Every open shape at every fret, in one grid — plus the parts a capo calculator never gives you: tap the chord you need and see every capo-and-shape way to play it, or lock the capo where it already sits and get the grip.
Columns are the open shapes your hands already know. Rows are capo positions. Each cell is what the room actually hears — clamp there, play that, sound like this.
| Capo | C | A | G | E | D | Am | Em | Dm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 · open | C | A | G | E | D | Am | Em | Dm |
| 1 | D♭ | B♭ | A♭ | F | E♭ | B♭m | Fm | E♭m |
| 2 | D | B | A | F♯ | E | Bm | F♯m | Em |
| 3 | E♭ | C | B♭ | G | F | Cm | Gm | Fm |
| 4 | E | D♭ | B | A♭ | F♯ | C♯m | G♯m | F♯m |
| 5 | F | D | C | A | G | Dm | Am | Gm |
| 6 | F♯ | E♭ | D♭ | B♭ | A♭ | E♭m | B♭m | G♯m |
| 7 | G | E | D | B | A | Em | Bm | Am |
The classic capo chord chart — call it a cheat sheet, print it, screenshot it. It never changes; only your hands do.
Know the chord, hate the grip? Pick it here and every capo-and-shape way to play it lights up in the chart above.
Major or minor
The chord you need
Tap the chord you need.
The chart said capo 2, or the last song left it there — either way it’s not moving, and somebody just called a chord. Pick where the capo sits and the chord you need to sound, and get the grip. (So — how do you play a G with the capo on the 3rd fret? An E shape. On the 2nd? That’s the interesting one below.)
The capo is on fret
Major or minor
The chord you need to sound
With the capo on 2, G means an F shape — a barre. Closest easy outs: capo 3 for an open E shape, or capo off for open G.
The rule under the hood: grip = chord minus capo. Every fret the capo takes, your shape drops a half-step so the room keeps hearing the same chord — the honest cost is that some chords have no open shape from where you’re clamped, and this says so instead of pretending.
The chart, run backwards: pick the key the chart is written in and the key you actually sing, and get every capo position that keeps your hands in open country — friendliest families first. Some call this the capo transpose chart; it’s the same grid, asked a better question.
The chart is written in
You want it to sound in
A row marked as written plays your chart untouched. Every other row means rewriting the chart into that family’s shapes first — which is exactly what the app does, in one tap.
Clamp a capo at the second fret and play a G shape: the room hears A. The song never moved — your hands did. That’s the entire trick, and it’s why the grid reads in both directions.
Read down a column to see what a favorite shape becomes as the capo climbs: the G shape sounds G at the nut, A at the second fret, B at the fourth. Read it hunting for a cell when you know the chord you need but not a grip you like: F♯m is a barre at the nut, but it’s also capo 2 with an Em shape, or capo 4 with a Dm shape — three ways to say the same thing, and two of them are easy.
It’s also why two players on one stage can be capo’d two frets apart and both be right. One plays A shapes with no capo; the other clamps at 2 and plays G shapes; the room hears one song, in A. Bands do it on purpose — two shape families ring differently, and the blend is bigger than either alone.
One song, one key: this page has you covered. When the whole songbook needs to move — not just one song — that’s what the app is for. SongCharter reads your charts — photos, screenshots, PDFs — and scores every capo position against the actual chords of every song you play.