I Was Stupidly Wrong About CAGED

[@michaelmonfils2642]

There actually is a simple way to avoid confusion with the CAGED System: KNOW THE NOTES ON THE E, A & D STRINGS! If the root of the chord is on the A string, you can either build a chord on that note angling toward the headstock using a C parent chord shape (include an index barre), or you can build a chord from that note that has notes on the bridge side using an A parent chord shape. If the root of the chord is on the E string, you can either build a chord on that note angling toward the headstock using a G parent chord shape (include the index barre), or you can build a chord from that note that has notes on the bridge side using an E parent chord shape. If the root of the chord is on the D string, you can either build a chord on that note angling toward the headstock using an F parent chord shape, or you can build a chord that has notes on the bridge side using a D parent chord shape. These visualizations provide all notes of the chords in all positions. Some confusion results from the mistaken assumption that the CAGED System should yield chords that are easy to play. For instance, when Jimi Hendrix played fluid rolling diads with hammer-ons, slurs and pull-offs, he was visualizing and utilizing the movable G parent chord shape; he wasn't trying to stretch and play that chord shape in its entirety with a large index barre and pinky, he was merely using that shape as a roadmap. And of course, these roadmaps overlap with scales as well. In fact, good writing and phraseology are based on melodic elements that conform to these chord shapes. BONUS!: This approach also eliminates confusion when using and transposing with a capo. All you have to do is know where the notes are on your "bass strings" (E, A & D). These notes are your compass points.

[@stewartbone4236]

You’re underrated imo. Lot of wisdom in your videos, chilled and easily followed.

[@TheRealAllenCrowe]

The beauty of music is that even though we all learn different things in different ways, at the end of the day it only matters that the sound is good. 😊

[@youtuberino7859]

I think the reason F isn't in CAGED is because F is just the E shape, its not a different shape.

[@PEAKSocialPresence]

Kinda like A is the G shape and D is the C shape. 🤔

[@napadave58]

I know what you mean and I absolutely know that you're correct.

[@bmoneybby]

I learned this 25 years ago out of a book. I was raised by musicians and no one had ever heard of it. I came out my bedroom after a year of playing 4-8 hours a day and everyone was flabbergasted at how the hell I got so good so fast. I hate that it's common knowledge now for people to easily find because I had to work so hard for it and it was my secret lol.

[@trusarmor4957]

it taught me multiple voicing and got me around the guitar neck

[@Gene_Cali]

Thanks to the CAGED system, I was able to free myself from 'first position " cowboy chords" territory. 🐴🤠. I retired and wanted to learn guitar, and thanks to YT and teachers like You, Marty Music, and Active Melody, I can enjoy the experience with confidence in my playing abilities. You all make if fun to learn. Thanks Sean.

[@brettrobinson4894]

500K Congrats!!!! Thanks for all the hard work!

[@donindri]

I didn’t see the real value of the CAGED system until I learned all the triads going across the strings as well as up the neck. Seeing how all those three note three string triads fit into and sometimes next to the CAGED boxes really helps to connect everything. Thanks for posting

[@brianrowland55]

This is exactly how CAGED helped me to see all the triads up and down the neck.

[@michaeldematteis3409]

I love the caged deal.i learned so many cool triads from them big shapes on every string set.really helps for learning the fretboard too.

[@MarkStidham3141]

I also think the F shape is a good addition, as you mentioned, especially with the lesson you gave recently on triads

[@chrisminer5884]

F shape is the E shape

[@guitarman704]

@@chrisminer5884 Exactly!

[@jvsings9146]

@@chrisminer5884 exactly

[@CalvinLimSH-ld5le]

The Caged system with Bass, triad & power chord shapes really helped me to improvise and visualize the whole guitar fretboard. It is great for fingerstyle picking patterns [ Pimi 3 or Pima 4 strings grouping ] or strumming chord fragments across the entire guitar fretboard. The other thing about caged is you can also do chord melody song arrangements where you stack the root note at the top and the melody at the bottom strings of the guitar. It is just an easy open concept once you master it and it brings you to another level of guitar playing how you can connect scales, pentatonic, arpeggio, chord, bass playing, etc ... movements across the guitar fretboard.

[@dougsmith8430]

Sean, , I would’ve never thought that you didn’t know caged! I didn’t know it till about three or four years ago, and it took a lot of practice, but it basically opened the entire footboard for me! I see it as a puzzle that fits together over the entire footboard, and it moves like a conveyor belt, that goes on forever, and it is all predicated on where you enter.

[@jvsings9146]

@@dougsmith8430 I’d like to see you play guitar with your feet.

[@G_Demolished]

Our boy is all grown up! 😊

[@seandaniel23]

I’m learning!

[@larryhagman3543]

I found CAGED pretty confusing as a multi decade beginner trying to finally escape rote learning and understand the fretboard. It helped in some ways not so much in others. The big lesson I think is the key words that I noticed Sean used often, ‘Visual Aid’. If you can see those chord shapes running up the neck it helps you understand the fretboard. My biggest problem was so many instructors online demonstrating CAGED by playing the exact same chord up the neck spelling out the letters. I thought “why would I want to do that”? Once I realised the visual aid part and got good enough in other ways (scales, triads, intervals, arpeggios) I can now use this visual aid to move through chord structures up and down the neck. For learning to play chords all around the neck I actually got more from (strangely enough) a throw away line from Sean. He was talking to someone about what was the most useful practice technique they used and they both agreed ‘Chord Scales’. Had never heard of this and googled it. You play a scale in a key but instead of playing the notes you play the chords with the root of the chord on that scale degree. Oh yeah that makes you think hard. Haven’t seen anyone do this as a lesson and it’s great. Hard but great. Be a great lesson if someone wanted to do it. HINT 😊. Also thanks for all the great lessons and terrible jokes very appreciated.

[@pkbreeze08]

This is already ony woshlist for Christmas. I picked up the Circle of Fifths wheel from them last year because of your video on it. Noisyclan make great products and this looks awesome, especially the book.

[@jasonzak5830]

Caged is really for solos, Sean. It's really about learning the scales in caged, and then applying them in whatever key you're in. You know that classic "A minor pentatonic" scale you referenced? That's the "G scale." So if you're playing in the key of "C" that classic 585757575858 is kind of like the 3rd position (the G in CAGED). So when soling, you can stay in key all over the next. My options from there would be slide up to the "A scale" where the notes are found at 353525253535. Or i could slide down to the "E scale" and play 8-10-7-10-7-10-7-9-8-10-8-10. What you we showing might be useful, but if you want to make music with CAGED, it's better applied for soling in the minor or major pentatonic. Hope this helps, I could explain it better in person 😆 keep doing your thing, man!

[@ralphhiggs5803]

Bawahahaha the caged system is a framework of octave pairs! Bawahahaha

[@TheCoctor]

The caged system has barely anything to do with scales. Its true that you can find caged shapes embedded in the diatonic shapes, and it is useful to know which caged shape is the tonic of a scale pattern, but its major use is finding chords all over the neck. Apart from that scales and caged are two unrelated concepts, and i think that using caged terminology for scale patterns can lead to unnecessary confusion

[@ralphhiggs5803]

CAGED shapes are octave pairs! Dare I say the root to any scale. You probably know a lot, but it seems you just want to argue. ??

[@stephenbouchelle7706]

Before internet, I laboriously figured out the basic idea of the CAGED system on my own. It was the only logical approach I could figure out on my own. It took quite a while to get to the shapes also being relative minor/major. I’m no music scholar, but I don’t know how else I would have approached learning chord positions.

[@ChristianNally]

Hey Sean... Great video. I agree that the real power of CAGED is that it's also GEDCA, DCAGE, etc. etc. cycle through all the options. And fer sher you were impressed about how an E-shape barred at the third fret is G. "CAGED" just gives you ALL of those cool connections. There's a DIFFERENT (not CAGED) cool way to connect chords where you shift fingers toward and away from the ceiling... i.e. neighbouring strings. I've desperately wanted some KZbin teacher to talk to me about it so that can show THAT other way. Reach out here if you're game. It's a trick that can help with transposing on the fly.

[@john749]

the pentatonic shapes also perfectly contain the root notes of the chords from CAGED. The pentatonic shapes will shift depending on if the chord is major or minor, but they also follow the same order.

[@chrisstout8451]

I wrote a guitar CAGED program in Visual C back in the early 2000s. As I was writing the software, it was really an eye opener and helped me understand how usefully the system is for figuring out chords up and down the neck. It’s all so well connected. I don’t know if that program will still work on the current Windows OS but it worked up until Windows 7. If you want to learn chord structures on the guitar, write a program to show it to you visually. Pretty cool.

[@alexhuevera939]

i wrote CAGED program on a WANG computer in 1968. what took you so long?

[@kmabarrettyt]

Hi Sean, Thanks for this video. I'm glad I'm not the only one having issues with CAGED. I think your explanation in this video is quite well done. My own issue is my fingers don't fit on frets above 7. They are simply too wide. I do the modified "A" in cowboy area and just don't go down the neck on chords. I can arpeggiate and most times use triads; it's just chords don't work cleanly for me. So, I occasionally "pretend" to play CAGED so I can remind myself where they are, but I never really use them. Sometimes, knowledge is good for itself even when it's not useful. Lol

[@NoCats-on-Guitars]

It may not be useful if you are strumming all 6 strings, for then some chords are a bit difficult to play over the fretboard. But you will immediately see the benefit of CAGED when you play chords as arpeggios or minimized (only 2, 3 or 4 strings). Then there will be no problem to play the chords, even if the fingers are smaller. If you dive in to it, the system opens a whole new world of playing and creating your own chords all over the fretboard.

[@jvsings9146]

You’re failing to keep the bar, which is why you’re having issues with open strings. You’re also looking at the G shape as an A extension, instead of looking at it as the bottom half of the G shape. In caged system, it’s probably the least practical shape other than to show you how the chords are connected.

[@pgramsey1]

C and D are essentially the same. Take the C on the 2nd string, move it up two, use your finger to fill where the nut was. A and G are essentially the same, if you play tha A with the pinky on 1st string 5th fret. So are F and E.

[@johnharreld4875]

I look at it like the 5 chord shapes each connect roots on different frets. So C and D shapes are different because they go in different directions and thus connect different roots. Same with the difference between A and G. But yes, E and F shapes are absolutely the same.

[@Bantamfire]

Helped me see some arpeggios by moving through the caged system

[@joejones4181]

Dude, you just convinced me that your old way was better! Maybe if I had the prop it would make more sense?

[@Larrymh07]

I use that G shape, too. I guess it would be a 2nd inversion.

[@Octovion]

Thank you for this video, Sean! I was wondering, if you used barre chord versions of the C, D and G shapes would it sound better to you? I only use the A and E shapes with CAGED because my hands are tiny and I can’t reliably use the other shapes.

[@theelderskatesman4417]

You get what you put into it

[@Stevestevestevestevestevesteve]

Yes this is how I have been using it 😅 I didn't know there was any other way to use it

[@jazzybluesguitar4317]

Good for you.

[@kaushalsuvarna5156]

I like the FAA DFF ADD idea

[@parickyates]

So Sean, I still think you’re not getting the CAGED system. In this video you’re not playing the chords entirely as taught in the CAGED system. You obviously know your way around the guitar, and you’re a good player and teacher, so no disrespect intended. But it might help you some to check out other KZbin videos on CAGED. If not no problem, I can still come to your channel and learn other stuff from you!

[@guitarizard]

If you want to learn what caged is for Brian Kelly of Zombie Guitar is your man! (Stitchmethod CAGED masterclass is great!)

[@parickyates]

Thanks for that comment. Yes, stitchmethod was good, I’ll check out Brian Kelly. Sean is great, he seems like a good guy and good player, but not really getting CAGED still. In my understanding, for chords and scales, it’s a way of visualizing the fretboard. It has so many applications, I’m still learning all it has to offer.

[@robinr22]

This would obviously ruin the caged system but I think the whole idea of teaching people an "A" shape etc makes guitar so much harder to learn - it's only a A shape because we learn the open chords first. There's nothing intrinsically "A" about it. But it messes everything up when you try to start thinking about a "C shape" voicing of a A chord. Completely unnecessary to force that mental jump. It would be so much better to learn them as shape 1,2 etc. No reference to chords at all. And just include learning the root note as part of the shape. Suddenly, all of this silliness about "A" shapes disappears. Just learn 5 shapes or whatever (with no unnecessary reference to open chords) and where the root note is in each one and then all you need to know is where the, say, E notes are and you can play an E major anywhere on the neck! Learn the minor chord shapes too and you can play any minor chord anywhere. New players could just learn the notes in the first three frets and then apply the shapes - the concept would be blindingly obvious and so much easier to translate to the rest of the neck. I'd wager most people who get stuck at open chords do so for exactly this reason. Any system that relies so fundamentally on teaching beginners the wrong way to understand something and then has to work around that wrong explanation for the rest of their life is nuts. Edit: and it wouldn't ruin caged. It'd just be 1,2,3,4,5 instead. Which makes so much more sense anyway.

[@billgross176]

nobody uses the G shape that way. CAGED is great for connecting the fret board and for arpeggios, scales and playing over chords.

[@nateday9328]

I tried CAGED...probably too early in my playing journey, so i didn't fully understand what i was trying to do. I subsequently learned triads and inversions on the string sets (add the 7 for four string inversions) and haven't looked back.

[@davemish4163]

The problem with CAGED is the application. There are far too many KZbin lessons that teach you what it is, but give you far too few ideas about how to use it. It's an amazing tool once you figure that out.

[@captainkangaroo4301]

Remember when Ian used to call you a juggernaut when you had 40K subscribers?

[@briangable08]

I think of the caged system as E shape up the scale F#minor G#minor A B C# D° using bare chods upthe neck then use the A shape n D shape going up the neck using the notes on 5th n 6th strings to find which root note for the shapes respectfully thereby learning the notes on the fret board which you are already aware and fluent with ❤ oh I also subscribe to Ricky Cominsky and Rick Beato for extra input xx

[@PelvisCashley]

Sean, you're over complicating it....for instance, put your pointer finger on the root of the "A" string, skip a fret and barre the triad....for a better sounding voicing using the "A" shape. If you use the roots on the 5th string for each shape the voicings will all be clearer. TIP: Eliminate the 6th string when using the "G" shape....much easier and you still get a full sound.

[@WhereTheBASShasNoName]

I've barely touched the CAGED. Then again that sounds like something that would my own personal guitar playing in a CAGE... Ha ha (awkward laugh)

[@chrishelbling3879]

Why not just use (full or partial) barre-E or barre-A shapes for everything? What is the point of the G D C shapes?

[@TheCoctor]

Depends on what youre trying to use caged for, but generally speaking, youd simply be missing a lot of possibilities. For example, it can be much easier to reach the notes contained in the d and g shapes from where on the neck youre currently playing

[@chrishelbling3879]

@@TheCoctor interesting, thanks. Can you share 1 example?

[@TheCoctor]

@@chrishelbling3879 one example i can think of right now would be slow dancing in a burning room. Theres a part of the intro where it would be possible to play a standard open e chord, but its much easier to play an e chord in the c/d shape because its right next to your fingers.

[@nickdonalds0546]

Bro, when tf did you escape the nutty putty cave? I thought you was burried their forever 😂

[@MrTelekes]

After watching this video the product you were talking about looks like a great tool. So I ordered one, my card got charged, never received an email nor the product. Emailed the company and no response yet. Pretty sad.

[@seandaniel23]

I’ll let them know!

[@dezedaar8009]

Start on the D shape and everything falls together..

[@dogseathomework4171]

But good at investing in your time at dinosaur theme parks. Spared no expense

[@jamesglaisyer4992]

verbal diRRHEA

[@MelodyMaker]

Folks who have dissed CAGED simply were too lazy to learn it and put it to work. It's a puzzle piece and has value. Combine it in a layered fashion with the five diatonic patterns and you've made yourself into a more versatile guitarist. It takes work / practice and if you're not up to that - oh well.

[@tomm5023]

I beg to differ. The alternatives take more work, such as the Berklee or 3nps system or simply engraving intervals in your brain. I never liked caged because of it’s reference to open chords or shapes based manner. Whatever floats the boat, but yep, it will take work. Cages might take you faster at some basic concepts, but at a point you should forget it and simply know your intervals and notes inside out.

[@MelodyMaker]

@@tomm5023 "reference to open chords" is actually a good thing. What's not to like about that? You have identified triad notes.

[@robinr22]

​@@MelodyMakerbecause having to mentally translate an "A" shape into other chords is a completely unnecessary way to think about it. It's an extra mental step that isn't necessary. Just call it shape 1 and teach the root note. No need to mention A at all.

[@MelodyMaker]

@@robinr22 I suggest that despite knowing roots all along the board, caged shapes are more easily accessed. Very good guitarists will be able to choose tools in addition to utilizing their ear. The mind should work in addition to the ear. Winging it is not good enough for some. CAGED is a real tool.

[@tomm5023]

@@MelodyMaker That’s exactly what I disliked because of what the comment above says. It’s not an A shape. It’s a 5-1-3 triad. That’s essential to understand from the start. I don’t want to think of A when I play B. I rather think I play a B with F# as bassnote. Takes more effort from the start, but in the long run it will be more efficient.

[@ampetruzzi]

WOW, a coupon for twenty percent off. I saved almost 18$ on my order to the Clan. Love their products and your channel !

[@salmorojo]

NOT convinced yet

[@462rob]

Nice guy. Good guitarist. Just made CAGED even more confusing and useless. I'll stick to triads.

[@bmoneybby]

Investing is amazing,.. for all the people that got your money.

[@workinman3878]

Functional stoner

[@whiskersb5296]

Here’s the next thing about caged- it’s really only three shapes. The c and the d are the same and and g are the same. Sort of.

[@PeterFrayne-o4n]

@whiskers.Tim Pierce does a good video explaining this.

[@tomheineman4369]

Investment failures aren't really failures if you didn't have any money to invest

[@ianholt7284]

This guy...

[@matthewglazier]

Hmmmmm.....

[@willg0opl]

The whole concept is misleading: there is no separate C and D shape. The D shape is a C moved up two frets. The G shape is E moved up three frets. Talk about castles built on sand... So: much more important: learn how these shapes run into each other.

[@hazelmoore4754]

The g shape doesnt work up and down the neck without barring and barring and making a g shape under it is impossible

[@G_Demolished]

This is the fundamental misunderstanding of people who put CAGED down. CAGED is not about _playing_ those shapes. It is about _SEEING_ those shapes. CAGED is quite simply the ability to see the tones of the major chords all over the neck.

[@pi-sx3mb]

Linda was right - you're a huge disappointment Sean.

[@seandaniel23]

How dare you throwback in such an elegant way!!!

[@pi-sx3mb]

@@seandaniel23 LOL, after that video where you described your ... ummm ... "complicated" relationship with her I couldn't hit the subscribe button fast enough. We've all known a Linda ... 😝

[@rogerpercival5486]

Your still lost

[@TexLogan-du2yi]

LOL, investing is really hard to do without a good mentor IMHO. Having a great mentor changed my life. It's similar with music too.

[@ldlework]

bro get a second camera, you're at .5 million subs. send it to a highschool student to cut up into a video.

[@kaushalsuvarna5156]

That's not the vibe of this channel tho 😅 Also he used to do that way back, but i like this casual way of learning more

[@ldlework]

@@kaushalsuvarna5156 you like not being able to see what he’s taking about? Why even take the time to post this dumb comment

[@chrisrosencrans]

Don't sell out. Caged system sucks

[@IZZY_EDIBLE]

Boooooo.

[@ralphhiggs5803]

@chrisrosencrans The CAGED system exists whether you recognize it or not. It is nothing more than octave pairs where you can use the degrees of the scale any way you like to construct scales arpeggios. It's a simple framework easily learned in about thirty minutes where you can find the root of any scale. The reason the major scale is called "major" is because ALL music IS derived from it. Any other approach is ok but is a waste of time when you realize the expediency of the CAGED system. It is the keys to the Corvette.