CAGED system for guitar 

CAGED system introduction

If you’re just starting out on guitar, this isn’t the video for you.  However, if you’ve been playing for a while now, and you’re starting to get serious about understanding the guitar, you’re in the right spot!

“CAGED” is a handy acronym that simply stands for the open position chord forms that we use to understand the entire fretboard.  So, that being said, you should definitely be able to play these 5 chords before watching this video –
C – A – G – E – D.

The process of the CAGED system is to take each of the open position chord forms in the acronym, and one by one convert them to what we call a moveable chord form.  In most cases, we’ll have to re-finger the chord to free up the 1st finger.  In the CAGED system, it’s helpful to think of the 1st finger as sort of a “human capo” as we move all of these chords up and down the neck.

For the next step in this process, we’ll take each of the 5 chords that we’ve just converted to moveable chord forms, and put each of them in the key of C.  What will result is that we’ll be able to see C chords as they lay out up and down the entire neck.

When we look at the big picture, the CAGED chords (and associated elements) will ultimately serve as the lens
through which we can view and understand just about every bit of musical information, as it relates to the guitar.
Music (on any instrument) is made up of chords, arpeggios (individual tones), and scales.  Ultimately, you will learn how chords relate to arpeggios, and how to chords and arpeggios relate to scales.

Knowledge is power – if you can identify a lick/idea/chord progression, you can then expand on the idea and exponentially grow your personal musical vocabulary.  Here’s the first step!

I hope this helps,

Dave