CAGED

Every guitarist has probably read or heard about CAGED somewhere. But what exactly is this CAGED?

CAGED describes a — let’s call it a technique — on the guitar to visually orient yourself with basic chords.

Basic Chord

The chords we need for this are already in the name:

C, A, G, E, D.

Only now we call every chord that looks like a C (the first in the picture) = C Shape. The A chord = A Shape and so on.

With these 5 chords we can now play all the remaining major chords.

How does it work?

The black dots in the upper picture describe the fingers of your left hand. The white dots on the edge are the so-called “open strings”. In other words, strings that are not pressed but are still played. So, even though you don’t press anything, the empty strings sound. The crosses stand for strings that should not be played.

Now we move all 5 chords up one fret. This means that the empty strings must now also be pressed with the left hand.

What we need to remember in addition to the shapes are the respective root notes. Marked in red in this picture. So if the root note is on a D, the chord is called D major. If the root note is on an F#, the chord is called F# major, and so on.

A mistake that is often made; wrong spacing.

Since the A major chord is usually played with a space between the open strings and the fingers,

this spacing must be maintained. Even if you move it up one, two or 10 frets:

Since we don’t have six fingers on one hand, it is recommended to play these chords as barre chords afterwards.

Applying CAGED

Now the chords only need to be applied. For this it is helpful to memorize all the notes on the first three strings of the guitar. So the E, A and D strings.

Connecting CAGED

Now all these shapes can also be connected to each other. So if it says you should play a D major chord, you don’t necessarily have to play the normal D major with the open strings.

You could also play the D major as a C shape with the root note on the 5th fret. But also as an A shape with the root note starting on the 5th fret or — although a bit cumbersome because it’s relatively high up — with the G shape with the root note on the 10th fret.

CAGED Map

Here I have listed a CAGED Map. So you can clearly see the possible variations with the CAGED system to be able to play a C major chord (in the PDF also again not crossed out :P).