#Capo key chart full
#Capo key chart free

So by using a capo at the third fret in DAd, you can play in the key of G just the same as if you were in DAA tuning playing in D. In DAd tuning, starting with the capo at the third fret, (and ignoring the 6+ fret) the G-Ionian scale has the notes G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G.

#Capo key chart free

The capo simply clamps all the strings down at a fret, leaving your hands free to play melody as you wish, without having to worry about holding down the drones with two of your fingers. So if we had a way of holding these two strings down at the third fret while we play the melody string scale based on the third fret, we can play Ionian mode tunes in the key of G while in DAd tuning. If you look back up at the fretboard map, you see that these are the notes on the bass and middle strings stopped at the third fret. The notes required for drones in the key of G are the G (of course) and a D. Of course, the drones would be wrong, so we’d never really want to do this in practice. By the same token, we can play an Ionian scale in the key of G while tuned to DAD, simply by starting at the third fret of the melody (or of the bass) string. Notice that if you use the 6+ fret instead of the 6 fret, you can play an Ionian scale in D from the open melody string in DAd tuning.

Whiskey Before Breakfast is an example of an Ionian Mode tune. This is the standard “do-re-mi-…” major scale. In the key of D, the notes are D-E-F#-G-A-B-C# and D again for the octave. The sequence of whole and half steps for an Ionian scale is W-W-h-W-W-W-h. You can see this by looking up at the middle string of the figure above. Why? Because the Key note is D (the bass string), so the third fret of A string is where the “D” is. If you were to tune to DAA, the so called “Ionian tuning” the scale starts on the third fret. This is why DAd tuning is often called “Mixolydian tuning.”

Therefore you want the start of the scale to be a “D” as well. If you were to play in the traditional, dronal style, and wanted to play one of these tunes in the key of D, you’d tune to DAd, because the because the key note is D (The bass string) and the mixolydian scale starts on the open string (or zero fret). Looking at the note names, we can see that the notes in a D-mixolydian scale are D-E-F#-G-A-B-C and the octave is D. The mixolydian mode’s sequence of Whole and half steps is W-W-h-W-W-h-W. Old Joe Clark and Going to Boston are examples of mixolydian mode tunes. In the case of DAd tuning, if we play only on the melody string, without using the 6+ fret, and allow the other strings to drone unfretted, we play tunes in the mixolydian mode. If we ignore the 6+ fret,Īnd start on the open melody string, playing each note up the scale in succession, we play a mixolydian scale. Here’s a picture of a fretboard with DAd tuning indicated on it. A mode then, is simply an arrangement of whole and half steps in such a way as to end up at the octave after seven steps. Usually, when we talk about modes and the dulcimer, we’re talking about the heptatonic (seven note) “Church Modes” that were first described by the Swiss scholar Glareanus in 1547.

#Capo key chart full

Definitionīut first, what is a “mode” anyway? Basically, a mode is a way of playing a musical scale from one arbitrarily chosen note increasing in pitch until you reach a note one full octave above the original. To play in different keys, to change from major to minor or any of the other modes required actually retuning the instrument. With its diatonic fret pattern only under the melody string, and drones tuned to play the key note and a note a fifth above the bass drone, it was difficult to impossible to play in anything resembling the modern multi-modal or chordal styles. Bouzouki music tabs.In its original, traditional form, the Appalachian, or Mountain, Dulcimer is a modal instrument.