How to Use a Capo on a Dulcimer Guitar (Without Losing Your Mind or Your Tuning)

How to Use a Capo on a Dulcimer Guitar (Without Losing Your Mind or Your Tuning)

If capos confuse you, annoy you, or send your dulcimer completely out of tune… you’re not alone. Today we’re going to fix that.

I’m walking you through the whole deal:

• what a capo really does 
• which styles work best for dulcimer guitars 
• why some of them squeeze your strings like a hydraulic press 
• and how to actually get clean, in-tune notes with one on

I’ll show you a few different types—spring-loaded, adjustable, “missing-tooth” capos—and talk about why I love (and really don’t love) certain designs. Spoiler: tension matters way more than anything else.

By the end, you’ll know how to place a capo, how to tune after you clamp it on, and how to use it to open up a whole new creative headspace. It changes the tonal center of the dulcimer in a really cool way… and your fingers will do the familiar shapes while your ears go, “Wait… that’s new.”

Stick around for the practice tip at the end. It’s simple, but it’ll help you get comfortable with a capo faster than anything else.

Enjoy—and let me know in the comments what capo YOU like, or if you’ve found one that works great on a dulcimer guitar. I’m always curious. 

 

TIMESTAMPS: 

00:00 – Welcome 
00:14 – What a capo actually does 
00:40 – Why pressure matters more than anything
01:00 – The strong spring capo (and why I avoid it) 
02:00 – Shubb-style capo demo 
02:24 – Screw-style adjustable capo 
03:55 – How to place your capo for clean notes 
04:43 – Yes, you really should retune 
06:00 – The “missing tooth” capo 
06:57 – A quick practice exercise once it’s on 
07:55 – Capo on the Merlin 
08:30 – How it shifts the dulcimer’s tonal center 
09:30 – Wrap-up + question for you

 

Free Lessons & Resources  

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► https://bit.ly/start-dulcimer

 

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