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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

Playback

Chords sound as

Accessibility

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Capo

Where to capo for F Lydian

Put the capo at fret 5 and play F Lydian using C Lydian shapes. That is the easiest of the eight positions ranked below, and it is what most players reach for. Against playing F Lydian open, it drops the mean difficulty of the key's seven chords from 3.4 to 3.4 and gains 0 ringing open strings.

The short answer

You want F. Capo 5 and play in C.

19 open stringsdifficulty 3.4

All eight positions, ranked

Each row transposes F 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
5C Lydian193.4
NoneF Lydian193.4
3D Lydian144.3
7Bb Lydian154.7
1E Lydian85.2
6B Lydian35.6
2Eb Lydian65.6
4Db Lydian26.2

What you are playing

The seven chords of F Lydian are F, G, Am, Bdim, C, Dm, Em — the ones the ranking above is scored against. Their diagrams are on the F Lydian key page.

Capo for a nearby key

Open F Lydian in the capo advisor →