CAGED - the good, the bad and the ugly?

CaseOfAce

There's some valid criticisms in the pic below ... but I learnt a great lick that linked a mixolydian scale with it's major CAGED shape last night which blew my mind / kinda tied the room together if you know what I mean...
I also think ..well ..why would you talk CAGED with a pianist..?

DefaultM

That looks like a first year college assignment where he's been told to be on the 'against' side of it.

Roland

Many guitarists will disagree with all his statements

kelpbeds

Totally disagree with most of that and completely unhelpful.

Gilly

This is marketing not advice.

blobb

or "How putting red text on a black background hurts your eyes"?

hollywoodrox

This looks like a Tom Hess handout , to be fair  he has some valid points you’re best familiarising yourself with three notes per string and CAGED or anything that helps you map out the fretboard in your mind . I’ve not yet got that Tom Quayle app ,that seems excellent , I bloody threw away my cheap Irig adapter for my iPad when I moved as the mic is a bit flaky on mine 

roberty

What CAGED is good for is visualising various diatonic arpeggios in a single position. What it doesn't do is stop you from doing anything fucking else

Keefy

roberty said:

What CAGED is good for is visualising various diatonic arpeggios in a single position. What it doesn't do is stop you from doing anything fucking else

Absolutely this.

The CAGED system is not the be-all and end-all of finding your way around the guitar fretboard, it’s just a step on the way. I used it to learn my major scales early on in my playing - it helped me to sight read and to play by ear. I rarely use it now but I still know where all the notes are on the fretboard.

The ‘point’ about communicating with other musicians is completely irrelevant to CAGED, it’s more about musical literacy in general.

viz

I don’t understand CAGED. I have a mental block about it. I keep forgetting what it’s for and it doesn’t seem sit right with me somehow. I’d love someone to explain it properly to me. 

Keefy

viz said:

I don’t understand CAGED. I have a mental block about it. I keep forgetting what it’s for and it doesn’t seem sit right with me somehow. I’d love someone to explain it properly to me. 

Didn’t you read the warning notice?!

AntonHunter

No idea who that Tom Hess is (and I'm not giving him the pleasure of googling him), but it looks remarkably like he hasn't learned the CAGED system to me. If anyone knows him, send him a Joe Pass book yeah?

Gilly

AntonHunter said:

No idea who that Tom Hess is (and I'm not giving him the pleasure of googling him), but it looks remarkably like he hasn't learned the CAGED system to me. If anyone knows him, send him a Joe Pass book yeah?

Don’t bother. Think stereotypical loudmouth American right wing nut job and you’re in the ballpark. Levi Clay did some videos on him exposing his shady practices and how he runs his teaching business like a pyramid scheme and a cult (yes really.)

roberty

Gilly said:

AntonHunter said:

No idea who that Tom Hess is (and I'm not giving him the pleasure of googling him), but it looks remarkably like he hasn't learned the CAGED system to me. If anyone knows him, send him a Joe Pass book yeah?

Don’t bother. Think stereotypical loudmouth American right wing nut job and you’re in the ballpark. Levi Clay did some videos on him exposing his shady practices and how he runs his teaching business like a pyramid scheme and a cult (yes really.)

Came across some school of Hess tutor once and it is basically the guitar equivalent of Scientology, run by a MAGA dickhead 

Gilly

roberty said:

Gilly said:

AntonHunter said:

No idea who that Tom Hess is (and I'm not giving him the pleasure of googling him), but it looks remarkably like he hasn't learned the CAGED system to me. If anyone knows him, send him a Joe Pass book yeah?

Don’t bother. Think stereotypical loudmouth American right wing nut job and you’re in the ballpark. Levi Clay did some videos on him exposing his shady practices and how he runs his teaching business like a pyramid scheme and a cult (yes really.)

Came across some school of Hess tutor once and it is basically the guitar equivalent of Scientology, run by a MAGA dickhead 

That’s exactly it! Well put.

EricTheWeary

I have a book on CAGED which basically says here are five different ways to play Happy Birthday. Now you have learned these go play Giant Steps. 
But John Frusciante is often said to be a CAGED player, the chap from Anyone Can Play Guitar says he sees the fretboard in terms of CAGED. I have been making a poor attempt at learning the solo from Santeria by Sublime and I can see how that follows a CAGED pattern. So, as an act of faith it works well for some people and that the combination of CAGED and a decent understanding of theory opens the fingerboard up. If you want to be the fastest metal player or the gnarliest bluesman it's probably just a diversion. 

guitarjack66

CAGED has helped me tremendously in my guitar playing and is pretty easy to understand for me. There is no 'one size fits all' solution to anything but lycra clothing it seems.

stratman3142

viz said:

I don’t understand CAGED. I have a mental block about it. I keep forgetting what it’s for and it doesn’t seem sit right with me somehow. I’d love someone to explain it properly to me. 

 You probably don't need it because you have other ways of thinking that work for you. I have my own way of thinking about CAGED but, as you know much more about music than me, I wouldn't feel worthy of explaining it to you

viz

Haha that last bit’s bollocks for a start! 

What I don’t understand is,

the C - is that like playing an open C chord? And then are you supposed to play a C chord in the A-shape, on fret 3; and then what’s the G shape? Is it 875558? By doing those three chords, and the next two, am I “doing CAGED in C”? And are you supposed to play the bottom E string all the time (apart from the D shaped chord)?

Gilly

viz said:

Haha that last bit’s bollocks for a start! 

What I don’t understand is,

the C - is that like playing an open C chord? And then are you supposed to play a C chord in the A-shape, on fret 3; and then what’s the G shape? Is it 875558? By doing those three chords, and the next two, am I “doing CAGED in C”? And are you supposed to play the bottom E string all the time (apart from the D shaped chord)?

Some shapes are more practical than others. Obviously the E and A shapes are used all the time as bar chords. The other ones are less practical but you don’t necessarily have to play the whole chord. It gets really useful when you work out the scales in each position and see how they relate to the chord form. Tonnes of licks in popular music have been worked out this way. 

Some of the best players (imo) use it all the time - e.g. Guthrie Trapp. I want to play like Guthrie. I don’t want to play like Tom Hess (neo-classical metal shite). Therefore I’m sticking with CAGED.

viz

Gilly said:

viz said:

Haha that last bit’s bollocks for a start! 

What I don’t understand is,

the C - is that like playing an open C chord? And then are you supposed to play a C chord in the A-shape, on fret 3; and then what’s the G shape? Is it 875558? By doing those three chords, and the next two, am I “doing CAGED in C”? And are you supposed to play the bottom E string all the time (apart from the D shaped chord)?

Some shapes are more practical than others. Obviously the E and A shapes are used all the time as bar chords. The other ones are less practical but you don’t necessarily have to play the whole chord. It gets really useful when you work out the scales in each position and see how they relate to the chord form. Tonnes of licks in popular music have been worked out this way. 

Cheers. So, I often use the C shaped chord as a 1st inversion chord off the low E string (eg 476454 for an E chord), and I use a sort-of G shaped chord (sans E strings) as a first inversion off the A string (eg x4222x for an A chord). And I use the A-shaped chord as a 2nd inversion off the E string (eg 77999x for an E chord). But I can’t reconcile that with caged at all.