When it comes to transposing on the guitar, it's important to know the musical alphabet (A–G) and the names of the chords you're playing. This helps you understand how moving chords up or down the fretboard changes their pitch.

When using a capo, you're effectively shifting the pitch of open chord shapes. For example, if you play an E minor shape with the capo on the 3rd fret, you're actually playing a G minor chord—because the capo raises the pitch by three semitones.

To play a G minor chord without a capo, you would use a G minor barre chord shape, such as the one rooted on the 3rd fret of the low E string.