My brain's CAGED-blind ...

[rNeil]

Since joining up here a week back, I've loved reading many useful threads. but with 40+ years of guitar background (in the past, mostly rock, blues, folk, classical) and little 'online' study, I'd never hear of the CAGED system.

So I've spent several hours trying to figure out what it is, searching hear and elsewhere on the 'net for info. However, what seems obvious to the folks explaining it on various sites and threads ... typical comment of the "look at the boxes and note the obvious over-lapping nature, making it easy to locate any scale or chord tone anywhere on the fretboard" variety ... huh.

Apparently, my brain isn't quite catching something that is "obvious" to many others. Of course, this isn't the first time this has happened, so I'm used to just asking for help.

What, exactly, am I supposed to be seeing in all those boxes and dots and squiggles and circles?

Neil

[mr. beaumont]

CAGED is simply a visualization system...it takes the 5 open chords many folks are familiar with and uses them to map scales, octave pairs, and other chords played up the neck...

Let's look at "C" for example.

So play your good old "C" cowboy chord. (x 3 2 0 1 0 )

Now you can move that chord all over the neck, as long as you move the open strings up too. So x 4 3 1 2 1 is a Db, x 5 4 2 3 2 is a D, etc.

We can also find the C major scale within that shape. Please excuse the TAB...




----------------------------0-1-3-------------
-------------------0-1-3----------------------
------------0-2-------------------------------
----0-2-3-------------------------------------
-3--------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------



This of course can be applied to those other chords.

This is just the basics, you can relate minor chords, extended chords, other scales, octaves, lots of other stuff to these shapes...

but it's just one way of visualizing things. I learned the fretboard and scales and I never knew anything about CAGED...when I finally investigated it, I found stuff that made sense, I found other stuff that made more sense to me the way "I did it."

So don't get frustrated if CAGED doesn't click for you. Take bits and pieces from every source you can, and don't discount anything until you see what you can pull from it. The key is, with the guitar being as visual an instrument as it is, you want to have some way of visually navigating the fretboard...

[keith]

CAGED is also the acronym for the order that the shapes appear in moving up the neck. So for Mr B's example his first shape is the C. The next shape that you'll see the C chord represented is the A form ( x02220 ) but at the third fret ( x35553 ). The next shape up will be the G form ( 320003 ) but at the 5th fret ( 875558 ) and so on for the rest of the acronym. As Mr B said it's just moving the open position chords up the neck.

I'm not sure about your boxes, dots, squiggles and squares but realize that they are all root based chords, not inversions so maybe find the root dot or box in each form and relate it to the cowboy chord forms you learned many years ago. Hope that helps.

[rNeil]

Thanks, some of this is beginning to become clearer ...

Neil

[Nuff Said]

This is a very good CAGED Youtube lesson from forum member Jack Zucker:

Jack Zucker Lesson

[brwnhornet59]

+1

Yeah, my brain always relates to Jacks playing very well.