Where to capo for Ab Phrygian
Put the capo at fret 4 and play Ab Phrygian using Fb Phrygian shapes. That is the easiest of the eight positions ranked below, and it is what most players reach for. Against playing Ab Phrygian open, it drops the mean difficulty of the key's seven chords from 4.4 to 3.4 and gains 9 ringing open strings.
You want Ab Phrygian. Capo 4 and play in Fb Phrygian.
All eight positions, ranked
Each row transposes Ab Phrygian 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 Phrygian | 19 | 3.4 |
| 2 | Gb Phrygian | 19 | 3.9 |
| 7 | Db Phrygian | 14 | 4.3 |
| None | Ab Phrygian | 10 | 4.4 |
| 5 | Eb Phrygian | 8 | 5.2 |
| 6 | D Phrygian | 6 | 5.6 |
| 1 | G Phrygian | 4 | 5.6 |
| 3 | F Phrygian | 0 | 6.3 |
What you are playing
The seven seventh chords of Ab Phrygian are Abm7, BbbMaj7, Cb7, Dbm7, Ebm7b5, FbMaj7, Gbm7 — the ones the ranking above is scored against. Explore this key on the Ab Phrygian key page.