Capo o'clock

I recently had a discussion with one of my local church band leaders who loves a capo. I've never really bothered with capos, I know where all the chords are in an open position and I can pick the root 6 and root 5 barre chords up the neck for variance. I've never felt that I need to go for a capo unless the song is in Bb or Eb - I don't like hanging onto those chords for a whole song!

The song in question was in A, but he really wanted me to play it in G with a capo at 2. The main chords used in the song were G, Csus2, Dsus4, Em7. If you can picture this in your head, basically you are holding you pinky/ring finger on the top 2 strings third fret (which is 5th fret from an absolute point of view) the entire time. That would be what the song writer would have been thinking - obviously a guitarist - so without the capo it would lose that droney feel on the top.

This made me think that I should be more considerate about using a capo. And certainly in a band situation - if the keys are sitting there around middle C and I am strumming around middle C, were are competing for the same space and washing each other out. I think that sometimes that's fine, because the tone of the guitar is quite different to the tone of the keys, and I do like a low E to be available... But I can see when capo'ing up the neck you can create voicings that will be far more complimentary to the song.

He came up with a chart, kind of a suggested capo location for the various keys. I've thought about it further and come up with the following, using the shapes you get primarily from G, C and E, with some A and D in case you are looking for a different sound.

Key	Option 1			Option 2
	Capo	Key	Notes	Capo	Key	Notes
C	0	C	Classic, rich, easy	5	G	Bright, airy, sparkle
C#	1	C	Easy^	6	G	Avoid unless layering sparkle
D	2	C	Prettier voicings	0	D	Classic sounds*
Eb	3	C	Sweet voicings^	1	D	Warm, easy^
E	0	E	Full, punchy	2	D	Sweeter sounds
F	1	E	Easy+	3	D	Sweeter sounds**
F#	2	E	Easy+	4	D	High texture, chimey
G	0	G	Classic, expressive	5	D	Avoid unless layering sparkle
G#	1	G	Easy	6	D	Avoid unless layering sparkle
A	2	G	Jangly sounds	0	A	Easy
Bb	3	G	Jangly sounds^	1	A	Easy^
B	4	G	Bright, clear, spacious	2	A	Easy, full sound

^ Do this as a minimum - don't attempt no capo for this key
* Fret F# with your thumb on the low E for D chord or Drop D tuning can add depth.
+ I'm okay playing these in the open position, depends on the song.
** To really add clarity and sparkle, a third option would be capo 5 in C.