5 Reasons You Should Learn the CAGED System

At one point in your guitar journey there comes a time where you hear about the CAGED system. You hear how wondrous it can be at unlocking the fretboard, you hear about how much it can help with your overall understanding of the fretboard, and how it's the secret to making sense of the fretboard.

But seldom is it discussed as to why you need to learn the CAGED system. So here are 5 reasons why the CAGED system will certainly benefit you and your understanding of the fretboard:

1.) The Capo - The CAGED system can inform you on where to put the capo to retain a song's key but use different chord shapes. So often the capo is only seen as a key changing device... that is really only one aspect of it. With the CAGED system and the capo you can accomplish so much more than just changing keys.

2.) Transposition - The CAGED system because of it's systematic nature, allows you to quickly and easily transpose a song to a different key without having to even reach for a capo.

3.) Alternate Chord Voicings - Different chord voicings sound hard, but with the CAGED system, they are very easy especially if you know how each chord shape in the CAGED system connects to the next.

4.) Adding Sonic Layers - If you are at a jam and want to add a little different sound to the music you can use the CAGED system to inform other ways to play a chord shape. This will allow you to add more sonic layers to a song being played at a jam and give the song more depth.

5.) Dividing the Fretboard Into Manageable Chunks - This is the most important reason you should learn CAGED. The CAGED system allows you to divide the fretboard into 5 distinct sections making it much more manageable to organize chord shapes. CAGED is not just for chord shapes though, it goes well beyond chord shapes into the realm of organizing scales, seeing how scales connect, and it lays a solid framework for improvisation.

When you first find information on CAGED it may seem a little bit disorienting, and that's ok because I was disoriented too until I figured out the core elements of what makes CAGED so darn useful. See, with CAGED you need to know only two core things:

1.) The 5 Basic Chord Shapes C, A, G, E, and D - You need to know how to make them, and the most important part, the fact that they can become moveable by converting them to barre chords.

2.) Root Note Location - The Root note is the lowest bass note that defines the chord. Each of the 5 chord shapes has their root note located on a specific string. Knowing this makes the moveable shapes much more useful because now you can name them.

It would be hard to fully describe and start teaching CAGED right here due to limitations so I want you to check out video 2 of my FREE foundational five workshop series. In video 2 I go into detail on CAGED and show you how all of the things I just discussed are connected and most importantly, what you can do to apply them to the guitar immediately.

[alcoyot]

When I think of Cage I think of scales. I like it because it allows you to play scale patterns in a very compact way without moving the hand. On the other hand I combine that with the 3 note per scale system. With the two of those combined, it feels very complete for me.

[CNJ_UT]

LUL @3:11 "Gosh...I hope one day I figure it out"

[timwhite]

I've been playing for decades and have yet to learn the CAGED system. It's not out of snobbery, or that I think it's stupid or anything like that. I haven't learned it because every time I attempted to learn it, I'd get a third of the way into it, and still hav NO idea WTF or why TF I'm doing it to begin with.
Literally every time I do it, regardless of who or where I'm doing it, it'll will start out "okay, I see what he's doing, yeah I get that. Okay I see what's going on." It's usually about that point where the teacher says something that sounds like "see, now you can tie A with B. Do you see how C does D?" And it's it that point that my response is "what?! NO WTF are you talking about? What the hell is that even supposed to mean?!" I even tried it again a year ago and it was the same thing; things were moving well, I know what he was saying, until he gave the ubiquitous "so do you see how those 2 are the same?" Whereupon I yelled "NO A-hole I don't see that; AT ALL! What in the HELL are you talking about?!"
At this point, I still don't know if I'm missing out on something useful. I might even already know the information that the system is supposed to teach you to know, but I'm not sure because (see above). I know what the notes are everywhere and anywhere on the fretboard, I know how to start at any place on the board and immediately jump go to the 3rd, 4th, 5th, the next octave. I can start with a bar chord, say C Major, and where the 3 major, 3 minor and diminished chord are, albeit it's the bar chord voicings, but if I know what the chord is I know how to build them using different voicings.*
So tell me sir (and if you're wondering because of the tone of my comment up to this point; no, I'm not being sarcastic I'm really asking) and I still missing something?

*anyone wanting to learn voicings that you may not hear all the time; learn a bunch of Beatles and Eric Johnson songs. Everyone knows Eric Johnson is a monster, my #1 go to guitar is one of his signature Strats, my favorite speaker cabinets are loaded with his sig Alnico speakers and i even used his strings for years (I like pure nickel, and his have an unusual gauge; like heavy top/light bottoms where the Low E/A/D are from an 11 gauge set while the G/B/high E are from 10s, but his have the Low E/A/ & 'G' heavy and 'D'/B/High E light. Some may think I'm a fanboy that uses his gear because I'm a fan when the opposite is the truth. I was a luthier for 15 years, mostly doing repairs (moved to working almost exclusively with amps a decade ago). I didn't know anything beyond Cliffs of Dover from EJ, but after I worked on that 3rd or 4th EJ Strat and realized it wasn't a fluke that the first couple were the best Strats I'd handled, I bought one. Then wanted a vintage speaker, go slightly lighter than 11's etc.
I'm rambling. But it's not a surprise to hear people use his name in high echelons of guitar playing, but George Harrison isn't usually in that same place. I think this is due to lead players getting all the press, but in truth I think rhythm players influence players even more than the players. Just look at Johnny Marr's clean, compressed arpeggiated chord rhythm playing then think of almost every 80s "college Rock" (in the 90s it was alternative, 2009s Indie) and you hear him everywhere.
Harrison's rhythm playing is actually REALLY challenging. His chord changes are so fast and numerous, and his voicings are so oddly fingered that it can really expand your chord vocabulary.

[enricofugazzi]

I love the t-shirt. Where can I get a Guild T-shirt? I have 3 Guild guitars I must have a Guild T-Shirt!!

[michaelquintana]

i thought caged was gonna box me in a cage is why i never wanted to learn it...