Caged System

Not that I know much about CAGED....

but the top 4 strings of a C shaped barr can be used LOTS of places such as hitting that pesky Eb you'd hoped to avoid.

Getting the top 5 strings of a C shaped barr is still hit-or-miss for me.

I am unsure of 'caged'. my understand is a movable chord shape.
Iif that is the case:
I use the C7, open form not barre, sliding that shape up the neck gives awesome voices.
round the fifth fret things get real interesing. all the string s work; you are playing an E7. when moved past the twelfth fret with an overdrive on the tones are killer.

I will use a barre C if it sounds right. and of course it's very closely related to Am7. but Dogbite is right, C7 shape is a lot more fun.

Barred D? not so much. always wondered about that, as the open D is predominantly an open C up two frets

but over the years, I've used barre chords less and less except for the convenience of fast transposition, when doing rapid reading of charts or where that 1-5 bass notes power chord tone is desired (E shape).

the E-A-D strings of a G shape are a close-spaced major triad (as are A-D-G strings for a C shape). nice sound, but doesn't always require the higher three strings, so why barre the whole thing?

greg,

That's kind of what I was thinking but was wondering how often they really got used.

I'm not a fan of CAGED, because I find it limiting - sure, there are five basic open chords... but once you move up the neck, you've also got notes behind them on the fretboard; as a result, there are lots more than five major shapes. Really, any system that talks about 'shapes' ignores the fact that they're made up of NOTES. In the long run, you're better off learning the fretboard and how chords are spelled. Then you'll be able to play a D chord 100+ ways instead of just five.

But even though I don't use "CAGED", I do use the voicings it describes. If I'm playing rhythm and I need a D chord, I might play x5423x or 5x423x. Both of those are really C shapes.

G gets used a lot - think of the C chord in "Stairway to Heaven": xx5558. That's a G chord shape played on the four treble strings. You can also find a finger-friendly rhythm chord for the G shape C chord as 87555x.

I hardly ever use the D shape, but there are exceptions. One that comes to mind is if I'm going from a diminished 7th to a major chord by half steps in the bass... if I need to go Gº -> F#m7b5 -> E, I might use xx5656 -> xx4656 -> xx3656

I generally use "C" shapes when my teacher makes me do it as a form of torture, or when I'm switching from an A minor shape, which is an easy 1-finger change.

I thought nobody ever used G shapes until I realized that one of the most common chords in Hendrix songs is a partial G shape (i.e. x7779x).

The most obvious example of a C shape I can think of is the opening to "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I've found the caged system more helpful for understanding how arpeggios and scales (major or relative minor/modes) relate it back to the chords. For example, if I want to learn a key across the neck it's easy to see how the patterns all connect to each other. Also, if I'm improvising a melody in C major, then change keys to G major, if you know the caged system then it's not a huge problem.

I agree with Steve-O.
I use the CAGED chords as a way to visualize the related scales and arps anywhere on the neck.
It also allows me to navigate through key changes without changing positions.
The chord shapes themselves are not that useful as voicings, but again, being able to visualize them helps me to see the
"money" notes anywhere.

The CAGED system - and knowing what those chords are in different positions on the neck - comes in very handy when you're playing with a capo.

:D :D :D

Vic