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Instrument

E A D G B E
Capo

Diagrams

Chords shown as
Chord numbers
Shape difficulty
Fret numbers counted
Playing hand

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Chords sound as

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Capo

Where to capo for Ab Lydian

Put the capo at fret 3 and play Ab Lydian using F Lydian shapes. That is the easiest of the eight positions ranked below, and it is what most players reach for. Against playing Ab Lydian open, it drops the mean difficulty of the key's seven chords from 5.6 to 3.4 and gains 15 ringing open strings.

The short answer

You want Ab. Capo 3 and play in F.

19 open stringsdifficulty 3.4

All eight positions, ranked

Each row transposes Ab Lydian 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).

CapoShapes you playOpen stringsDifficulty
3F Lydian193.4
1G Lydian193.9
6D Lydian144.3
4Fb Lydian85.2
5Eb Lydian65.6
NoneAb Lydian45.6
7Db Lydian26.2
2Gb Lydian06.3

What you are playing

The seven chords of Ab Lydian are Ab, Bb, Cm, Ddim, Eb, Fm, Gm — the ones the ranking above is scored against. Their diagrams are on the Ab Lydian key page.

Capo for a nearby key

Open Ab Lydian in the capo advisor →