If the CAGED system is your roadmap to fretboard freedom, then this lesson is a GPS-guided tour – and it will blow your mind how easy it is
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It’s no secret that a lot of guitarists shy away from music theory. Let’s face it, most of us want to have fun when we grab our guitars, not make our brains hurt. Luckily, you don’t need to bury your head in wordy books to decipher the secrets of the fretboard.
The CAGED system is a foolproof way to understand the musical relationships between notes, chord shapes and scale patterns, and this lesson from Pickup Music makes learning the basics a piece of cake. There’s a companion video lesson, too, so if you want some musical backing for the exercises, load it up and jam along.
We’ll start with a quick overview of the CAGED system for those who don’t know it. You take the five basic open chord shapes (C, A, G, E and D) and connect them together along the fretboard. Just like our well-known barre chords, these shapes can be moved around the neck and all five shapes neatly fit together.
1. How many ways can you play a C chord?
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Guess what? Every shape on this diagram is a C chord! It can be tough to spot the patterns at first, so read on and we’ll break them down for you. Note that ‘R’ denotes a root note, ‘3’ is a 3rd interval and ‘5’ is a 5th. We’ll let you work out which fingers to use!
2. Shapes you know
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You probably already know the open C (shown in red), and the ‘A shape’ (blue) and ‘E shape’ (green) barre chords. That’s three out of five already. G and D fill those gaps.
These two shapes aren’t commonly used – they’re a bit awkward to play and usually better options are available. But it’s still important to learn them to give us a full map of the fretboard.
3. Exercise 1: Strum the shapes
(Image credit: Pickup Music)
(Image credit: Pickup Music)
Time to get comfy playing through each shape in order: C, A, G, E and D. Make life easier by splitting that awkward G shape into two. And for the D shape, just play the little triangle section around the 12 fret. Don’t worry about the root note if you can’t reach it.
Important! Your aim here is to develop fretboard visualisation, not just muscle memory. Make this your main focus, more than playing the shapes. Jump to 5:50 in the video to play along with Molly.
4. Exercise 2: Play the root notes
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The CAGED system, like every good map, has markers for important places – and root notes are our landmarks for chord and scale shapes. There is always at least one root that crosses over between shapes. For example, the C and A shape share a root note at the 3rd fret of the A string.
Study the fretboard diagram, see where the root notes are in each shape and how they connect and use these as anchor points. Follow the video from 7:00 for a deeper explanation and play-along section.
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Dr. Molly Miller is a Professor of Studio Guitar at USC and one of the most sought-after session guitarists in L.A. – working with household names like Jason Mraz, Zayn Malik, and the Black Eyed Peas. Her band, Molly Miller Trio, has toured around the country at festivals such as Monterey Jazz Festival, Dizzy’s at Lincoln Center, and will spend the summer opening for Jason Mraz.
