What is the "CAGED" system?

Understanding it is easier than you think. (Part Two)

The eternal mystery for many guitarists is the use of the "CAGED" system on the guitar. Those five letters (CAGED) represent the common open-string chord shapes you already know, that you can use anywhere on the fretboard. If you understand and can play "Barre" chords, you probably already have a pretty good idea on how these shapes appear in Barre chords. However, if you are not someone who plays Barre chords, you can use a Capo and the CAGED system to play chords anywhere on the fretboard. 

This is part two of a guitar lesson on using the CAGED system while also using a capo. In this section I will show you how to look at common open-string chords as having different names depending on where they are played on the fretboard, while using a capo. In Part One of this lesson, I talked about moving the "C" major chord from the open-string position to the 2nd and 4th fret positions to form differently named chords.

For this example, let's use the "G" major chord. In the image below, you can see the common open-string "G" major chord.

We will now place the capo onto the second fret to form a different chord. This chord is now the "A" major chord. It is the exact same shape as the "G" major chord, but because the open strings have been altered one whole step up in tonality from the capo, the shape remains the same, but the names of the notes in the shape are all one whole step higher, giving us the "A" major chord.

Now, let's do the same thing again, only this time we will move the capo to the fourth fret giving us the "B" major chord.

You can do this anywhere on the fretboard. You may however, want to limit yourself from capo-ing the fretboard any higher than maybe the seventh or eighth fret as practicality does serve a purpose on just how cramped you want your fingers to be on the higher frets.

My suggestion is to practice all of the open-string chords that you already know, in various places on the fretboard by moving the capo around. Try all of the chords in the key of C major (C, Dm, Em, F, G and Am), capoed on frets one and two. Then try all of the chords in the key of G major (G, Am, B, C, D and Em) capoed on frets three and four. Continue this with other keys to get used to the groupings of chords that go with each key, no matter where you are on the fretboard. You will be training your ears to listen for new voicings with old chords.

Let me know if you have any questions by leaving a comment below.