I Was Stupidly Wrong About CAGED

Finally coming around to this CAGED thingy. Thanks to @thenoisyclan for hooking it up with the Chord Compass. Get one yourself with a 20% discount using this affiliate link:

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Here's the Circle of 5ths video:

If you feel like leaving a tip:

[TheRealAllenCrowe]

The beauty of music is that even though we all learn different things in different ways, at the end of the day it only matters that the sound is good. 😊

[stewartbone]

You’re underrated imo. Lot of wisdom in your videos, chilled and easily followed.

[michaelmonfils]

There actually is a simple way to avoid confusion with the CAGED System: KNOW THE NOTES ON THE E, A & D STRINGS!

If the root of the chord is on the A string, you can either build a chord on that note angling toward the headstock using a C parent chord shape (include an index barre), or you can build a chord from that note that has notes on the bridge side using an A parent chord shape.

If the root of the chord is on the E string, you can either build a chord on that note angling toward the headstock using a G parent chord shape (include the index barre), or you can build a chord from that note that has notes on the bridge side using an E parent chord shape.

If the root of the chord is on the D string, you can either build a chord on that note angling toward the headstock using an F parent chord shape, or you can build a chord that has notes on the bridge side using a D parent chord shape.

These visualizations provide all notes of the chords in all positions. Some confusion results from the mistaken assumption that the CAGED System should yield chords that are easy to play. For instance, when Jimi Hendrix played fluid rolling diads with hammer-ons, slurs and pull-offs, he was visualizing and utilizing the movable G parent chord shape; he wasn't trying to stretch and play that chord shape in its entirety with a large index barre and pinky, he was merely using that shape as a roadmap. And of course, these roadmaps overlap with scales as well. In fact, good writing and phraseology are based on melodic elements that conform to these chord shapes.

BONUS!: This approach also eliminates confusion when using and transposing with a capo. All you have to do is know where the notes are on your "bass strings" (E, A & D). These notes are your compass points.

[brettrobinson]

500K Congrats!!!! Thanks for all the hard work!

[youtuberino]

I think the reason F isn't in CAGED is because F is just the E shape, its not a different shape.

[Gene_Cali]

Thanks to the CAGED system, I was able to free myself from 'first position " cowboy chords" territory. 🐴🤠. I retired and wanted to learn guitar, and thanks to YT and teachers like You, Marty Music, and Active Melody, I can enjoy the experience with confidence in my playing abilities. You all make if fun to learn. Thanks Sean.

[trusarmor]

it taught me multiple voicing and got me around the guitar neck

[bmoneybby]

I learned this 25 years ago out of a book. I was raised by musicians and no one had ever heard of it. I came out my bedroom after a year of playing 4-8 hours a day and everyone was flabbergasted at how the hell I got so good so fast. I hate that it's common knowledge now for people to easily find because I had to work so hard for it and it was my secret lol.

[MarkStidham]

I also think the F shape is a good addition, as you mentioned, especially with the lesson you gave recently on triads

[CalvinLimSH-ldle]

The Caged system with Bass, triad & power chord shapes really helped me to improvise and visualize the whole guitar fretboard. It is great for fingerstyle picking patterns [ Pimi 3 or Pima 4 strings grouping ] or strumming chord fragments across the entire guitar fretboard. The other thing about caged is you can also do chord melody song arrangements where you stack the root note at the top and the melody at the bottom strings of the guitar. It is just an easy open concept once you master it and it brings you to another level of guitar playing how you can connect scales, pentatonic, arpeggio, chord, bass playing, etc ... movements across the guitar fretboard.

[stephenbouchelle]

Before internet, I laboriously figured out the basic idea of the CAGED system on my own. It was the only logical approach I could figure out on my own. It took quite a while to get to the shapes also being relative minor/major. I’m no music scholar, but I don’t know how else I would have approached learning chord positions.

[larryhagman]

I found CAGED pretty confusing as a multi decade beginner trying to finally escape rote learning and understand the fretboard. It helped in some ways not so much in others. The big lesson I think is the key words that I noticed Sean used often, ‘Visual Aid’. If you can see those chord shapes running up the neck it helps you understand the fretboard. My biggest problem was so many instructors online demonstrating CAGED by playing the exact same chord up the neck spelling out the letters. I thought “why would I want to do that”? Once I realised the visual aid part and got good enough in other ways (scales, triads, intervals, arpeggios) I can now use this visual aid to move through chord structures up and down the neck.

For learning to play chords all around the neck I actually got more from (strangely enough) a throw away line from Sean. He was talking to someone about what was the most useful practice technique they used and they both agreed ‘Chord Scales’. Had never heard of this and googled it. You play a scale in a key but instead of playing the notes you play the chords with the root of the chord on that scale degree. Oh yeah that makes you think hard. Haven’t seen anyone do this as a lesson and it’s great. Hard but great.

Be a great lesson if someone wanted to do it. HINT 😊. Also thanks for all the great lessons and terrible jokes very appreciated.

[donindri]

I didn’t see the real value of the CAGED system until I learned all the triads going across the strings as well as up the neck. Seeing how all those three note three string triads fit into and sometimes next to the CAGED boxes really helps to connect everything. Thanks for posting

[michaeldematteis]

I love the caged deal.i learned so many cool triads from them big shapes on every string set.really helps for learning the fretboard too.

[chrisstout]

I wrote a guitar CAGED program in Visual C back in the early 2000s. As I was writing the software, it was really an eye opener and helped me understand how usefully the system is for figuring out chords up and down the neck. It’s all so well connected. I don’t know if that program will still work on the current Windows OS but it worked up until Windows 7. If you want to learn chord structures on the guitar, write a program to show it to you visually. Pretty cool.

[pkbreeze]

This is already ony woshlist for Christmas. I picked up the Circle of Fifths wheel from them last year because of your video on it. Noisyclan make great products and this looks awesome, especially the book.

[dougsmith]

Sean, , I would’ve never thought that you didn’t know caged! I didn’t know it till about three or four years ago, and it took a lot of practice, but it basically opened the entire footboard for me!
I see it as a puzzle that fits together over the entire footboard, and it moves like a conveyor belt, that goes on forever, and it is all predicated on where you enter.

[john]

the pentatonic shapes also perfectly contain the root notes of the chords from CAGED. The pentatonic shapes will shift depending on if the chord is major or minor, but they also follow the same order.

[kmabarrettyt]

Hi Sean, Thanks for this video. I'm glad I'm not the only one having issues with CAGED. I think your explanation in this video is quite well done. My own issue is my fingers don't fit on frets above 7. They are simply too wide. I do the modified "A" in cowboy area and just don't go down the neck on chords. I can arpeggiate and most times use triads; it's just chords don't work cleanly for me. So, I occasionally "pretend" to play CAGED so I can remind myself where they are, but I never really use them. Sometimes, knowledge is good for itself even when it's not useful. Lol

[jasonzak]

Caged is really for solos, Sean. It's really about learning the scales in caged, and then applying them in whatever key you're in. You know that classic "A minor pentatonic" scale you referenced? That's the "G scale." So if you're playing in the key of "C" that classic 585757575858 is kind of like the 3rd position (the G in CAGED). So when soling, you can stay in key all over the next. My options from there would be slide up to the "A scale" where the notes are found at 353525253535. Or i could slide down to the "E scale" and play 8-10-7-10-7-10-7-9-8-10-8-10. What you we showing might be useful, but if you want to make music with CAGED, it's better applied for soling in the minor or major pentatonic. Hope this helps, I could explain it better in person 😆 keep doing your thing, man!