How to use the CAGED system to play a SOLO

[Music] [Applause] [Music] today i want to talk about the caged system it's really cool it's not too complicated and it kind of helps the guitar make sense hopefully after this lesson you'll have a good sense of what it is and i'll give you a few ways to practice using it also i have a free pdf that goes along with this video so check the description for a link to that as well as links to whatever other stuff i use in this video anyways let's get into it right off the bat what i want to say is caged is not something that's like invented it's a it's a description of the layout of the guitar think of it like a like a map a map is just information it doesn't have instructions it doesn't tell you what to do but you can use a map to kind of make your own decisions about how you're going to get around a city or how you're going to map out your own road trip across the country or something like that the caged system is the same way there's just it's just a way that all the information is organized so before we start on the actual caged system i want to just talk about the chord shapes so c a g e and d or if you want to throw your thumb down here if you're a guitar player when you think of a c chord you think of a shape right when you think of a g chord you think of this shape but actually this is really specific to guitar a g chord is made up of three notes you only need three notes i should say you need a g a b and a d on the piano it might look something like this a c chord on the piano might look something like this or here's a d chord what i want to stress right now is that if you're a guitar player and you think of guitar chords as shapes that's fine that's really helpful that's part of the caged system but you got to know that a chord is really only three notes so let's map out a c chord on the guitar in the first three frets here i'm going to map out every c e and g that i can find and if you look there's e g c e g c e g they're all there and that means that all i really need to play a c chord is c e g or i could play e g c or g c e you could also play a c chord like this um you can also grab individual notes and as long as you have a c an e and a g that's also a c chord um so a c chord is made of c's e's and g's the point i'm trying to make here is on guitar we think of these chords as shapes and we don't often think about the individual notes that make up these chords but this is an important concept to understand if you want to understand the caged system so we're just going to go through these shapes and kind of plot out the notes in the chords so we talked about c a is made up of a c sharp and e and you can see that might be the easiest way to play the a right there and then we've got a g which is you can either play it like this or you can play it like this and that's because g is made up of g's b's and d's and you can see the b string is obviously part of the chord because it's a b but at the third fret here there's also a d which is why people play it this way or this way so we got c a g e e chord is made of e's g sharps and b's so here's e b e g sharp b e that's why this is an e chord that also means you can just play a couple notes still an e chord kind of cool and then we've got a d chord here which is made of d's f-sharps and a's and you notice this is part of the reason why people say you can't play this e string is because it's an e not part of a d chord because remember only d's f sharps and a's but this is why people sometimes put their thumb over and fret this f sharp that's hanging out right here so here's where it gets really cool if you map out all the c's e's and g's on the whole fingerboard you get this cool pattern you see okay here's kind of a c shape here now if i grab a capo if i capo on the third fret here um and i want to play a c chord to play a c chord i would actually have to play an a shape so i'm playing an a a chord according to you know guitar shapes but all the notes in the chord are c's e's and g's which actually makes this a c chord if i capo on the fifth fret here all the c's e's and g's kinda happen to fit into a g shape that's pretty cool let's see if i capo on the 8th fret here and you want to play a c chord all the c's e's and g's happen to fit into an e shape pretty cool and then the final shape is capo here at the 10th fret and to play a c chord you have to play a d shape in a nutshell what you just saw is when we play a c chord open here first position whatever you want to call it um you've got this kind of progression of shapes that goes up the neck c shape a shape g shape notice i'm not even bothering to try to bar that because it's it's just giving you the information it doesn't mean you have to play a g shaped bar chord um people rarely do that unless they have massive hands here's your e shaped c chord up here and then here's kind of a d shape and then we're back to the c shape up here [Music] so essentially the caged system just is a way to describe how the shapes line up on the neck to clarify here um once you get to that d shape it just starts back over at the c shape so if we start with uh let's say a g chord here remember g is g b and d um well we got a g shape the next chord shape is an e shape and if you look here oh all the g's b's and d's are all in an e shape if we find all the g's b's and d's here we end up with a d shape if we find all the g b's d here see what i'm saying so we've got g shape e shape d shape c shape and then a shape and then we're back to the g shape this is just the order of shapes do you see what i mean now how this is not really something to do as much as something to observe just to make it nice and clear we'll take another chord shape so let's take an f chord here we got here's an f chord so this is the e shape that means the next shape is going to be a d shape and i'm going to play just part of it here but you can see the rest of it is hanging out back here um the next shape is a c shape because we've got c a g e d c a g e d just kind of loops around so here's this c shape not really a fun chord to play but uh it's there and then the next shape is an a shape and then the next shape again is this g shape and then we're back to this e shape here which this weird camera guitar is not very easy to hold so i'm just going to let you kind of [Music] let you kind of see it there but what am i trying to say here you could take any chord here's an a chord so we got a shape g shape e shape d shape c shape and then back to e shape or back to a shape excuse me um so this information is cool what do you do with it so now i want to talk about the pentatonic scales that go with each of these shapes so remember back here when we remember way back like two minutes ago when we plotted out all the c's e's and g's on the whole fingerboard and we went oh that makes a c shape an a shape a g shape an e shape and a d shape how cool a pentatonic scale is made of five notes uh chords are made of three notes pentatonic scale made of five notes a pentatonic scale in the key of c is c d e g a and then we're back to c so if we plot out all the available um notes in that pentatonic scale here we get this nice shape well let's plot them out on the whole fingerboard here so uh we've got this c shaped chord and then we've got this c shaped pentatonic scale that goes with it they kind of like overlap each other they all hang out in the same area let's move up to the a shape here we've got an a shaped chord which i'm not playing the whole chord i'm just playing let's see i'm playing a c a g a c and an e that's all you need i'm not worrying about this note down here um so the pentatonic scale that fits in this position is kind of nice now the next shape is g shape and if we turn that into a pentatonic scale look familiar this is the classic first pentatonic scale that most people learn so then our next chord shape is e and there's an e shape pentatonic scale goes with it and then our next shape here d and there is there's this nice d-shaped pentatonic scale and then we're back to the c-shaped pentatonic scale see that c shape hiding there and then here's the scale that goes with it so another way to think about this is these shapes c a g e d c a g e d it's it's like a circle um once we get to the 12th fret here the notes are an octave higher but they start over in the same sense this shape um we've got the c shape here we got the c shape here if we move everything up two frets now we're in the key of d all those shapes just shift up with it and then if we move up to let's say let's say the key of f all these shapes just keep moving up and now uh if we move up to the key of g here all these shapes down here start popping up that are available now so let's let's scoot it up one more let's scoot up to the key of a major so everything just shifts up and we've got now this this g shape is here because we got our root note here e shape is here [Music] so when you keep scooting it up you keep having more shapes available down here and if you scoot it down you keep having more shapes available up here the whole system is always in that same order c-a-g-e-d and if you shift one scale to a new key you end up shifting all of them to the new key if you want to think about how this connects in kind of a rhythm and chord kind of way i have a video called chords on the top three strings that touches on some of this stuff d shape e shape and a shaped chords all just up on the top three strings here and there's some kind of fun stuff you can think about that connects to this video i want to give you some ways to practice this now um we've talked about what the caged system is we've talked about how the chords line up and we've talked about how the pentatonic scales line up now let's pick some kind of fun ways to use this so if you're comfortable with this uh g-shaped pentatonic scale something you can do is you can map out okay what is the next shape up and if we're in the g shape the next shape is the e shape so here's g shape [Music] here's the e shape so let's just look at those two shapes for a second and what i want you to think about is you can practice sliding from one shape into the next shape kind of methodically okay i can slide up to that shape on the e string now i'm going to practice sliding up to that scale on the b string now the g string [Music] and you can think about sliding up from the finger that's in front or the note that's in the back here uh front back and then once you feel like you're comfortable with those two shapes you have basically taught your brain how to deal with the next shape and the next shape will come much easier and the concepts will make sense if you try doing it with everything all at once sometimes it just becomes a traffic jam and it can be really frustrating so start slow keep it simple be very mindful about the way you're practicing this stuff and it'll come along you can also pick the scale behind which in this case is the a shape because c a g e d this is the g shape this is the e shape here's the a shape so you can also map out ways that you want to slide up through both scales like this [Music] kind of fun you can also slide back through them [Music] and the idea here and i can't stress this enough is you want to remove the guesswork for now if it's if it feels overwhelming to figure all of them out start with just the top two strings and think okay if i'm in this scale i know i can slide from here to here okay uh if i'm in this scale i know that i can slide from here to here or so if it's overwhelming take it slow take it easy focus on two strings at a time once you get really comfortable sliding between shapes on those two strings add one more string it's going to be a little more satisfying i think to work on the high strings first but do whatever feels good to you so you might practice going that's cool [Music] so again i'm sliding from the back of this shape here's the back here's the front i'm sliding from the back of this shape to the back of this shape the back of the g shape to the back of the a shape so if you want to keep inching your way forward here's the e shape here's the d shape so you could think okay now that i'm comfortable in the g shaped pentatonic scale maybe i want to hang out just on the e shape and the d shape you can do the same thing so again i'm just picking where i want to slide to so i know that if i'm playing the e shaped pentatonic scale i know i can slide up to here and now i'm in the d shape once you start getting a feel for it it's awesome and the cool thing is you can shift all this to a new key if you can memorize what note is the root note of every scale so here if we're in the key of a that's an a [Music] that's the root note for this scale back here the g shape it's also the root note for the e shape the d shape is tricky it's rooted on the d string but you can just remember okay root note for g shape root note for e shape two strings down two frets up that's an octave that's the root note for the d shape and then we've got on the a string here this is obviously an a it's at the 12th fret of the a string that's the root note for the c shape and it's also the root note for the a shape [Music] so i'm going to put a jam track on and kind of just play around with some of this stuff and think about either sliding through the shapes or just moving somewhere else all together i'm gonna map out the shape so that you can kind of see what i'm doing yeah so starting out in the g shape here [Music] sliding up to the e shape grab one note from the d shape that's another cool thing it's just sliding up and then coming back down so that one note i know that it's part of this d [Applause] shape so there i went i went from the d shape up to the c shape now i'm in the a shape [Music] now i'm back to the g shape [Music] grabbed a note from the e shape there so if i want to jump somewhere else [Music] i know there's a root note here there's c shape again [Music] i know here's the e shape there's an a [Applause] [Music] okay so hopefully that's some good stuff to think about uh please feel free to leave a comment or if you have questions um you know i want to keep making more videos like this so your feedback helps me figure out what video to do next um please check out the pdf that goes with this uh the pdf is going to talk about the relative minor versions of these shapes which they're all the same shapes there's just a different reference note and that'll make more sense uh if you're familiar with the g shape pentatonic scale you know how it's in a major key and a minor key at the same time well all the scales have a major root note and a minor root note and um the pdf will make a ton of sense hopefully let me know if you have any questions i'm looking forward to making more videos have fun and yeah take it easy

Channel: Scott Paul Johnson

Views: 7,710,308

Rating: 4.9653759 out of 5

Keywords: CAGED, CAGED SYSTEM, HOW TO Solo, play up and down the fingerboard, whole neck, up and down neck, music theory, whole fingerboard, soloing, guitar solo, how to, C A G E D, chord shape scale, scale shapes, all the scales, learn guitar scales, guitar fingerboard, all scales, every scale, 5 pentatonic scales, 5 chord shapes, 5 positions, pentatonic, penta, CAGE system, lead guitar, shapes, fingering, up the neck, paul davids, explained, beginner, what is, exercises, lesson, PDF

Id: 0Qp26KcDrGw

Length: 22min 11sec (1331 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Probably_Relevant]

The fixed camera angle on the guitar with the note/shape overlays is a great visualisation

[u/Psyqlone]

This is really helpful. I just subscribed to your channel. Thank you.

[u/scooter_j]

Jesus! Thanks for all the positive feedback!!!!!!! I'm definitely planning on making a lot more of these videos. Also, to the person that gave me gold for this.... wow. I'm honored.

I'm inspired by all the support. Thank you so much.

[u/MisterJeebus87]

Fantastic video. Best caged vid I’ve seen so far.

[u/w116]

10 out of 10 for content, presentation and style, those hours were well spent.

​

( any chance of tackling the enigma of pedal steel ? )

[u/nowinn8]

Wow man, this is a great video and actually helped me connect some dots that I was having trouble with for a while.

[u/jaykzo]

Very good lesson!

[u/[deleted]]

This is awesome, thank you

[u/ScepticalSenses]

Props man. Very informative, well done!