GUITAR
UNLEASHING THE CAGED BEAST | David Harsh
Many of us have heard of the CAGED System , and some of us use it quite a bit . You may be leveraging it without even knowing it . But if you haven ’ t seriously explored the CAGED System yet , you are in for a treat . It could literally change your life as a guitarist .
This is a concept that ’ s best taught in a video format . The good news ? I ’ m including a video version of this article with multiple camera angles . I encourage you to watch it … while it ’ s available . You can find it right here : www . GuitarSuccess4U . com / CAGED
The CAGED System is like a beast that ’ s trapped inside our strings and frets , longing to be unleashed . Let ’ s set it free .
TAKING IT APART We can begin by focusing on five open Major chords that you ’ ve probably learned or are learning . They are the chords C , A , G , E , and D . Think about those five letters . What do they spell ? CAGED .
Musical literacy can only help us , so one of the tools I use to help shed light on this process is the piano . If you look at the diagram I ’ m providing of the five CAGED notes in treble clef , you ’ ll see that they can be laid out in a descending fashion to spell out the CAGED System . Note that of the seven natural notes , two are missing : B and F . This means that as we descend with piano notes , we ’ ll need to skip over B and F . You can watch me do this in the companion video .
These specific descending distances are a minor 3 rd ( from C to A ), then a Major 2 nd ( from A to G ), another minor 3 rd ( from G to E ), and finally , a Major 2 nd ( from E to D ). So , with the CAGED sequence , we alternate between a minor 3 rd and a Major 2 nd ( also known as a whole step ), twice .
PUTTING IT TOGETHER Let ’ s take this discovery and apply it to the guitar . As you ’ ll see in the video , I ’ ve marked my guitar frets with colors , to help shed more light . But I ’ m also providing a diagram here to help you see the frets , distances , and my colorcoding system . These colors inform the shapes I ’ ll be using . ( See the diagram on the next page )
On my guitar , I ’ m using red , orange , yellow , green and blue lines at frets 0 , 3 , 5 , 8 , and 10 ( the cycle repeats at 12 .) You can even spot the whole steps and the minor 3rds if you look for them on the diagram , because the distance of a minor 3 rd involves moving up by 3 frets , and the distance of a Major 2 nd ( or whole step ) involves moving up by 2 frets .
As you ’ ll see in the video , I use a Glider Capo to ascend from the nut ( a “ non-capoed guitar ”), to each of these indicated frets . As I do so , I play
the following shapes : C ( at capo 0 ), A ( at capo 3 ), G ( at capo 5 ), E ( at capo 8 ), and D ( at capo 10 ). That completes the CAGED System with open Major chord shapes in five capo positions .
Don ’ t miss this – I ’ m taking the notes in the descending treble clef diagram and using them to help me move the capo up the guitar neck by the same very specific distances .
Using these five shapes and these five capo positions , I ’ m now able to play a C Major chord in five different locations .
Are some light bulbs appearing over your head ? If they are , it ’ s because we have unleashed the CAGED Beast ! It is good to be us !
RELEVANCE OF THE CAGED SYSTEM I ’ m all about relevance , so let ’ s talk about several reasons why this information is helpful .
First , you can play in any Major key in five different capo positions . Let that sink in .
Second , if you collaborate with a fellow rhythm guitar player , you could each be in a different capo position and still play in the same key .
It ’ s even possible for all five of these capo