Capos

Capos are devices that performers clamp onto the necks of fretted instruments to depress strings at a single fret position. This raises the sounding pitch of open strings affected by the capo, allowing performers to use the same fingerings and chord shapes but produce higher pitches.

In Dorico SE, you can allow capos to affect your notated music in the following ways, independently of each other:

• You can change the pitches shown on tablature by adding capos to fretted instruments. Dorico SE treats capos as fret 0 for fret numbers on tablature. Capos added to individual fretted instruments appear at the corresponding fret position and crossing the specified strings in the Edit Strings and Tuning dialog and in the Fretboard panel.

• You can change fretted instrument transpositions to reflect capos or detuned fretted instruments, and optionally allow fretted instrument transpositions to affect pitches on notation staves and in main chord symbols.

• You can define capos for chord symbols/diagrams in the music and/or used chord diagrams grids, and show only main chords, only capo chords, or both.

For example, you can show capo pitches on tablature but show sounding pitches on notation staves. You can also show both main and capo chords in chord symbols in layouts that do not contain a fretted instrument, such as when creating lead sheets in vocal part layouts.