The C-A-G-E-D System This system was first cod ified by Bill Edwards in th e series series of boo ks entitled Fretboard Logic.. The Logic The series goes into in credible detail, but th e concept behind i t is actually qu ite simple. Essentially, Essentially, it breaks the guitar's fretboard d own int o five fingering s that are very easy ea sy and m ost l ikely very familiar to you already. These These are the standard, standard, open-position major chord s that every guitar player knows , C A G E and D, shown in the pict ure below. Basic CAGED for ms
What's coo l about this s ystem is that it pro vides a basic 'road map' of the fretboard for What's you--even you--e ven when you get into th e most complex mus ical concepts, you can still use these shapes as your 'guideposts ' on the neck of th e guitar. Now we have to translate each each of these basic shapes into a "mo veable veable"" form, one that can be placed anywhere on the neck (usually a form of b ar chord): Moveable CAGED for ms
IMPORTANT POINT: You might not ice that a couple of these moveable moveable forms are not particularly con venient for practical us e. The The idea is not that you use these shapes as regular chord voicings; rather, you should simply know where that shape lies on the neck for whatever key key you are playing in. Your Your scales for impro vising and your c hord voic ings can then be based around that shape (more on that later). You You can also take portion s of these forms and create chord voi cings that are cool and practical for eve everyday ryday use (more on that later too). Therefore, if you want to m ake an an EXAMPLE: The root notes are circled i n each diagram. Therefore, " Eb" cho rd using t he "C" sh ape, place the "C" shape beginning beginning o n the third fret so that the circled notes (the ones on the 2nd & 5th strings) both land on Eb. You're probably already already familiar with the " A" and " E" shapes--these shapes--these are standard bar chord f orms. The C shape is quite useful as well. I personally don't find the "G" and "D" shapes to be useful useful as chord voic ings, but I do use them all the time as forms to impro vise around.. What around What could be more familiar to our fi ngers than a G chord or a D chord? The next next step is to get familiar with h ow these shapes apply to th e different keys. Based Based on these shapes, you you sho uld be able to find five different fingerings for each of the 12 different major chords. You'll You'll learn this best if you try t o figure it all out for yours elf, but I'll give you this chart to make it a little easier easier for you: Key
fret where
fret where
fret where
fret where
fret where
"C" shape falls
"A" shape falls
"G" shape falls
"E" shape falls
"D" shape falls
A
9
0, 12
2
5
7
Bb
10
1, 13
3
6
8
B
11
2
4
7
9
C
0, 12
3
5
8
10
C# / Db
1
4
6
9
11
D
2
5
7
10
0, 12
Eb
3
6
8
11
1
E
4
7
9
0, 12
2
F
5
8
10
1
3
F# / Gb
6
9
11
2
4
G
7
10
0, 12
3
5
Ab
8
11
1
4
6
It's worth noti ng at this po int that the shapes ALWAYS occur in th e same order on the neck of the guitar. For example, if you are playing an Bb chord, the "A" form occu rs first (lowest) on the neck, on the 1st fret, followed by t he "G" form on the 3rd fret, the "E" form on the 6th, the "D" fo rm on th e 8th, and the "C" fo rm on th e 10th.
Appl yi ng CAGED to Pentat on ic Scal es Pentatonic sc ales are easy to improvi se with, and very familiar to many gu itarists, so let's take a look at how these fit in with the CAGED system. There are basically 5 fingerings f or the pentatonic scale (the major pentatonic scale, to be specific), and they co rrespond to our CAGED chord forms as follows: Pentatonics and CAGED
Compare these to the moveable forms sh own earlier, and you will see that each not e of each moveable form is present and accounted for in each of the pentatonic fing erings. The root notes are circled again for reference.
Minor Pentatonic : Many people are familiar with what is s ometimes called the "min or pentatonic" scale (the "G" form sho wn above, but played over a minor key or i n a blues song). The easiest way to tr anslate what we have learned so far to the minor pentatonic is to think in terms of relative major & minor. If you don't know what this means, each major key has a "r elative minor" key that is essentially its equivalent (and, conversely, each minor k ey has a "relative major."). Look at this c hart for reference:
Major Key
A
Bb
B
C
C#
Db
D
Eb
E
F
F#
G Ab
Relative Minor F#m Gm G#m Am A#m Bbm Bm Cm C#m Dm D#m Em Fm Key:
For example, if we are playing in the key of Am (or p laying a blues son g in A), we can look at the chart and see what major k ey is th e relative major of Am...C major. Now we can apply t he CAGED system as sh own abo ve for th e key of C major. To make a C cho rd, the C shape falls in open or 12th po sition, the A sh ape falls in 2nd positio n, the G shape (the familiar one) in 5th position, the E shape in 8th posi tion, and the D shape in 10th pos ition.
Appl yi ng CAGED to m ajo r s cal es and t he majo r m odes We can now take this a step further and apply these fingerings to the major scales and their modes (the modes are discussed in depth on the page entitled The Major Modes). Look how they correspond:
Thought process for applyin g this to di fferent keys and modes: 1. Find th e parent major s cale for your mo de (the major scale from w hich you r mod e is derived). 2. Apply the CAGED system to yo ur parent major sc ale to find where the 5 shapes fall on the neck of your g uitar. 3. Use the associated pentatonic scales and mode fingerings to impr ovise in th at mode.
EXAMPLE: We are playing " Dark Star," an im provisational s ong by th e Grateful Dead that is l argely played in the mo de of A mixolydian (until it gets weird, anyway). STEP 1: the mode of A mixolydian is derived from the parent mode of D ionian (see the page on the modes for details on how this works). STEP 2: determine the D major CAGED fingerings--C shape 2nd position, A s hape 5th pos ition, G shape 7th pos ition, E shape 10th positio n, D shape 12th or open pos ition. STEP 3: Play the correspon ding p entatonic and mod e fingerings.
Suggestion f or practic e: Pick a key and mode at random . Using the p rocess o utlined above, determine the CAGED forms for th at mode, and all the correspond ing pentatonic and mode fingerings for th at key. Play the CAGED chord form and th en play the scales and modes that go w ith it s o that you can r eally learn what it so unds li ke, Finally, create melodies of your own with in these patterns.
The CAGED system is a powerful tool for unraveli ng the complexities of the layout of notes, scales, chords, arpeggios, interval patterns, licks and riffs on the guitar fret board. Its name is an acronym for the five basic chord shapes which form the origin of the system: Start by looking at the patterns formed by the Root Notes of each of these chords. Marked 'R' on the diagram below :
By clearing the rest of the chord notes away we can see these root note patterns more clearly. Note that what we are left with are all the possible ways of fingering movable OCTAVE PATTERNS:
Now here's the clever bit: by laying these five patterns out so that they overlap each other in the order that spells the word 'CAGED' we are able to chart every single occurrence of any given note on the fretboard:
Try it - learn to finger this pattern off by heart then start it a nywhere on the fret board and you will join together every occurrence of whatever note you start it on!
