The most frustrating thing I had to encounter as a self-taught guitarist was the “unmapped” areas on the fretboard.
I took my first guitar lesson at the age of 21 and at that time I was self-taught for about 7 years.
I was watching advanced guitar players moving up and down the neck, soloing effortlessly and knowing exactly what to do at any given time.
I’d like to be like them, feel free, express myself by improvising across the entire fretboard and enjoy complete creative freedom.
Instead, I was locked at the same positions, playing the same old licks, riffs and chord grips.
This was going on and on for about 7 years, without making any progress.
I was sure, there should be a logic behind the fretboard geometry.
It couldn’t be just a massive grid of notes.
This is when I was introduced to a complete method of mapping out the fretboard.
The CAGED system.
For me, it’s the first step of unlocking the fretboard and here I’m gonna break it down and show you not only how it works, but also how to practice it the right way and avoid common mistakes.
Contents:
- Why is difficult to navigate and play across the fretboard?
- What is the CAGED system?
- How does the CAGED system work?
- How to practice the CAGED system?
Why is difficult to navigate and play across the fretboard?
Let’s see how the notes are organised across the guitar neck by comparing and contrasting the familiar piano keyboard with the fretboard diagram.
1) This is what a piano keyboard looks like.
2) Imagine taking 6 fragments of this and stacking them in the following order
3) Let’s align them
4) This is how the guitar is tuned and how the notes are spread across the neck.
The result seems pretty confusing at first and the scenario of finding a way to navigate through this massive grid of notes looks impossible too.
Here comes the CAGED system.
What is the CAGED system?
The CAGED system is a meaningful way of organising the guitar fretboard. It helps us to easily recognise chords, scales, arpeggios and the relationship between them.
The best thing is that it allows us to visualise the fretboard in a manner that we don’t need to use any music theory knowledge.
[This is not an excuse to avoid music theory/harmony knowledge. The CAGED system may help us to unlock the fretboard at first, but if you won’t commit on learning theory and harmony, you’ll be boxed in shapes affecting your overall musicality.]
Once you understand how the CAGED system works, the fretboard would stop being that massive grid of notes and instead you’ll be able to recognise and visualise a group of interconnected intervals, scales, chords and arpeggio shapes.
How does the CAGED System Work?
Each letter of the CAGED is derived from a basic open chord shape – the C, A G, E and the D triads.
These are all movable shapes and together can divide the whole fretboard into 5 sections.
Let’s see an example taking the E chord and moving it up a fret.
Be careful. Each open chord does not consist of the fretted notes only but from the notes on the open strings as well (we call them open chords, there should be a reason right? :-)).
So, it’s not enough to move just our fingers. We must move the nut too!
It may sound weird, but this can be easily done by replacing the nut with our index finger placing vertically up a fret in our example and using the remaining three fingers forming the E shape.
The result is an F (barre) chord.
Now if we move the F chord up a fret, the result is an F# (or G♭) chord and so on.
Notice how the roots (the red circles) remain at the same place from shape to shape.
It’s important to understand that the root notes act as anchor points determining the name of each chord.
[you need to learn the notes on the 4th, 5th and 6th string at least, in order to effectively use the CAGED system. Read that article on how to memorise the notes on the guitar]
Now, think about this:
Is it possible to use all the 5 building blocks (basic open chord shapes C-A-G-E-D) to create 5 different shapes of the same chord – let’s say the C major chord?
The answer is yes of course. Take a look at the image below:
Can you see how:
- the Box 1 of the C chord is based on the E major triad shape (6th string root)
- the Box 2 on the D (2nd string root)
- the Box 3 on the C ( 5th string root – I could use the open C form but the purpose of this exercise is to create only barre chords)
- the Box 4 on the A (5th string root) and
- the Box 5 on the G chord (6th string root)?
[I personally use the terms box 1 – 5 instead of the chord names. I find it more convenient to say C chord Box 1 rather than C chord E shape.]
If you practice this (we’ll see how to do that later on) the fretboard becomes a grid of interconnected shapes.
By being able to play each chord to 5 different positions, the creative possibilities are expanding dramatically.
Try this [one of my faves]
Play a box using an arpeggiated pattern and record 1 bar.
Now play and record the same chord using a different arpeggiated pattern in a different box.
Pan one channel to the left and the other to the right speaker.
Enjoy a spread and colourful harmony.
Imagine now to do it for a whole song section.
[If you do it please share a link in the comments down below!]
The CAGED system works exactly the same for every single chord, arpeggio and scale.
How to practice the CAGED system.
The CAGED system can have multiple benefits towards unlocking the fretboard and experiencing complete freedom.
But if it’s not practiced properly, the results can be limited and your playing still sound boxed in.
So, I’ve written an article about how to practice it the right way and avoid all the common mistakes beginner guitarists do.