Capo
Where to capo for C major
Put the capo at fret 5 and play C major using G major shapes. That is the easiest of the eight positions ranked below, and it is what most players reach for. Against playing C major open, it drops the mean difficulty of the key's seven chords from 3.4 to 3.4 and gains 0 ringing open strings.
You want C. Capo 5 and play in G.
19 open stringsdifficulty 3.4
All eight positions, ranked
Each row transposes C major 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).
What you are playing
The seven chords of C major are C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim — the ones the ranking above is scored against. Their diagrams are on the C major key page.