I don’t want to use a capo on the bass, what I meant was the chords listed on the cheat sheet are D, A G & Bm, using a capo on the guitar at the fourth fret now the chords sound like F#, C#, B & D# respectively. I guess I’m asking do I need to raise the root notes four semi-tones to compensate for the capo on the guitar?
Eric,
I used the chart that @juli0r posted in the thread earlier.
Sorry that we made it confusing.
Yes!
For it to fit together in a musical way and be in the same scale you have to raise the root in the same way the capo does for the guitar.
You play these as roots to the chords the guitar plays - Those are the raised versions.
So these are the roots to the initial chords if they were played without capo:
And then you just take this form and move it up 4 frets like the capo does:
And you reach the version the guitar plays with capo!
I hope it’s clear now
Thanks!
I assumed the roots were raised and I would have found out when it didn’t sound right. I just wanted to verify.
Thanks to everyone for your help.
OK. So I tried to play the song the first time with the F#, C#, B & D# roots and it fit perfectly. I’m going to work on a simple bass line for it next.
Thanks again to everyone who commented on this thread.
@juli0r had it right - typically, when a guitar chord chart says to capo, all the actual chord names that follow need to be transposed to fit musical reality. (which is one of many reasons guitar players lose touch with reality )
So yes Jerry, the roots should be F#, C#, B, and D#, you got it!
Thanks @JoshFossgreen!
@juli0r You did fine. I’m pretty sure any confusion created lands squarely in my lap.
No worries @juli0r & @eric.kiser. All part of the learning process.