The Caged System for Guitar

By James Shipway

Massively improve your knowledge and understanding of the guitar fretboard and guitar theory with this step-by-step method for using the CAGED system.

Armed with everything in this book, you can learn and master the essential guitar scales all over the guitar neck, organize your fretboard for greater understanding and faster progress, use the exercises shown to practice smarter and more efficiently, and become a better guitar player, soloist, improviser and all-round musician.

In this method book (with accompanying demonstration videos and backing tracks) you'll discover how to use the CAGED method to unlock your guitar fretboard and overcome the fretboard 'roadblocks' which prevent most guitar players from ever truly mastering the guitar neck. After the CAGED system has been clearly explained, you'll learn how to apply it to the most useful guitar scales all guitar players need to know: the minor pentatonic, major pentatonic, major scale and natural minor scale plus arpeggio shapes for major7, dominant7, minor7 and minor7b5. I'll also reveal how to use what you've learned to master other essential guitar scales like the Dorian mode, Lydian mode, Mixolydian mode, minor6 pentatonic and the blues scale.

The CAGED System for Guitar gives you 40 sample guitar licks, with video demonstrations, to help you build your guitar solos and soloing vocabulary. You also get step-by-step practice routines and guitar exercises, as well as 'speed learning' techniques to help you to master your fretboard in a fraction of the time it takes most other guitarists.

In The CAGED System for Guitar you'll discover:

• The five CAGED chord shapes to use for organising and finally understanding your guitar fretboard. Learn how to memorize these quickly and easily using 'speed learning' techniques, circle of fifths exercises, and 'visualization' approaches for a solid fretboard foundation
• How to 'build' scale shapes and patterns around CAGED chord shapes for unshakeable fretboard knowledge and confidence! Use this method to find a shape for any scale, in any key, anywhere on the fretboard, and play guitar with freedom at last!
• 40 sample CAGED licks illustrating how to go from playing scale shapes to playing killer licks and solos all over the fretboard. These licks show you the tastiest bends, double-stops and scale runs to help you build your soloing vocabulary and start using each of the CAGED scale shapes like a pro (practice required!)
• How to build an endless number of great lick and soloing ideas. Use the techniques and practice methods described in the 'Vocab Accelerator' chapter to grow your soloing vocabulary, lick library, and soloing skills
• Step-by-step practice routines and learn the exact fretboard exercises to use in order to thoroughly and efficiently assimilate everything shown into your guitar playing repertoire

• Language: English
• Publisher: Headstock Books
• Release date: Nov 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781914453687

James Shipway

James Shipway, born in Australia and raised in the UK is a professional guitarist and guitar teacher with over 25,000 hours of experience helping students of all ages and abilities reach their guitar-playing goals.  He's shared his knowledge with millions of guitarists worldwide via his YouTube channel and his online guitar academy, Total Guitar Lab as well as in his acclaimed 'No Bull' series of guitar books.  James first began playing guitar at 16. Self taught and with no prior musical education or experience, he still remembers very well how confusing guitar playing could be for a newbie. He brings this personal experience of struggling with adversity and confusion on guitar to everything he does, and his practical, , easy-to-use, 'BS free' approach to learning, playing and practicing guitar has gained him a legion of followers around the globe.  His recent book releases include: - Music Theory for Guitarists, Volumes 1 & 2 (Volume 3 coming soon!) - Barre Chords for Guitar - Blues Soloing for Guitar, Volumes 1 & 2 - The CAGED System for Guitar - Circle of Fifths for Guitar These books aim to boost a guitar players ability and confidence by breaking down and simplifying seemingly complex theory, techniques and styles.

Book preview

PART ONE

NAILING MAJOR CHORDS AND MAJOR PENTATONICS

Let’s begin by learning how the CAGED system can be applied to major chords and major pentatonic scales.

This will show you how the CAGED system actually works and how to use it. Then we can apply this knowledge to learning other scales too.

The major pentatonic scale is one of the most common scales guitar players use. It contains five notes (pentatonic means ‘five note scale’) and is used extensively for:

Composing melodies, riffs or solos in major keys

Improvising in major keys

Playing solos in blues, rock, country, pop, funk and other musical styles

Knowing the major pentatonic scale also makes it much easier to learn and use the major scale, as you’ll discover in Part 3!

Think of the major pentatonic as your ‘first choice’ scale for playing in major keys. For example, if you wanted to play a solo in the key of G major, you’d use the G major pentatonic scale.

See the first No Bull Music Theory for Guitarists book for a more detailed look at the major pentatonic scale, in this book we’re mainly focusing on the scale shapes.

LESSON 1.1: LEARN THE CAGED MAJOR CHORD SHAPES

Let’s learn the five CAGED chord shapes. This is an important first step, don’t be in a hurry to get to the scales and licks!

If you’ve read my No Bull Barre Chords for Guitar book or studied barre chords some other way, then you’ll probably have seen at least some of these chord shapes before.

We’re not going to actually learn them in the order that they spell CAGED, instead we’ll learn them based on where their root note is.

Before we start, make sure you know the notes on the low E and A strings. There’s no way around it. This knowledge is essential for employing the CAGED system effectively. You probably know the notes along these strings already, but if you don’t, see Appendix 1 for an easy way to learn all the notes on all the strings of the guitar.

Now, if you’re ready we’ll dive into our five CAGED chord shapes.

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The E and G Chord Shapes

You’ve probably seen the E shape before, it’s normally one of the first barre chord shapes we learn:

The E shape barre chord

The G shape is less commonly used, probably because it’s quite awkward to play! It’s an important part of the CAGED system though, so learn it well:

G shape

Both of these chords have their root note on the E string. This is why we’ve paired them up together.

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Quick Reminder: Root Notes

The root note is the note that a chord or scale is built on. For any kind of G chord (G, Gm, G7, G9 etc) the root note is G. For a C minor pentatonic scale the root note is C, and so on.

The E and G chord shapes can be used to play any major chord, we simply match the E string root note in the chord shape with whichever note on the guitar neck we want to be the