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Old 09-16-2017, 01:50 PM
ChrisN ChrisN is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SunnyDee View Post
I'm a late-starting self-taught person, too, so I know what you mean with all the confusing info, so this is just my experience figuring it out for myself. The way I see it, the fretboard is laid out the way it's laid out in whatever tuning you use. For me the goal was to learn that layout, to be able to play a scale/octave/chord/whatever anywhere because I know how the fretboard is laid out and I know how a chord or scale would be created using the intervals in that layout. I play, not by memorizing a different shape for each root note or position but by knowing that, for example, a major scale has this interval pattern and the intervals look like this on the fretboard, so I play those no matter where I am on the neck. If you watched that video, you must already know the intervals for major scales and all that, so it's just about learning where those intervals are when you change strings.

To me, CAGED is a lot of memorized shapes, some not very playable for me, but it seems to be, first, about being able to play that shape quickly (muscle memory) and, then, some people learn where notes or chords are from it. To me, the other systems seem the same, just with different shapes.

If you want to learn shapes so that you can play them without thinking, I suspect it doesn't matter which shapes as you'll only really learn ones that prove useful to you as you play certain types of music anyway. If you want to learn the fretboard and how the intervals in the scales fit on to it, you can do whichever shape system you want for that, too, or you can skip the memorized shapes and learn the board and patterns needed in other ways. So, it's about do you want to train your hands to memorize and quickly play certain useful shapes? Or do you want to know how the patterns work so you can play anywhere, but, possibly, more slowly? I'm sure everyone does both to some degree, but these methods seem to focus more on the first one.
I'm trying to efficiently obtain the fretboard knowledge and music-form familiarity I need to learn to enjoyable and most easily play music. If that's particular shapes, fine. If that's knowing how the shapes work so I can play anywhere, fine. It sounds like you're saying it doesn't matter which of the mentioned methods is used, and it seems rick-slo agrees. That suggests the CAGED v. 5-Fret scale controversy should not be impactful to my progress, which is encouraging.

I found additional information in another thread to which you contributed: http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...t=scales+caged
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