How to know what key a guitar is in?

googler

Anywhere you put a capo will raise the pitch, not drop it.

The standard tuning is outlined above, and there's no way you can use a capo to give you C below the standard E.

blackstar

Thanks, I have my guitar tuned to drop A now, what guitar fret can I put the capo to play the normal standard ie E, A, D, G, B, E? rather than having to tune back to standard each time I go between playing a song in Drop A and the standard keys? thanks again!

googler

blackstar wrote: »

Thanks, I have my guitar tuned to drop A now, what guitar fret can I put the capo to play the normal standard ie E, A, D, G, B, E? rather than having to tune back to standard each time I go between playing a song in Drop A and the standard keys? thanks again!

If you have every string 7 semitones below standard, you put the capo on 7th fret. Put another way, If first and sixth strings are both A below regular E, and all others are at the relative pitches inbetween corresponding to standard tuning, i.e. they're all 7 semitones low, then fret 1 will give you A#, fret 2 B, as follows;

1 - A#
2 - B
3 - C
4 - C#
5 - D
6 - D#
7 - E

Can you tell us why you're doing this? 99.99% of guitarists leave the tuning alone, and still manage to play in different keys without retuning. Are you playing standard songs? If so, what are they?

SunReader

blackstar wrote: »

Thanks, I have my guitar tuned to drop A now, what guitar fret can I put the capo to play the normal standard ie E, A, D, G, B, E? rather than having to tune back to standard each time I go between playing a song in Drop A and the standard keys? thanks again!

Don't work like that - using correct terminology the 'drop' A is a non standard tuning, so wherever you put the capo it will still be a drop tuning...if you mean you dropped the low E string down to an A, then you would put the capo on the 7th fret and pretend the capo is the nut and you are back to stadard E tuning.

Judging by your username are you a metalhead? drop tunings are used a lot on 6 and 7 string guitars, but if I were you I'd stick to standard tuning in the beginning. Beware that if you have an axe in drop B tuning and fat strings, you will need thinner strings totune it up to standard without straining the neck and messing up your intonation.

Over the years I have tuned from E sharp to B, but every string is in tune relative to the bottom string. I prefer D for metal.

As a beginner, remembering the fret positions is a challenge and a capo will just confuse you more imo. good luck and enjoy:beer: