Does the guitar capo bring us closer to God?

Before we begin, the capo used on a guitar should not be confused with a high ranking member or the mafia. Although that capo can shorten things it generally isn't guitar strings for the purposes of making sweet music.

You have to love Wikipedia. Is it true? Who knows! Probably! Am I going to quote it? Of course! According to the people's encyclopedia a capo is "a clamp-like device used on the neck of a stringed instrument to shorten the strings, hence raising the pitch...Various styles of capos use different mechanisms, but most use a rubber-covered bar to hold down the strings, clamped with a strip of elastic or nylon, a metal clamp, spring clamp, or screw clamp."

The guitar is an amazing instrument. With an instrument like, say, the piano, most of the workings are hidden away. You press the key down and it makes a sound. Next time you're next to a piano, open the lid and take a look. You'll be amazed at the science of it all. The guitar, however, wears its heart on its sleeve. The 'science' is there in all its simple glory, right in front of you. You have to be a scientist to play a guitar: you have to understand the principle of shortening a metal string to raise the pitch, to know how hard you strum affects the rate of vibration. So to be an amazing guitarist, you can't just be very creative. You have to have a certain scientific acumen that walks hand in hand with creativity. If I was on Twitter typing this (140 characters? eek!) I'd probably add a tag saying #scienceandcreativitybringusclosertogod, because those kinds of guitarists generally produce technically correct, logical and ultimately emotive music.

Blimey I do ramble on don't I? This was going to be a short post about how the capo makes my life easier by giving me more options on the guitar. The simplicity of its science makes it a doddle to use and you can be playing in keys you wouldn't have considered before. However, I've got to the end of this post thinking that maybe it isn't the capo that is a wonder of science, it's the guitarist. Happy strumming everyone.