Where to capo for Ab Aeolian
Put the capo at fret 4 and play Ab Aeolian using Fb Aeolian shapes. That is the easiest of the eight positions ranked below, and it is what most players reach for. Against playing Ab Aeolian open, it drops the mean difficulty of the key's seven chords from 5.2 to 3.4 and gains 11 ringing open strings.
You want Ab Aeolian. Capo 4 and play in Fb Aeolian.
All eight positions, ranked
Each row transposes Ab Aeolian down by that many frets to find the shapes your hand would actually make, then scores the best voicing of all seven chords — fewer fingers, less stretch, closer to the nut, fewer muted strings. Lower is easier. Standard tuning (E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4).
| Capo | Shapes you play | Open strings | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Fb Aeolian | 19 | 3.4 |
| 2 | Gb Aeolian | 14 | 4.3 |
| 7 | Db Aeolian | 10 | 4.4 |
| 6 | D Aeolian | 15 | 4.7 |
| None | Ab Aeolian | 8 | 5.2 |
| 5 | Eb Aeolian | 3 | 5.6 |
| 1 | G Aeolian | 6 | 5.6 |
| 3 | F Aeolian | 2 | 6.2 |
What you are playing
The seven seventh chords of Ab Aeolian are Abm7, Bbm7b5, Cbmaj7, Dbm7, Ebm7, Fbmaj7, Gb7 — the ones the ranking above is scored against. Explore this key on the Ab Aeolian key page.