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Setup

Instrument

E A D G B E
Capo

Diagrams

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

Playback

Chords sound as

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Capo

Where to capo for B Lydian

Put the capo at fret 6 and play B Lydian using E# Lydian shapes. That is the easiest of the eight positions ranked below, and it is what most players reach for. Against playing B Lydian open, it drops the mean difficulty of the key's seven chords from 5.6 to 3.4 and gains 16 ringing open strings.

The short answer

You want B. Capo 6 and play in E#.

19 open stringsdifficulty 3.4

All eight positions, ranked

Each row transposes B 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
6E# Lydian193.4
4G Lydian193.9
2A Lydian104.4
1A# Lydian154.7
7E Lydian85.2
NoneB Lydian35.6
3G# Lydian45.6
5F# Lydian06.3

What you are playing

The seven chords of B Lydian are B, C#, D#m, E#dim, F#, G#m, A#m — the ones the ranking above is scored against. Their diagrams are on the B Lydian key page.

Capo for a nearby key

Open B Lydian in the capo advisor →