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Hello,
I have a question about lesson #272 (link) on the CAGED system; in part 1 at 9:18 Brian shows the “bottom” part of the D chord shape, but it looks like he’s only playing the root notes on the D and B strings and the fifths on the A and G strings. First, doesn’t this technically make the chord not a triad, since the major third is not played? Second, it looks like the lowest note being played is not the root — is this fine? (is this not an inversion of some kind?) Why play it this way without the third?
If someone could clear this up it would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Jonathan. -
Jonathan,
You are absolutely correct in everything you have said. Playing the C chord in the “bottom” of the D Caged shape contains only roots and 5ths. As he’s shown it, he’s created an inverted C power chord over a C power chord. When I think of the CAGED system, I usually think of it creating the various shapes of a given chord connected root to root. I would think of the D shape only in terms of the D,G,B and high E strings. On the other hand, you can imply chords with diads. It’s common to represent a dominant chord as a 3rd and a flat 7, or even a 5th and a flat 7. You could even imply a major or minor chord with the root and 5th, so I think Brian is just trying to help us get the most out of these shapes. Hope that helps.
John -
Hi John, thank you for your reply. Is the power chord fingering shown in the video the most commonly used one? As for an alternate way to finger the full chord, could I do something like——play the D-string root with my index finger, barre the fifth and third on the G and high E strings with my ring finger, and play the root on the B string with my pinky?
What you’re saying about “implying” a chord makes sense — I’ll go look up some examples. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
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Jonathan,
Power chords are usually played as a root on a lower string and the 5th on the next thinner string and two frets up, except on the G and B strings where the tuning causes the 5th to be 3 frets up.You can also play them on 3 strings as root, 5th, root. You can play inverted power chords where the 5th is on the lower string and the root is on the same fret on the higher pitched string below. The best example of this is the “Smoke on the Water” riff.
The full D shape CAGED chord is awkward to play, as is the full G shaped CAGED chord, so you usually just play part of the shape. The CAGED system is more a way to visualize the fretboard than a system of shapes to used verbatim. Each CAGED shape not only highlights a chord shape but also a position of the major scale, highlighting the roots within that scale shape. The more you play guitar, the more you will see small chord shapes used and commonly on the D string and higher, especially in a band where a bass might cover the lower notes of a chord. In fact, when you start to mix music, you will want the frequency range of the guitar voice to stay out of the range of the bass, otherwise everything starts to get muddled.
John -
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Duffy,
The song is in the key of G, and the inverted riff starts with a G and the lower D diad, being the root G and the 5th, an inverted power chord. The song later goes on to the regular 6th string root power chords from the low G. So, yes, by from the perspective of the D you could call the interval a 4th but why would you? In any case, you just repeated what I said above re: the 5th being in the bass.
John -
Good answers Charjo. Good question Jonathan.
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