A capo (/ˈkeɪpoʊˌ kæ-ˌ kɑː-/ KAY-poh, KAH-; short for capodastro, capo tasto or capotasto [ˌkapoˈtasto], Italian for "head of fretboard")[a] is a device a musician uses on the neck of a stringed (typically fretted) instrument to transpose and shorten the playable length of the strings—hence raising the pitch. It is a common tool for players of guitars, mandolins, mandolas, banjos, ukuleles and bouzoukis. The word derives from the Italian capotasto, which means the nut of a stringed instrument. The earliest known use of capotasto is by Giovanni Battista Doni who, in his Annotazioni of 1640, uses it to describe the nut of a viola da gamba.[1] The first patented capo was designed by James Ashborn of Wolcottville, Connecticut year 1850.[2]
Musicians commonly use a capo to raise the pitch of a fretted instrument so they can play in a different key using the same fingerings as playing open (i.e., without a capo). In effect, a capo uses a fret of an instrument to create a new nut at a higher note than the instrument's actual nut.[3]
"Raising the pitch" means to make a sound higher in frequency, essentially making it sound higher or more acute, like when you raise your voice to ask a question, where the pitch at the end of the sentence goes up; in music, it would mean playing a note higher on the scale.
The nut of a stringed instrument is a small piece of hard material that holds the strings at the top of the neck.
fingering1
/ˈfɪŋɡ(ə)rɪŋ/
noun
a manner or technique of using the fingers, especially to play a musical instrument.
"he once studied keyboard fingering"
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