I hate the CAGED system. Actually, no, I love it, but I hate the way it's taught. Five big shapes, lots of stretches, and a lot of people give up before it ever connects.
So here's another way of thinking about it. Three small chord shapes on the top strings, one simple fret pattern to link them, and you can get a major chord all the way up the neck. Once that works, you'll see exactly where the full CAGED shapes sit around it.
The three chord shapes ▶ 0:26
We're using G major as the example. Every shape only needs your first three fingers, and the shapes don't change much between them, which is why I picked them.
- Shape one: 5th fret on the D string, 4th fret on the G string, and a barre across the 3rd fret of the B and high e strings. That first note, the 5th fret on the D string, is our root note, G.
- Shape two: 9th fret on the D string, 7th fret on the G string, 8th fret on the B string, 7th fret on the high e string.
- Shape three: just a barre across the 12th fret of the D, G and B strings.
- Then shape one again, 12 frets higher: 17, 16, 15, 15 on the D, G, B and high e strings.
A quick note: you don't have to play all four notes of each shape. You can just play the first three, on the D, G and B strings, and leave the high e out. That's what I do when I run through it.
If you're not sure where G is on the D string, think of a normal G chord. The 3rd fret on the low E string is G. Go up two frets and across two strings to the D string, and you're on the 5th fret: the same note, an octave higher.
The 4-3-5 pattern that links them ▶ 2:22
The handy way to link these together is to remember how many frets there are between the notes on the D string.
- From shape one, go up four frets to shape two.
- From shape two, go up three frets to the 12th fret barre.
- From the barre, go up five frets to shape one again, an octave higher.
So: start the pattern, up four, up three, up five. And it's important that you practise this in reverse as well: down five, down three, down four. Not all music goes upwards, after all.
How the shapes fit the CAGED system ▶ 3:07
So how does this relate to CAGED? Each little shape is a piece of one or two of the big shapes.
Shape one is the E shape. These are the four highest notes of your basic major barre chord for G, the one with the root on the 3rd fret of the low E string. If you're playing these four notes, you know where you are and you can go straight to that full barre chord. It's the same notes.
Shape two sits between the D and C shapes. In the CAGED order, D comes after E, and it does here. If you take your third finger off, your first and second fingers are playing the end part of a D chord shape. Leave your third finger on and you're playing a higher note on top of that D shape. But it's also part of the C shape, which comes next in the order. So when you hold this chord, you're overlapping the D and C shapes, more in the C shape than the D.
Shape three is the A shape and part of the G shape. Think about what an A chord looks like down at the open position. Most people barre their A chords, and this is the same thing taken up to the 12th fret. It's also part of the G shape, the next one in the order. The G shape is a bit of a nasty one this high up. You can outline it with the 15th fret on the low E string, the 14th fret on the A string, and then the 12, 12, 12 you were already holding. It's just a normal open G chord moved up 12 frets, without the 3rd fret notes on the B and high e strings.
Then you're back to shape one, the E shape, an octave higher, and the cycle starts again.
Moving it to other keys ▶ 6:06
This does mean you need to know the notes on the D string, because you need to know where you're starting. The first shape reaches backwards from the root, so you need a bit of room behind it.
Say you want D major. D is the open D string or the 12th fret, and you can't play shape one from the open string, because you'd need the "minus one" fret. So start up at 12, 11, 10, 10 instead.
A better example is C major. C is the 10th fret on the D string, so:
- Shape one: 10, 9, 8, 8 on the D, G, B and high e strings.
- Up four frets for shape two.
- Up three more for the barre.
- Up five more for shape one again. That's getting pretty high, so it may not fit on your guitar.
The lower down you start, the easier this is. And if you've practised it in reverse, you can go the other way. Starting from that C shape at the 10th fret, go back five frets and you've got the barre at the 5th fret. Go back three frets from that, and you're in your normal open C major chord shape.
Practise it in all 12 keys ▶ 7:35
Try this with as many different chords as you can. There are 12 in total, because there are 12 notes in music. And make sure you can go in both directions.
As with everything, there's an element of memorisation. You can't get around having to memorise a few little things, and the notes on the D string are the main one here. If you know your notes on the low E string better, which most people do, use the trick from earlier: find the note on the low E string, then go up two frets and across two strings to the D string. G is the 3rd fret on the low E string and the 5th fret on the D string. The Fretboard Navigator is a good way to drill those notes.
Why three-finger shapes are worth it ▶ 8:07
The cool thing about these shapes is that you can start to add little extensions and hammer-ons around them, and you can even throw your thumb over the top of the neck for a bass note. The standard CAGED shapes quite often tie you into fixed hand positions where there aren't many extra options for that kind of thing.
You should still practise around this: learn your keys, learn your scales. But I think this is a really handy way to break the CAGED system, or at least the major chord side of it, into something a bit more bite-sized. Minor chords aren't quite as accessible with this approach.
Pick a key, find the root on the D string, and run the 4-3-5 pattern up and back down until you don't have to count the frets. Then pick another key and have a go.
