C A G E D system

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by simpl man

See, this what I’m sayin.

Let’s use the map analogy. A map shows you the roads and the places you may want to go. It doesn’t tell you how to get there. The route you take and where you go is up to you.

Precisely. Nice analogy.

I guess the objection (to pursue the analogy) would be that this map names some places after more familiar places, when they're actually quite different (same shape name for different sound).

Then again, I don't suppose many people get confused between Boston, Massachusetts and Boston, Lincolnshire....

[SunnyDee]

As everyone says, there's nothing to disagree with as far as that patterns exist and it's fine to call those patterns CAGED as it's easy to remember, but I am not at all fond of the way it's often taught. It seems common to just teach "put your fingers here and practice that a lot" even if that's not something you play in any songs or play together, like how many times do you really play all the Cs on the fretboard in music? Yet people play that again and again and others would say they are just learning the positions, but they are also learning the motion, there's no way to avoid it. Other motions could be more useful, like playing all the chords in one key instead of transitioning between random chords or the same chords.

Also, it seems many students come away without having any idea what they are playing. After a year or so of practicing this, I knew one student who still didn't realize that she didn't know how to play any minor chords or even that the CAGED practice she had done included only major chords.

Lastly, it's often taught pretty early on and some of the shapes are a lot harder than others, like the C-shape took a lot longer for me to play (small hands) than others. Developmentally, I'm not sure that learning them and practicing them all at once makes a lot of sense, especially for players with smaller hands.

I, personally, preferred a different way of learning the fretboard, but the CAGED patterns are there and the concept is useful. That's cool.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Bjbny

…The pros seem pretty obvious to me, but I am curious what the knowledgeable people on this sub-forum think are the “cons” of the CAGED system.

Hi Bjbny

Cons? I'm not sure the cons are with the C-A-G-E-D 'system' itself - and there are multiple approaches or systems called C-A-G-E-D. Some of the approaches to implementing it certainly face limitations.

In it's early days, C-A-G-E-D 'specialists' held workshops, printed manuals, and taught people basically to barre anywhere on the neck and play the C-A-G-E-D chords (and minor chords, and variants) anywhere on the neck from a barred position. This was impossible/improbable for small-handed/short-fingered folks. It was billed as a replacement for using a capo (that was a strong point in their selling the system).

Later versions of applying C-A-G-E-D have approached it from a pattern viewpoint and learning to apply it in more of a 'if-you-were-to-barre-here-and-play-this' approach.

Either way, the C-A-G-E-D system is just a tool, and one more way to look at (or explore) the neck. It works great for people who are visually geared, and who are willing to learn (or already have knowledge of) intervals in chords/scales, or the names of specific notes.

Implementing and deploying it as originally taught requires a working knowledge of key transposition on the fly. Visualizing it as a learning-the-neck tool, it requires a working knowledge of notes-on-a-staff or intervals-in-a-scale/chord.