Eli5 CAGED system on guitar
In: 177
Just looking at it, a guitar as 6 strings and at least 12 frets that people frequently play, that might imply a mind numbing array of possible chords to play. So, so many combinations, surely it would take a musical genius to master them.
Instead, if you focus only on the “cowboy chords” – the set of chords played down around the 0th-4th frets and often include several “open” strings. These chords are easy to learn and play and usually Natural and easy to toggle from Major to Minor. The point being there are 5ish “core” chords that all guitar players typically learn in the first few weeks of the instrument, C-A-G-E-D chords.
**I can’t emphasize enough the relationship between these chords being easy to play and learn, their pleasing to hear relationship to each other, and their roll in rock music; like 80% of songs written since Elvis are based on these 5 chords.**
Anywho, the 2nd thing a guitar player learns after being fluent in these chords is that they can all played “in shape” anywhere on the guitar neck, you just need to use a finger (usually your pointer finger) to act as a “barre”, a stop playing on all cords mimicking the “nut” (the top-end of the guitar). It takes some practice and strength but that’s the trick – you can move these 5 chords *anywhere* on the guitar *AND* keep the nice sounding relationship too.
Point being – Rock music *loves* what’s called the “1-4-5” chord progression, if you take “G” as your 1, that would make “C” your 4 and “D” your 5. (Maybe you’re playing “Good Riddance” by Green Day, “Ziggy Stardust” by Bowie, “No Woman No Cry” by Bob Marley, or perhaps “In the Aeroplane over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel?) That’s down at the end as cowboy chords. But if you *pull* the chords all up 4 frets, now your 1 becomes “B”, “E” is your 4 and “F#” is your 5. (“Learn to Fly” by the Foo Fighters, perhaps?) The notes are different, but the progression sounds the same, and it sounds great. This is why 80% of music is written using this progression.
Long Story Short – CAGED is a system of taking 5 easy to play, and useful chords on the guitar and learning how to move them up and down the neck so that you can play any chord, anywhere with minor learning of new shapes
EDIT – for a longer lesson on the importance of the progressions that CAGED unlocks – [Watch This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I)
Each letter in CAGED represents an open chord shape, which means chords that have open strings, low on the neck. These are the first chords we all learn for this reason. They’re easy to play.
Each of those shapes can be slightly modified and moved up the neck to play other chords. The barre chords we all learn early on are mostly E and A shapes that we move up the neck.
So really for most people CAGED is just a concept to help people realize that they can move the C, G, and D shapes up the neck just like they already do with the A and E shapes.
That’s all it is. And personally I don’t find much use for the C and G shapes up the neck. D is great for that though.
The CAGED acronym refers to the five “basic” chord shapes down at the bottom of the neck you learn when you start to play guitar : the C major shape, the A major shape, the G major shape, the E major shape and the D major shape. The CAGED method involves using these same shapes all the way up the neck.
For example, take the C major shape.
e||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
B||–1–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
G||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
D||—–|–2–|—–|—–|—–|
A||—–|—–|–**3**–|—–|—–|
E||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
In a C major chord, the note you normally play with your ring finger (A-string, third fret) is the C, the base note (it’s in bold in the diagram above). So if you move the same shape up two frets, this note will be a D and you will be playing a D major chord instead (the D again in bold in the diagram below) :
e||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
B||—–|—–|–1–|—–|—–|
G||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
D||—–|—–|—–|–2–|—–|
A||—–|—–|—–|—–|–**3**–|
E||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
Note that if you know how to play barré chords **you are already doing this**. The traditional F major barré is the same shape as an E major chord, just moved up one fret to make the base not an F instead of an E.
This is an E major chord (the base note is the open E string):
e||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
B||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
G||–1–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
D||—–|–3–|—–|—–|—–|
A||—–|–2–|—–|—–|—–|
E||—–**|**—–**|**—–**|**—–**|**—–|
And this is an F major chord (the base note is the F on the first fret of the E string):
e||–1–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
B||–1–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
G||—–|–3–|—–|—–|—–|
D||—–|—–|–5–|—–|—–|
A||—–|—–|–4–|—–|—–|
E||–**1**–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
Note how the shape of the chord is the same, all the notes have simply moved up one fret.
To practice CAGED, try to work out how to play each chord using all of the shapes. Try playing a C major chord using a C shape, then using an A shape, then using a G shape, then using an E shape, then using a D shape. To do this, you need to know where the base note is for each “basic chord shape”. They are :
* C : third fret of the A string.
* A : open A string.
* G : third fret of the E string.
* E : open E string.
* D : open D string.
So to use CAGED, you have to know the notes on the lowest three strings of your guitar, and then you just move these shapes around the be in the right place. For C, for instance :
C shape:
e||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
B||–1–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
G||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
D||—–|–2–|—–|—–|—–|
A||—–|—–|–**3**–|—–|—–|
E||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
A shape:
e||—–|—–|–1–|—–|—–|—–|
B||—–|—–|—–|–2–|—–|—–|
G||—–|—–|—–|—–|–5–|—–|
D||—–|—–|—–|—–|–4–|—–|
A||—–|—–|–1–|—–|—–|—–|
E||—–|—–|–**1**–|—–|—–|—–|
G shape:
e||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–5–|
B||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–4–|
G||xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|
D||xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|xxxxx|
A||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–2–|—–|
E||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–**3**–|
E shape :
e||—–|—–|—–|—–|–1–|—–|—–|
B||—–|—–|—–|—–|–1–|—–|—–|
G||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–3–|—–|
D||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–5–|
A||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–4–|
E||—–|—–|—–|—–|–**1**–|—–|—–|
D shape:
e||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–4–|—–|—–|
B||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–5–|—–|
G||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–3–|—–|—–|
D||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|–**1**–|—–|—–|—–|
A||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
E||—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|—–|
This is useful because :
* You can vary your rythm playing by not always using the basic versions of each chord.
* When soloing, you can visualize where the chords your are soloing are on the neck and use the notes which are in the chords.
[removed]
Scrap everything that every other comment has said.
Take a C chord. X-3-2-0-1-0
That is the C chord played in a C shape
Now watch. We will now learn the C chord in the A shape, the G shape, the E shape, and the D shape. This is specifically the order that you can ascend the neck with. That is why it’s called CAGED.
C shape: X-3-2-0-1-0
A shape: X-3-5-5-5-3
G shape: 8-7-5-5-5-8
E shape: 8-10-10-9-8-8
D shape: X-X-10-12-13-12
Notice how at least one string in each shape will share a fret with the shape below it? This is what CAGED is about.
Now then, you can use this with any major chord, you will just have a different starting place. You can also use it with any minor chord, diminished, augmented, whatever.
Caged starts with the idea that chords are built from triads… Triads are built from scales… And every scale has a shape. When you change your position on the fretboard, you can play all the same scales and chords, but the shape changes.
Also that when you move through the positions, the changing shapes stack on top of each other like Tetris pieces. So you can play an Asus11 chord starting with any A on the fretboard – you haven’t memorized a chord, you learned the mechanics.
Caged helps break a stereotype that guitarists face: we notoriously lack the ability to apply abstract music theory (don’t take offense, it’s 100% an earned stereotype). Novice guitarists learn some chords and play tablature. CAGED helps you break through to applying music theory to a guitar. It’ll teach you how to play notes & chords from sheet music, analyze music by ear, and possibly compose.
My goto here is the [Pachelbel Rant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM)
These chords are everywhere. Learn these chords and you can play almost any popular song that people compose.
Pay attention to the *shapes* of those open chords, more than their names. Start with the open C chord, and notice its root note is the C at the 3rd fret of the 5th string.
Now play the same shape as an open A chord, but as a barre chord with its root at that 3rd fret, 5th string C note. This is still a C chord, but it’s shaped like an open A.
Now look at an open G chord. It has three open notes on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th strings, which we can line up with the three notes on our previous A shape, but at the 5th fret instead of being open. This creates another C chord barred at the 5th fret, with a low C at the 6th string’s 8th fret (where the 6th string’s 3rd fret G would be in a normal open G chord shape).
Now look at an open E. It has its root at the open 6th string, so if we slide that up to the C at the 8th fret, we get another barred C chord, this one shaped like an open E. Notice it has another C note at the 3rd string’s 10th fret (where the 3rd string’s 2nd fret E would be).
Now look at an open D, with its root at on the open 4th string. Move that shape up to have its root at the previous shape’s C on the 10th fret, and we have yet another C chord that looks like an open D.
This pattern holds for any chord, and even repeats with another C shape following after the D shape. That’s all the CAGED system is. It’s just a mnemonic to help you remember the order those chord shapes appear across the fret board, to make it easier to find other shapes of a given chord based on an initial shape and position.
This is the way
What no one has mentioned is that in the CAGED system, sure…you have a group of five open chords and all chords are movable to different positions (try to figure out how to move a C chord so it becomes a D), but what they fail to mention is that:
Each of these chords have their own major SCALE patterns. Two of them with the root on the 6th string, two have 5th string roots and one (D) has a 4th string root.
If you learn these major scale patterns, you will be able to cover the
“entire fretboard”
in whatever key you are in. CAGED become the “shape” or pattern you use NOT the key.
Example scales in key of “E”
Ok, the “open” scale actually is based on the E chord shape. At the 2nd position though, E scale is now based on the D chord shape. The fourth position (for key of E) is a C shape. The “A” shape occurs at 7th position. Can you guess what shape comes next? If you guessed G you would be correct.
Here is the sequence EDCAG…of course we could have started at the 4th position and moved up in this sequence CAGED.
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