Help! I'm Stuck In A Rut And I Can't Get Out! Introducing The Caged System For Learning The Guitar Fretboard.
Stuck in a rut? Playing the same tired guitar licks? The caged system for guitar is quite possibly the single most powerful method that electric guitar players have if they want to deepen their understanding of the fretboard.
In order to gain the most benefit from this free guitar lesson you should know a few basic barre chords and pentatonic scales. The names of the notes along your E string and A string can also be very helpful. Click here if you need to learn note names. But most importantly of all, you can see the benefits of learning the guitar fretboard and how it will help you to play more interesting and melodic solos. The kind that take the listener on a journey and really serve the song. You know when one of your favourite guitar players just seems to hit that one note at just the right time?
This is probably an intermediate to advanced guitar lesson…whatever those levels mean! Do you get some kind of certificate or something? No. It simply means what I already said above. You're tired of playing the same old same old.
There is no one best way to learn guitar… other than simply playing it. But it's easy to get lazy and never learn new things. On top of that, there are so many genres, styles and personalities with electric guitar. What the caged system will do for you is it will force you into new territory on the guitar neck. It doesn't matter what genre of music you play. If you feel a need to play more interesting lead or rhythm guitar then it will help you tremendously. Best of all, it will keep you learning for the rest of your life…even when you're not practicing this guitar method directly!
This lesson is geared mostly toward electric guitar players, but there is absolutely no reason why acoustic players can't benefit. Especially if they play in standard tuning and want to expand beyond open position guitar chords.
I did something different this time out for the guitar lesson video. Instead of giving you a bunch of instructions, I just demonstrate a melodic guitar solo where I really play through the changes...using ideas gleaned from the caged system, of course :-) You'll have to excuse the sonic quality for now…I think perhaps it's time to get a telecaster and a small Fender amp! I also didn't use a click track or recording software because I'm waiting for splayed cables so I can use my studio monitors…but if there's another lesson here, it's throw Perfectionism out the window. Just do it!
What if you play in a "heavier" style of music than myself? For example like Joe Satriani or Viking metal? Then the same concepts apply! That's what separates the good players from the mediocre ones. The good players such as Joe Satriani or Steve Vai still target strong melodic notes in their solos…no matter how fast they play. Just take the ideas in this guitar lesson and add tons o' distortion! Another famous player who comes to mind who plays very melodically is Slash. He's great at targeting those strong notes at just the right time. Not to mention building his solos!
Dave's Tip: Get in the habit of recording your practice sessions. If I were creating a solo for one of my recordings, I would snag the strong highlights out of the improvised solo I did in the video and build from those ideas. I would keep doing that until I had a certain vibe that I liked and then try capturing that with with my microphones.
The whole point of all this is that I'm trying to sell you on the benefits of learning the strong chord tones on your fretboard. And the caged system works really well for a lot of players :-) But remember, no one method or system is the holy grail... It takes patience, hard work and discipline. Make sure to have some fun while you're at it! There's an in depth guitar lesson video below that explains more of the nuts and bolts to help get you started!
Benefits of the CAGED System for Guitar Players
Warning!…The caged system is not some kind of "quick fix" for your electric guitar playing. Depending on where you're starting from, it will take time to learn and begin applying. But as I said, it's probably the closest thing that we have as guitar players to a single method for learning the fretboard. So dive in now and start learning a bit about it. I'm sure if you give it an honest try you'll soon want more…it's THAT powerful!
There are other guitar methods you may hear about for learning your way around the guitar. Guitar modes, melodic minor scales, harmonic minor scales, , etc. These all have a place in the learning curve but are only useful IF you understand where the chord tones are. If you don't, you're in for a very rough time with those approaches. And that is what the caged system will teach you…where the strong chord tones are. And it's fun to practice!
Chord Tones: The notes that make up a chord. A song may go from a C to and F to a G to an A minor. When the song happens to be on a certain chord, chord tones are the strongest sounding notes. They define the harmony and the melody at that time. The 2 strongest tones are actually the root and the 5th in any chord.
You may have heard about" guide tones." Guide Tones refer to the 3rd and 7th in chords like a dominant 7th. With the caged system we're sticking with basic 3 note chords that happen in most rock, pop or folk music. But even if you are interested in learning to play through the chord changes in a standard jazz tune, the approach we are taking will give you a huge head start.
Note: As I love to point out, there is a big difference between "bluesy" music and "traditional harmony." Trust your ears! If you can play the blues scale over the entire song, go for it! If you notice that it doesn't sound strong, then chances are using stronger chord notes will lift your playing up in that situation.
Another benefit I just thought of is that even when playing blues, it's very helpful to see how the chords lay out on the fretboard. The caged system will boost your playing in that way too!
So What The Heck Is it, And How Do I Start Learning It?
Great question :-) It's based on the open position chords that you already know! C A G E D. There's also a minor chord part of the system, but that's beyond the scope of this lesson.
Once you know the chord form/shape you are going to use, you find it's location on the neck. Here's how:
Let's say you're in position 5 and the song you are soloing on is on an F chord. If you know the notes along your strings, you would realize quickly that F is on fret 8 on your A string. Click here for blank printable guitar fretboard sheets. One of the "top secrets' to mastering your way around the neck is to draw these guitar pictures yourself. Try it!
And from doing some homework with the caged system you would know that the C form would lay the F chord out in position 5. Remember position 5 simply means that your 1st finger is lined up with the 5th fret on your fretboard. You would also immediately see the corresponding pentatonic scale and depending on how advanced you are, the mode.
When the song switched to a C chord you would see all the same things. Including the common tones. Common tones are notes that are in both chords and can be very useful in creating melodies. If you're confused, don't worry! Click here for free downloadable guitar fretboard graphics that show you all 5 basic chord forms from the caged system in different locations on the neck.
If you're still not sure about why knowing where the strong notes are is useful... take a listen to these mp3s. In the first one, I just play what most intermediate guys do…a bunch of finger wiggling in a pentatonic box.
In the 2nd one, I target the strong chord notes and create a much stronger statement. I'm just using my very basic Yamaha Pacifica straight into Garageband…nothing fancy. Hopefully you can here the benefits of targeting the strong chord notes!
note: This is coming soon! I've recently needed to make some changes in my signal chain and my studio monitors are temporarily out. Should be here in a couple of weeks along with the free guitar lesson video :-) Until then, if you have any questions about the caged system fire me an e mail. I'm always around!
This should give you a good idea of whether you're ready for the caged system. If you are, and you'd like to take it further please feel free to e-mail me with any questions! Thanks for tuning in and tuning up!
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