CAGED: Your Ticket to Becoming a Better Guitar or Bass Player

Recently, a friend of mine decided to take up the guitar. Naturally, he asked me for some advice to improve his playing. Without hesitation, I said, “Learn the CAGED system.”

I pointed him there because learning CAGED all those years ago improved my playing drastically in an astonishingly short amount of time.

CAGED

The CAGED system blew my mind when I learned it. It is based on the shapes of the five open major chords available in standard tuning. (We don’t count B or F because they are barre chords)

In this diagram, the numbers represent which fingers to use — not the interval.

We call each of these basic chords shapes. The neat thing about these shapes is that they are movable; take your open E chord, play it as a barre chord on the fifth fret and you are playing an A chord (with an E shape).

The mind-blowing thing about these shapes is that they fit together. These shapes connect to each other perfectly to cover the entirety of the fretboard. The upper section of an A shape is actually the lower section of a C shape. The upper section of a C shape is the lower section of a D shape (like everything else in music, the pattern is cyclical).

The two criteria to determine which shape you are using are:

Which string the root is on
Which finger is covering the root

Root on the 6^th string covered with the pointer finger is the E-shape. Root on the 6^th string covered with the pinky finger is the G-shape. The trick is to pivot on the root notes in order to access the next shape.

The highlighted roots indicate a G Major pentatonic pattern in this context.

From these basic major shapes, you can derive all other chord types and scales by filling in and altering notes. That first pentatonic scale you learned? It’s a minor E shape (or a major G shape – it depends on the context). You can play that same pentatonic scale in each of the other shapes in CAGED (and you should – each shape has its own personality and lend themselves to different phrasings and licks.)

Conclusion

As you internalize this system, you’ll find yourself moving in and out of each of the shapes – and that’s how you effortlessly move up and down the fretboard.

In the next article, I’ll examine how to alter and overlay each of these shapes in a single 5-fret area, or zone in order to follow chord progressions without having to move your hand more than a fret or so.

Now get off the internet and PRACTICE!

-Chris Lazaga
AudioMunk