Hi All,
I have come across some articles on other guitar websites and in various publications that refer to the CAGED system were apparently all chords can be played acorss the fretboard in under three minutes, in fact i ahve seen the guys from lick library use this sytem to play an incredible amount of chords on every position on the fretboard on there aptly tiitled "know the fretboard" DVD.
The guy that i shant name gives you the idea of this but doesn't explain it very well. He has total control and mastery over it but doesn't actually give you anything to work with.
on the DVD has asks you to get to know the notes on ther fretboard which i can already do but there are some notes that i call the blanks that i dont know what they are. An example of this is starting on the bottom E string it should go EF.G.A.BC.D.E, if you accept the dots as what i call a blank then what should these notes be?
Also if someone can make the CAGED system clearer form me and anyone ales confused by it clearer it would be much appreciated.
Thanks
If you are going up they are sharps(#) if you are going down they are flats.
E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E
- Actually I don't know WHEN you call a note sharp or flat( anyone?)
http://justinguitar.com/en/TB-031-CAGEDsystem1.php
has some good stuff for free on this - I just noticed that his right up leaves those blanks....was this the site you were referring too?
Be wary of anything that promises mastery of anything in under 3 minutes, except maybe boiling an egg, and even then only if you like them soft and runny. :D
The CAGED system is a way of taking the 5 most common open major chord shapes and moving them up the fretboard to produce yet more chords. For example if you take the common E major shape (022100) and move every note up 1 fret to 133211, your E major becomes F major (barre chord). To get F minor, then you either have to move the open E minor shape up 1 fret like you did with E major, or else you have to know how a minor chord is constructed in relation to a major so that you can modify the major shape accordingly. Understanding how chords are constructed takes a lot longer than 3 minutes!
And some of the shapes work for major but not minor or other chord types. The common C major shape (X32010) if moved up 2 frets will give you D major (x54232) but you can't easily get D minor from it because you would need to lower strings 4 and 1 by one fret to get the minor chord. String 1 is under your first finger so it can't be lowered any more without a drastic modification of the major shape. So, the 'caged' system is useful but limited, and it's not going to give you every chord in under 3 minutes.
The missing notes in your question are the sharps/ flats
on string 6, the note on fret 2 can be called F sharp (F#) because it's higher than F (but not as high as G) or it can be called G flat (Gb) because it's lower than G (but not as low as F). The same applies to all the others.
When working with actual music, one of those names will be used (flat or sharp) depending on the key of the music. For example, if the song is in the key of G major, the 2nd fret note is F# not Gb because F# is in the key and major scale of G (GABCDEF#). The G major scale has F#, not Gb, because every lettername must be present in the scale.
Thank you Guys,
Both those answers certainly helped. Is there an actual lesson guide on this site about CAGED. The whole idea was not to learn to play every chord in every positionin under three minutes but only to be able to play every chord in every position, i think that would be cool and give a better understanding of the fretboard.
Also scales, i know im pushing my luck now but thought i'd ask because the last repsonse i got was excellent. When playing a scale is TTSTTTS and also how do you know if you play across the fretboard or up and down the fretboard? If i'm not clear my apologies but you guys are the masters and i look forward to a response.
Again my thanks for your last response both of you.
When playing a scale is TTSTTTS and also how do you know if you play across the fretboard or up and down the fretboard?
Glad we could help :D
The principle behind practising scales is that you play them in the most efficient way possible. That means hitting the notes with minimum hand movement or position shifting. For one or two octave major scales, the most efficient way is across the fretboard as you can hit every note without moving your hand. For three octave major scales you have to shift at some point in order to reach the higher notes.
Here's an example of a 3 octave G major scale involving two position shifts.
----------------------------------------------------------------------7--8--10---(shift)---12--14--15
-----------------------------------------------------------7--8---10------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------7---9-------------------------------------------
-----------------2---4-5----(shift)--7---9--10---------------------------------------------------------
--------2-3--5-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--3--5---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start with finger 2. The first shift is to position (fret) 7. The final shift is to position 12.
Again my thanks, i do appreciate the work you guys do here in helping the members.
- Actually I don't know WHEN you call a note sharp or flat( anyone?)
There's not a particular rule. F-sharp is exactly the same as G-flat on guitar. The choice is mainly one of convention and convenience. If you follow the circle of fifths through the keys, you add flats going down from C (C-F-Bflat-Eflat-Aflat-etc) or sharps going up from C (C-G-D-A-E-etc). But as a practical matter, you want each note to be represented only once in a scale. So in G for example, it would be awkward to have no F note of any sort, but to have both G-flat and G natural. Similarly, in the key of C#, you have a B# (ie C) just to keep things consistent.
