The Basics: The"Dropped E" Partial Capo

The easiest thing to do with a partial capo is to just clamp the top 5 strings at the 2nd fret. All it changes is what happens on your bass E string. When you play a D chord, it sounds an E, and you get to play the open bass E (which works like Dropped D tuning.) But when you play a G chord, you play normally, basically forget the capo is there, and you get a "normal" A chord.

Instrumental with the Now-Common "Esus" Partial Capo

This is flavored with classical guitar and fiddle tunes, and was written in 1982. Played in D position, it uses some of the cascading harp-like scales (Part 3 of this Suite uses a lot of this technique) and shows how you can play quick melodies in the treble, with supporting chords, and also move some bass lines. The ability to play baroque-style counterpoint, with a ringing drone sound (also without a loss of tone from the slack strings) of an open tuning is one of the striking features of the partial capo.

Minor Key Slide With the "A Minus" Partial Capo

A very clever way to play minor-key slide. Tune the guitar to an Am chord (actually an Abm) and then you capo 5 of the strings, and since the musical 3rd of the chord is on the B string, not capoing it allows the open strings to sound an Am chord. But every time you put the slide down above the capo, it makes a major chord! I can't believe more slide (and dobro) players have not stolen this idea from me in over 30 years. This is the long-out-of-print original version from the LP.

Play Beethoven Precisely With the "E Minus" Partial Capo

The same basic idea as the previous one, except the tuning is Open Eb and the flat 3rd is on the G string. "E-minus" is far more musically useful and versatile than "A-minus." Here I transcribed note-for-note from the piano. All other published guitar arrangements change some of the notes to fit them on guitar. I also use this capo set-up on a number of very cool guitar pieces like Sly Damsel Serenade, Wayfaring Stranger & Scarborough Fair. (those cuts on iTunes)

Blues Song With the "Woodie's G-Band Model 1" Partial Capo

If you tune to Open C tuning (C-G-C-G-C-E) and then capo the 1st string at the first fret (what I call the "Csus Plus" effect), magical things happen, and the chords I have always wanted to find for this pentatonic blues classic appear. You can play melodies in 3 octaves, plus all sorts of cool chord voicings. Great also for celtic music. AVAILABLE ON ITUNES

Bluegrass Flatpicking With the "Half-Open A" Partial Capo

I'm a much better fingerpicker than a flatpicker, but this proves that partial capos have value for bluegrass. (This is largely cross-picked, done with a Herco heavy nylon flatpick.) You play in C position (and sound in D), so the chords you play are just C, F and G. The top 4 strings play normally, but when the song goes to the 5 chord (feels like G, sounds like A) where it spends a lot of time, you've got an open tuning on the bottom 5 strings, which you can really hear working.

Slide Delta Blues with the "Half-Open A Slide" Effect

People who play old-fashioned blues are probably not adventurous enough to try this, but it lets you get the sound of an open tuning and play slide in A by only re-tuning one string. You drop the high E down to D, then the capo makes the open strings play an A major chord. When you play the bottom 5 strings, it feels like standard tuning, but when you play the top 4, it feels like Open A. A very quick, and easy-to adapt-to way to play slide blues in A.

FIngerpicked Fiddle Tunes in Esus

This was the first year I toured with my Taylor 810 guitar, which intonated beautifully and played like butter. I worked up a bunch of fancy fingerpicking things like this, including a transcription of Pierre Bensusan's lovely Flax in Bloom, which he of course did in DADGAD tuning. I remember learning it both ways and deciding that it was easier with the Esus capo. In Esus, you get the scales from standard tuning, the drone of the open strings, and the bass notes you need are usually nearby.

The First Track Ever Released in "Asus" Partial Capo

I have been using A suspended capo configuration since 1980 when I first thought of it, and this is the first track I recorded with it. I am now telling the world about it, since a lot of players have had a lot of years to find all the things to do with their Esus, 3-string capos. (They all missed this one, and it is one of the very best. My Capo Voodoo Book shows a lot more clever ways to use an Esus capo.) You capo an A chord, then tune the B string up to C. It's a litte hard to get used to, and it's probably for "better players" but this song is not hard. I didn't solo because they were done by other instruments later.

Use a Partial Capo & Make a 6-String Banjo Sound Like a 5-String

It's pretty lonesome to do this, since people see you playing a "banjo" and they hear "banjo" without realizing that it is done in a completely weird way on an instrument tuned like a guitar. I use 3 fingerpicks, a bare thumb, with a full capo at fret 5 and an Open A capo at fret 7. I have done this "faux-frailing" technique for almost 25 years and as far as I know no one has copied it, which is too bad. It works. AVAILABLE ON ITUNES

Some Dreamy 12-String

I started Woodpecker Records in Palo Alto CA in 1982. WIndham Hill Records was next to me in the phone book, and was also a 1-man label with a single LP of solo guitar music. (Will Ackerman) They took off and sold millions of records, and in the early 1980's I made a bunch of improvised home recordings of dreamy "noodling" fingerpicking to show that I knew how to do that new age stuff too.I never did anything with any of the tracks except grumble. I used a 1967 Gibson B-45 12-string on this track I just sold. I have no idea how I played this piece.