Capo Position Calculator
A capo is a shortcut past barre chords. Clamping it raises everything by that many frets, so the shapes your hands make are lower than the chords that sound — and the trick is finding the position where those shapes happen to be the easy open ones. This works out every option and counts how many easy shapes each one gives you.
What this generator does
Takes a four-chord progression in a given key and works out, for every capo position up to the limit you set, which shapes you would finger — then counts how many of those are easy open chords and recommends the best position.
How to use this tool
- Set how far up the neck you are willing to put the capo.
- Read the sounding progression, then the shapes for each capo position.
- The highlighted row gives the most open shapes.
- Remember the key does not change — only what your hands do.
Understanding the controls
- Highest capo fret
- Between 1 and 11. Past about the seventh fret the frets get narrow and the tone gets thin, so most players stop well before eleven.
- Seed
- Any word reproduces exactly the same key and progression.
Common use cases
- Playing in a singer's key without barre chords
- Finding the easiest shapes for an awkward key like E flat
- Understanding what a capo actually does to the chords
- Working out a capo position from a chord chart
- Setting the same progression twice from a seed
How this generator works
A capo raises the pitch by its fret number, so the shape you finger must be *lower* than the chord that sounds by exactly that many semitones — which is the source of most confusion about capos. The check verifies that relation for every option, not just the recommended one: each shape transposed up by the capo position must give back the chord that was asked for.
Randomness and fairness
The key and progression are random; the capo arithmetic is exact. A seed reproduces the same progression exactly and is therefore explicitly not cryptographically secure. Without a seed the browser's cryptographically secure generator is used.
For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.
Limitations and good to know
- A common four-chord progression rather than a song you supply.
- Easy shapes are counted as the five open major shapes; minor and seventh shapes are also playable open and are not counted.
- Chords are named by root only, so major and minor quality is not tracked through the transposition.
- A capo changes tone as well as position — higher up, the guitar gets brighter and thinner, which no calculation captures.
- Progressions are not stored between visits; seed one you want again.
Privacy and your data
Every option is computed in your browser. Nothing about the progression or your seed is transmitted or kept.
Related generators
- Fretboard Note FinderEvery place a note appears on the neck, in any tuning, worked out by counting semitones rather than read from a chart.
- Harmonic Series CalculatorThe partials above a fundamental, with how far each sits from the nearest note on a piano — the seventh is famously 31 cents flat.
- Chord Voicing GeneratorVoices a progression in four parts so each voice moves as little as it can, with parallel fifths and octaves detected rather than assumed away.
- Chord Chart TransposerTransposes a pasted chord chart by any number of semitones without touching the words, and works out where the capo goes for every position.
- Time Signature ConverterHow many bars of one time signature equal a passage in another, with the total duration proved unchanged.