the discs on the2nd capo, to give you better access to notes that lie under or behind the capo. Thisgives you a reverse banjo, with the short 5 th string in the treble side and you also have

some bass that banjos don't have. Don't expect to sound exactly like a banjo when youaren't playing one.

Long A


23/30

2 0 THETHIRD HAND CAPO

Chapter F our

Useswith Open Tun ings

If you already play in open tunings, you can dosome amazing things w ith the ThirdHand. For example, you can tune the guitar to an open tuning such as A or E, andthen loosen one more string (the musical third of the chord) to make it a minor chord.Then put the Third Hand on the first fretto raise this note bock lip to themajor chord,so that the open strings sound a majorchord w hen strummed open:

EBEGBE EAEACE

-~--

- '-

Em tuniil.g Am Tuning

This way you can playmelody notes againsta drone chord justlike major chord opentunings, but then when you go to play barre chords across the neck, you get a surpriseand get min or cho rds:

EBEGBE EBEGBEII

4t 4U ~ . 4 4t

414 t_ 4 . 4 t 4 Gm Am

This isespecially nifty if you are playing slide guitar in the open tuning,sin ce whenyou chord the strings w ith the slide you get a minorchord at each fret instead of theu su al m ajor chord. You still have an open major chord, and you can easily play majorchords just by adding afinger abo ve the barre:


24/30

A NEW FRON TlER IN GUITAR

EBEGBE EBEGBE

II

-. . . . ~4 '_ 4t 4 t_ 4 ' 4 ,4 '

G A

21

There are also any number of highly specialized ways to use the Third Hand withless common tunings, The idea behind all of the examples below is to tune to some

chord, and then use the Third Hand to give you an open major chord when the stringsare strummed open. These will not be very useful to the average guitar player, but areworth mentioning because they are not the sort of things that you would think ofimmediately, and that can be used to arrange certain songs for special effects, especiallyfor slide players looking for something to play besides blues:

# # :# # _DAD F A C 0 A 0 F A C DAD F A C 0 A D F B o 0 A 0 F C 'E

# b bD G 0 F BOD G 0 F B-O 0 G 0 F BOD GOG B 0 C G C GeE

II

J.J.

- . .jlDmaj luning 0 7 tuning Dm 7 tuning

1-' f-J._ n- I. II

J._--

Gmaj runing G 7 tuning Gm 7tuning

--

I

06

tunin9

J .G tuning

(hanio sound)em tuning


25/30

22 THE TH IRD HA N O CAPO

Chapter F ive

T he F utureThe applications of the Third Hand chord-forming capo that have been presented

here certainly do not include everything that can' be done w ith it. The intent of thebook is just to show the immense usefulness of the Third Hand. andto show that it ca nbe used by anyone to get more and better sounds from their guitar. Much of this bookhas been confined to finding w aysto reproduce sounds that are normally done w ithnon-standard tunings, to save people the trouble of having to retune, but the field isw ide open for experimentation. The using of the Third Hand to imitate the sound ofthe various tunings can be seen as a way of "legitimizing" its lise,to show that it is farmore than just a clever gimmick. An open-minded and clear-thinking guitarist armed

with one or more Third Hands could no doubt invent many more amazing things to do,and even more important, to provide more and better music for the world.

TIle ideas presented here are the result of my own experimentation, w ith a little helpfrom my friends, and by no means represent everything that can be done. So feel freeto put any number of Third Hands on your guitar or banjo in any crazy formations youcan think of, as often as you like, If you find something good, send me a letter.

The only unfortunate thing I see about Third Hand capos is that if recording artlstsstart using them it will make a shambles of the process of trying to learn things fromrecords. It is hard enough to learn from records asit is, and ] urgently suggest toanyone who records w ith a Third Hand that they include something to this effect onthe record jacket to save the fingers and the sanity of the listeners who might be trying

to copy the guitar work. That would only be fair.


26/30

A NEW FRONTIER INGUITAR 23

Append ix A

Shor t C ourse on C apos

The normal capo , o rcapotasto as it used to be called in Italy, has been used forcenturies by guitarists o f all styles and abilities, and still is a subject of greacontroversy. It is used simply to clamp across all six strings to shorten them all thsame amount and hence to raise the pitch of all the no tes being played. Sincechord fingerings are played asif there w ere no capo , it is a w ay of playing as if you w erein one key, and sounding in another, higher-pitched key. There is no know n w ausing a capo to low er the key. There are dozens of different mechan isms for clampstrings that are commercially available, from elastic to springs, scisso r clamC'clamps. buckles, and what have you. Different players have their own favorcapos, and crazy new models come out every year.II is important 10 realize [hal the

Third Hand is totally different from all previous capos, although if can be used as anormal capo.

Fo r e xample , if you had a capo on the first fret and played a song pitched in D, theyou would actually be in Eb , on e fret or half-step higher pitched.

Understanding the theory of capos is easy, and only requ ires memorizing the systhat is used to name musical notes, chords, and keys. For a variety of reasons, mosthem due to the dominance of the keyboard in music, the music no tation system isup to make sense to keyboard players. There are actually tw elve differen t musicalnames in Western music, although many of them have more than one name. Toctave, w hich is the most basic concept in music theory, is divided up into 12 eqpieces called half-steps, semi-tones, o r frets. (The12th fret of your guitar strings isalw ays 12 half-steps or one octave higher pitched than the open strings.) Due to o

reasons, letters of the alphabet are usedto

name the musical no tes, and due to stillo ther reasons on ly 8 letters are used. (The reason for this is related to the reasonthe octave is called an octave.Oct-means 8.) The letters A through G are used, and ona piano they are the w hite keys. The black keys are the sharps and the fiats; each blkey can be named as one half-step higher pitched(# = sharp) o f the w hite key justbelow it, o r one half step low er (b= flat) th an th e white key just aboveit . Thus theblack key betw een C and D can be called c# or also Db. There is no t alw ays a blkey betw een w hite keys asYOLI can readily tell if you stare at a piano , and it is necessaryto memorize where these are. I f y oupiny piano, this is easy, butif you play guitar youjust have to live w ith the system and no t fightit . A ll musical notes on guitar o r piano


27/30


have one of the names shown below. Notes that are an octave or any number ofoctaves apart have the same letter name:

There is no need to discuss the intricacies of this system and to explain when a noteis called Bb and when it is called A #. The point is that all notes, chords, and keys arenamed this way, and i t is important to be able to name the notes and the chords and thekeys thay you are playing in.

The way that all this relates to capos is that you need to be able to count up throughthis letter sequence to know what key you are in. Some country pickers simply refer tohaving the capo on the first fret as "first gear" and the second fret as "second gear" andso on, but this is not accurate enough. The idea is that whatever fret number you havethe capo on simply adds that many half-steps to the pitch of the key you are in. If youwere playing a G chord with the capo on the first fret, then it is actually a G# or A bchord, and likewise if the capo were on the second fret then it would be an A chord.You just simply count lip through the sequence of sharps and flats, remembering thatthere is no sharp or flat between Band C and also between E and F. It is as simple ascounting your fingers.

Got it? The intent of this quick discussion on capos is to make sure that youunderstand normal capos before you take on the Third Hand capos. For some reason,something so very simple and basic as a capo causes all kinds of strange attitudes inpeople. There are thousands of guitarists who use capos all the time, and i t has nothingto do with what you know about guitar. There are total beginners who know very littleat all about guitar who use capos, and there are professionals who have used them for

years. And there are also many thousands of guitarists who insist on calling capos"cheaters" and who somehow think that they are not useful or necessary and are to beshunned by "real" guitar players. 1 don't want to get into a long speech here, but it willsuffice to say that people who think that way are welcome to, but they are missing outon a lot of guitar music by being so closed-minded. There is absolutely no question atall as to whether the capo enables you to do things that YOL l could not do otherwise;since it certainly does. though it can prohibit things also. But if you think capos areworthless, try to play "Freight Train" in C# or the "Deep River Blues" in F#. Unlessyou have 6 fingers, you will need a capo. And now there is a new issue at stake that isgoing to make the subject of' capos even more controversial. And that issue is thesubject of this book: Third Hand chord-forming capos. If people think that normal

capos are "cheaters", wait till they see what these can do.


28/30

A N EW FRON TIER IN G UITA R

Appendix B

For Banjo P1ayers

If you play banjo , you can also use the Third Hand to advantage, although ~ uof course w ant to remove one of the rubber discs, or maybe two, if you have a 5 stcapo already. J t is in teresting to note that the 5th string capo on the banjo works on thesame principle as the Third Hand, since it allow s you to play in different keys w ithchanging the fingerings. ]f you play banjo you w ill probably know that if you simretune the Slh string up to A , for example, and put a capo on the 2nd fret of the otherstrings to play in A , then any chords or licks that involve fretting the 5th string w ill bedifferent from what you would normaI1y do in G . The 5th string capo used by almostall banjo players lets you use the same fingerings w henYOLIcapo up to a new key ..

Actually, the use of the Third Hand w ith the banjo is a very unexplored thing, ahave done only very basic experimenting w ithit. Banjo players use many manydifferent tunings, and it may be possible to duplicate the sound of them w ith a THand. Below are two of the good uses I have found. It is a very good idea to remall the discs that are not in use, and to position the capo as far up on each frepossible to allow you to fret the notes that are under and behind the capo. It seembe really necessary to play under and behindthe Third Hand, and only takes a shorttim e to m aster:

DGBD DGBD

A

I I .

A

Both of these examples are for playing in the key ofD, and they offer a w ay of doso w ithout simply putting a normal capo on the7tl1 fret as is commonly done. The firstexample gives the sound of the common tuning C-G -B-D where the bass D strinlowered 2 frets to C. Try playing the standard banjo tunes like "Reuben 's Train""Soldier's J oy" that norm aIly usc this tuning.

The second example is also a w ay to keep the low string sound while still playhigh on the neck.Try playing "Home Sweet Home" or "W ildwood Flower" w ith thconfiguration. You w ill findit a little strange but not too hard to get used to , to plaunder and over the capo. It is assumed for both these examples that you have astring capo already on your banjo , and in both cases the 5th string capo is shown to beat tile A note. -


29/30

2 6 THE THIRD HAND CAPO

About the A uthor

Harvey Reid has been playing the guitar for 11 of his 25 years, and currentlyte aches, w rites, a nd pe rfo rm s a w ide varie ty o f music. O rigin ally fram the Wa shin gto n,D .C. area, he has travelled exten sively arou nd the cou ntry perfo rm in g.I n a dd itio n toplaying guitar in the classical, country, ragtime, bluegrass, blues and rock styles, healso performs w ith the banjo, mandolin , vio lin . autoharp, bass. and dobra. A fterspending three and a half years teaching guitar at the U niversity of M aryland, he nowperfo rm s in du bs an d scho ols bo th as a solo artist an d w ith variou s singers and grou ps.


30/30

Copyright (C) 1980The Warrnw ater Press9210 Willow Lan e

Adelphi, Maryland 20783

F irst Prin tin g: May,1980

partial-capo-new frontier book 2

Documents