The CAGED system

[BKinBWa]

You know, I’ve been trying to understand, explore, study the CAGED system, but I gotta say, I’m just not getting it! I understand about movable chord shapes up the neck, but I just don’t see the purpose, the value of knowing this stuff. Can someone point me in the right direction? I’ve looked at a couple of YouTube videos and done some reading. I guess I would like an explanation of why this is considered an important thing to know. What is it good for? Maybe some of you could direct me to a good learning source?
Thank you,
BKinBWA

[Doug Young]

CAGED is one of those things that sounds more complex than it is. What's it for? One you understand it, you can find a chord shape for any basic chord at 5 different spots on the neck, so pretty much everywhere. Most of those chord shapes aren't necessarily what you might choose to play, but if you can visualize them, and if you know the scale shape associated with each of them, then it's easy to be able to play lead lines anywhere on the neck in any key.

There's a lot less magic to it than all the attended CAGED gets makes it appear, and depending on your playing style, may not be useful to you at all. For fingerstyle, I find knowing triad inversions far more useful. If you're struming chords in 1st position, it's not useful at all. When I played electric and "lead guitar", CAGED was useful, but you sort of stop really thinking about CAGED and just know where the chords/scales are after a while.

[standup]

I’ve been watching videos by Eric Haugen for a while, and everything he does ties in to using those CAGED chord shapes.

His guitar parts flow all the way up and down the whole neck, and the CAGED shapes help you figure out where you are. Move your hand up 3 frets, and if you know this stuff you’ll be able to see what notes are available, and why.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by BKinBWa

You know, I’ve been trying to understand, explore, study the CAGED system, but I gotta say, I’m just not getting it! I understand about movable chord shapes up the neck, but I just don’t see the purpose, the value of knowing this stuff.

It's a way of learning the fretboard. You don't have to learn the fretboard, if you're happy strumming chords in open position!
But most guitarists do get the urge to wonder how it all works in that mysterious region above fret 5....

The point about CAGED is it's not really a "system" at all, at least not in the essentials. It's an observation about the shapes used to create major chords. (all 12 major chords are made using 5 shapes in different positions.)

I.e., all beginners learn those five shapes in open position: C, G, D, A, E. But it only takes a little experimenting with capos higher up the neck to see how those shapes recur. E.g., I discovered this "system" for myself, when I noticed that you could play an F chord with a "C" shape on fret 5. Capo fret 5, play a "C" shape, and out comes an F chord. Hey, that's a lot easier than that awful barre shape down on fret 1! Even without the capo, I found it easier to play x-8-7-5-6-5 than 1-3-3-2-1-1. (That's a sign of (a) how early in my career I discovered this and (b) how crap my first guitar's action was...).
And then you might notice that capo on 3 and playing an A shape gives you the sound of a C chord. Like the barre 3-3-5-5-5-3 does. And you also get a C sound from a G shape with capo on 5. 8-7-5-5-5-8 = G shape, C sound.

Also that F chord is really an "E" shape that's been moved up 1 fret. And the same barre shape is a G sound on fret 3, an A on fret 5, and a C on fret 8.

It's not so much that I realised this was a "system". I didn't have that kind of revelation, no "wow" moment. It was just how the fretboard was obviously organised. Nothing magical or complicated about it. Nothing that seemed so amazing that it was worth writing books about.... (I didn't even discover that someone had called it "the CAGED system" until many years later.)

And It was also obvious (for me anyway) that it went beyond the chord shapes into scales. I knew (e.g.) my C major scale in open position. I saw how it fitted around the C chord shape. So it was a no-brainer to be able to fit the same scale pattern around that shape when it was moved up the neck. If I wanted (say) an Eb major scale (for some strange reason...), I didn't need to know the notes. I just positioned my "C" shape on fret 3 (I knew where the Eb root was, fret 6 on string 5) and filled in the scale around the chord shape.
The same could be done for other scales, because I'd already learned the major scales in open position. (I was teaching myself all this, mainly by playing songs in all these keys.)

IOW - in short - provided you work from what you know, it all makes sense. There is no secret, no magic. (Lots of CAGED lessons have such clickbaity titles.) It's a map of the fretboard, using shapes you should already be very familiar with. Don't overthink it. It should be staring you in the face, and if it isn't, it doesn't matter. Eventually it will become plain, and you'll wonder what all the fuss is about - for the opposite reason! (Not that it's baffling, but that it's obvious.)

[Silly Moustache]

Hi, CAGED Is simply a way of finding different "chords" in different places on the fretboard - in those C,A,G,E, and D "shapes"

Personally I find that "fretting a G and a C shape over six strings when not in 1st position rather uncomfortable, but as a basic Major (or minor) chord only needs three notes,
you don't "have" to play it over all six strings.

The "shapes" of those five chords can be used to find five different places along the fretboard to play the same "chord".

I'm not very proud of this old video but watch it and see if you get something from it.

[Silly Moustache]

Ok folks, As I said, I was never really happy with my video about CAGED above, and maybe I should redo it, but I've long been a fan of the Dutch guy Paul Davids.

I think his video is the best explanation of this.

(It always amazes me that Dutch folk seem to speak better English than we Brits!! (and I love the way he says "fingers"

Have a look at his vid :

[Mr. Jelly]

https://www.premierguitar.com/lesson...-system-guitar

I never learned the cage system though I know the information. Because of this thread I looked it up to get a better idea of what it is. I always thought it was mostly about scales. It looks like a fine system to learn from. My only complaint would be that it genericizes the peoples sound that learn from it.

It would be good information for people wanting to go further than playing songs and want to do more.

[rllink]

I read a few articles on the CAGED system and got real excited. So I told my guitar teacher that he had to teach me the CAGED system. He told me that we were already doing the CAGED system, we just weren't calling it that. So I don't think it is something special in itself, it is just a way of illustrating how you can move chord shapes up and down the neck. That's what I think anyway, I never delved into it after my teacher said that.

[jklotz]

I used it for playing lead in a country band. I also use it to play an inversion of a chord when the other guitar player is doing, for instance, strumming cowboy chords. If you want to see someone who uses it extensively, check out some vids by Guthrie Trapp.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by rllink

I read a few articles on the CAGED system and got real excited. So I told my guitar teacher that he had to teach me the CAGED system. He told me that we were already doing the CAGED system, we just weren't calling it that. So I don't think it is something special in itself, it is just a way of illustrating how you can move chord shapes up and down the neck.

Quite right! To be more precise, five shapes for each of the 12 major chords.

Or - the major triad arpeggio is a pattern covering 12 frets, and each of the 12 major chords is the same arpeggio in a different position.

That 12-fret arpeggio can be broken down into five playable shapes which we recognise as "C A G E D" chord shapes, which cycle up the neck in that order, but starting with a different one each time.

[hubcapsc]

Thanks Mr. Moustache, and double thumbs up to Paul Davids for
making guitar videos that are interesting all the way through.

I learned about the caged system after they invented the Internet.

Before that I'd deduced the five interlocking shapes of the pentatonic
scale. Someone had to tell me that was what it was when he heard
me using it ... it eventually dawned on me that there was a chord
shape associated with each pentatonic shape on the fretboard. The
Internet brought me a name, CAGED, for the stuff I had figured out,
and so much more too. As "just some guy with a guitar" and no
musical background, I found great value in the guitar web pages that
clued me in on basic chord theory. I have some vague idea now about the
difference between a major third and a minor third. The seventh notes
in the seventh chords I'm used to are all minor ? ! ? , but not on major-seventh
chords. It is useful knowing why they're called that and knowing how to
formulate one if you need it.

The OP asked "what's this stuff good for?" ... I believe some of
this stuff will translate to what you are playing on the guitar and
it also provides a framework for talking about music with others.

-Mike

[tbeltrans]

CAGED huh! What is it good for! Absolutely nuthin! Say it agian...CAGED HUH! What is it good for? Absolutely nuthin!.

...to paraphrase a Top 40s tune from the 1960s AM radio crowd. This discussion comes up at regular intervals and hopefully each time, a few more people get the information they need to move on. The CAGED system is a useful way of mapping the fretboard for 5 basic chord shapes across the fretboard playing the same chord. Within these 5 areas outlined by the 5 shapes are all your scales and, if you know what each note in the basic chord shape represents, you can modify that shape into any chord type you need. It isn't the only system that people can choose from, but it is useful as a starting point for understanding how the fretboard works.

The CAGED system doesn't need to make all who use it sound generic. At some point, your own creativity should allow a player to find his or her own sound. What you do with any piece of music information is up to you and your creativity.

Tony

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by rllink

I read a few articles on the CAGED system and got real excited. So I told my guitar teacher that he had to teach me the CAGED system. He told me that we were already doing the CAGED system, we just weren't calling it that.

Agreed. I learned the fretboard along with the 5 basic scale patterns, each that can be thought of as falling around a basic chord shape, too many years ago to want to think about. Somewhere between then and now, someone came up with the acronym of CAGED, and like a good marketing slogan, it took off! At least I was never aware of this name when I was learning the basics. It'd be interesting to know who first came up with the name and when. It's a reasonable way to learn and organize the fretboard, but people were doing the same thing long before it had a catchy name.

[MC5C]

I'm quite agnostic about the CAGED idea, I don't like it. I think too many look at it as an end and not as a stepping stone. It's a way to play scales in boxes without knowing what the scale is, or what the notes are. It can let you get around on the fretboard without actually learning it. The best thing about it is when you get past it and leave it behind. There, done whining about CAGED...

The IDEA behind the CAGED thing is that there are patterns of notes that repeat as you move around the neck, and if you play from those patterns you get scales out. Now, scales are wonderful if you know the names of the notes on each string and fret, and if you know what scale to play over which chord, or how to link them together into melodies. This is where you open the door to modes, and how chords work, and all sorts of harmonic theories and magic. But at some point all of us must have said "Lookit that, there's a C scale that starts on the fifth fret and goes up to the eighth fret and how cool is that!" Just because that impact is part of CAGED doesn't mean it isn't really fun the first time you figure that out.

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Somewhere between then and now, someone came up with the acronym of CAGED, and like a good marketing slogan, it took off!

Like so much marketing, there is often LESS there than meets the eye

I learned the somewhat simple concept of five fundamental shapes in 1971 or so. Although I say simple, it *can* open a few valuable doors.

Overall, it describes something that many people end up discovering on their own. It is not key knowledge that one needs to attain before reaching guitar competency.