In Part 1. and Part 2. of this mini-series, we covered the five chord shapes of the CAGED system - C, A, G, E, and D. It’s now time to join them all together creating the system that will revolutionize how you see chords and scales across your fretboard from this moment on.
In case you haven’t checked it out yet…
Part 1. — CAGED - The Key to Unlock Your Guitar Fretboard - Part 1 - Chords
Part 2. — CAGED - The Key to Unlock Your Guitar Fretboard - Part 2 - C, G, and D Chords
Let’s get straight to it, starting with…
How do CAGED Chords Fit Together?
All these new barre chord shapes have probably left you a little confused and constantly having to refer back to the root note to find out what chord you are actually playing. But that’s all about to end, as the full magic of the CAGED system is revealed…
The first letter of the word CAGED is C, so let’s start right there. Play a root C chord - give it a strum, sounds great, doesn’t it? You’ve played it a million times before, but it’s always been a solitary chord - just a single chord in isolation. But that’s not the case anymore.
As we learned in Part 2 of this mini-series, this is actually a C-shaped C chord - a little confusing, I’ll admit. We also learned that it’s possible to play any chord using a C-shape barre chord, such as C# by barring on the 1st fret and D by barring on the 2nd fret.
Going back to the C chord, even though you have always thought of this as a root C chord, to understand the CAGED system, you now need to think of it as a C-shaped chord on the open strings, making the chord a C major. The root note of the chord is on the third fret of the A-string, therefore, it is a C note (A>A#>B>C).
The root note is incredibly important, and we will use it to connect to the next chord in the CADED system, the A - cAged. Now remove your fingers from the C chord and place your first finger on the root of that chord - the third fret of the A string - the C note. Now flatten your finger to barre the whole fret and create an A chord with your other three fingers (or fewer fingers depending on how you play the chord).
You are now playing an A-shaped chord with its root on the third fret of the A string - a C note - therefore, you are playing an A-shaped C chord. Next, try moving back and forth between the two chords to become familiar with how they relate to each other.
C-shaped Chord - C Major A-shaped Chord - C Major
Open Position - Root on A string Barred on the 3rd fret - Root on A string
You have used the same root note to play two different chords - a C-shaped Chord on the open strings - C major - and an A-shaped chord barred on the third fret - C major.
It’s now time to move to the next letter in the word CAGED - G. You now need to take all of your fingers off the neck and barre where you just had your three (or fewer) fingers making the A shape of the chord. Now create a G-shape with the other three fingers, it’s a bit of a stretch, I know.
This is a G-shaped chord with its root on the low E string at the 8th fret. Now move back and forth between these two C chords to familiarize yourself with how they connect to each other.
A-shaped Chord - C Major G-shaped Chord - C Major
Barred on the 3rd fret - Root on A string Barred on the 5th fret - Root on E string
You can probably guess what’s coming next… yes, the E chord - the next letter within the word CAGED. This is much simpler to get your head around than the last connection. The root of the G-shaped C chord barred on the 5th fret is on the low E string at the 8th fret - a C note. Remove your fingers from the previous chord and place your first finger on the root note, then flatten it to barre the whole of the 8th fret. Then use your other three fingers to create an E chord.
You are now playing an E-shaped chord barred on the 8th fret with its root on a C note - therefore, you are playing a C major chord! Once again, practice moving it back and forth with the previous chord to help cement the change in your memory.
G-shaped Chord - C Major E-shaped Chord - C Major
Barred on the 5th fret - Root on E string Barred on the 8th fret - Root on E string
And finally, we have the final letter of the word CAGED - D - cageD. This is a little more complicated because instead of using the root on the 6th string (Low E) as in the last two chords, you now need to use its octave, which is found on the 10th fret of the D string. If you’re not familiar with your octaves, check out How to Learn the Guitar Fretboard in 90 Minutes.
Start by taking all of your fingers off the fretboard and placing your first finger on the 10th fret of the D string. This is a C note and will be the chord’s root. Now flatten the finger to make a barre across the whole of the 10th fret and use your other three fingers to create a D shape. You are now playing a D-shaped chord with its root on the D string at the 10th fret - a C note; therefore, you are playing a C major chord.
E-shaped Chord - C Major D-shaped Chord - C Major
Barred on the 8th fret - Root on E string Barred on the 10th fret - Root on D string
Congratulations, you have just played all of the chord shapes of the CAGED system in order up the neck and now know how they interconnect.
How To Master the CAGED Chordal System
You’ve done it once, so let’s do it again, start with the root C chord and see if you can make it back to the D-shaped C chord on the 10th fret. Hopefully, it goes to plan, if not, don’t worry, try it again while reading through these notes until you end up at the correct chord.
But the CAGED system doesn’t stop at the 10th fret, as with everything else on a guitar, it repeats itself starting on the 12th fret. So now try playing the CAGED chords in order, starting with the root C chord and going all the way to the end of the neck. It’s obviously going to be difficult to do the full barre chords in the higher reaches of the neck, so make the chords up in any way you can using whatever fingers work best for you.
Now that you’ve got the hang of the system, let’s reverse it and work backward. Play the C-shaped C chord on the 12th fret and try coming back down the neck, playing C > D > E > G > A > C-shaped chords. Once that gets easy, try moving up and down the neck, connecting the chord shapes together, you’ll be a CAGED ninja soon!
And to finish, even though the word CAGED suggests that you should start with a C chord, that isn’t the case at all; it works for any chord. So, start the sequence again using a C-shaped D chord barred on the 2nd fret and go up and down the neck playing only D chords. Next, start on the C-shaped E chord on the 4th fret and again go up and down returning to the E chord, plus you can now go back further towards the headstock and include the D-shaped E chord barred on the 2nd fret, and the root E chord (E-shaped E chord on the open strings).
Plus, you can try the CAGED sequence using minor, seventh, minor seventh, major seventh, or whatever other chord shape you like, but remember that some chords, such as Gm, can’t be easily played as a Cm-shaped chord.
A Whole New World
You should now be seeing your fretboard in a completely new way and understand how chords interconnect along and across the neck. This opens up so many possibilities for interesting chord voicings, more enjoyable ways of playing songs, as chordal bases for creative rhythms, etc., etc.
I’ve kept the following diagram till the end because I wanted you to picture the sequence in your head by going through the process as opposed to seeing it all laid out straight away. But we all learn information in different ways, so if you are having any problems putting this all together, here is how the full CAGED chordal system appears on a guitar neck:
The black circles represent the tonic of the chord, in this case, the note of C, while the white circles with numbers in them represent the third and fifth degrees of the C major scale which also make up a major chord - in the case of C major, E is the third, and G is the fifth.
But how is the CAGED system applied to Scales?
I’m not going to go into anywhere near as much detail about how scales apply to the CAGED system as I did with chords. If you fully understand what I’ve already covered, bringing scales into the mix should be simple.
Let’s start with what was probably one of the first scales you ever learned, a C Major Pentatonic scale. However, in most cases, you probably learned it as an A minor Pentatonic scale.
As you probably know, C major and A minor are related; in music theory, we say that A minor is the relative minor of C major, which means that it contains exactly the same notes in the same order. The only difference is the start point - the root note - for C major it will be C, and for Am, it is A, as shown below:
Notes of a C Major Pentatonic Scale
C - D - E - G - A
Notes of an A minor Pentatonic Scale
A - C - D - E - G
I.e., the same notes, same order, just a different starting point/note.
You probably learned your first Am pentatonic starting on the 5th fret of the low E string - an A note. But to understand how the scale relates to the CAGED system, we need to use the major version of the same scale - C major pentatonic - starting on the C note on the 10th fret of the low E string, as shown below:
G-shaped C Major Pentatonic Scale
This is probably very familiar to you, the only difference is that you now need to think of it as a G-shaped major pentatonic scale. If you think of the barre across the 5th fret as the nut, the notes on the Low E, A, and high e strings make up the G root chord shape, making it easier to remember. Try playing it in the open position, i.e. a root G major pentatonic scale using the nut for every other note, this will help you solidify the shape of the scale.
Your next pentatonic scale you learned was probably an Am in the second position. Let’s now play that as a C major, as shown below…
E-shaped C Major Pentatonic Scale
This is an E-shaped C major Pentatonic scale, but is a little harder to picture because of the three notes that are behind the ‘barre’ that would normally go across the 8th fret from the Root C note on the low E string to the C on the high e string. However, if you picture it without those notes and also ignore the notes on both of the E strings and the B, it looks like a root E shape, which is the best way to remember it.
Moving on from that, we have the final letter in the word CAGED - D. This is a lot easier to picture because the barre is more obvious and the notes on the three thinnest strings clearly represent the root D shape.
D-shaped C Major Pentatonic Scale
We now need to return to the G-shaped C major pentatonic we started with but work backward. Before the G of CAGED, you get an A, so here is the corresponding scale…
A-shaped C Major Pentatonic Scale
Much like the E-shaped scale, this doesn’t clearly show the A shape we are looking for. However, if you think of the four notes across the 3rd fret as the barre, and ignore the notes on the two E strings and the A string, the shape does reveal itself.
And finally, we have the C-shaped C major pentatonic scale at the beginning of the neck, as shown below…
C-shaped C Major Pentatonic Scale
This, once again, looks a lot more like the C shape we all know and love. The barre is now behind the nut, so you don’t need to finger those notes, just play them open. And the notes on the A, D, and B strings clearly show the C shape.
And now, to join them all together…
As you can see, each shape flows into the next, following the letters of CAGED, and as with the chords, it starts again on the 12th fret with the C-shape an octave higher and then continues up to the end of the neck.
It doesn’t matter if you already know all these major pentatonic shapes or not, everything is now going to be much easier to learn and understand. If you can easily play all the shapes, all you have to do is now think of them as either C, A, G, E, or D-shaped.
If you can’t play them all yet, even better, as you learn them, picture the associated chord on the fretboard, making the learning process easier and enabling you to effortlessly join them together as soon as you learn each one.
The system works in exactly the same way for other types of scale or mode, try it with the Major scale, it works like magic.
Wrapping it Up
That’s it for the final part of my look at CAGED. I’ve done my best to explain everything as simply as possible while including all the information you need to understand the system fully. However, it does take time and practice to really get the hang of CAGED and reap the benefits.
So, go over the concepts regularly in your practice sessions until they become second nature. Remember to practice songs you already know using the more difficult CAGED barre chords - D, C, and G - and run through chords in the CAGED order starting on a different chord every time to visualize how the different patterns interconnect. Plus, do the same for various scales.
Over time, this will allow you to see your fretboard as a series of interconnecting patterns that will allow you to navigate it with ease. This will make everything you play easier, more fulfilling, and most importantly, even more fun to play.
