Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

How to USE the CAGED System to play a Country Blues Melody – EP346

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to actually USE the CAGED system (in a practical sense) to play a country blues composition that requires no accompaniment. You’ll be killing 2 birds with one stone by playing a really fun song, while learning the CAGED chord positions. All played using triads. This will be a break-through lesson for a lot of you.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walkthrough

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  3. JohnStrat says

    Brian

    This lesson will go down in the annals of AM history. You will have mapped so many notes into a fantastically memorable lesson. For so many people. All players here will see the usefulness of this and be enlightens by its memorability.
    Great job
    JohnStrat.

  4. Ian C says

    Fabulous lesson. For a long time the problem I have recognised is relating pentatonic shapes and their reference numbers to chord shapes and respective licks.
    I know CAGED, and I know the 1 to 5 scales. But when I’m playing I just keep tripping up by not being clear whether to think numbers or chord shapes.
    Your last three lessons have been consolidating my determination to resolve this, yesterday I decided to try and ditch the pentatonic reference numbers and just think those scales associated with chord shapes.

    • Paddyboy says

      Ian…..remember when trying to figure out soloing over chords………think, C A G E D and remember… if you’re using, for instance, an open G chord it uses the pentatonic shape number 1. Each of the CAGED system shapes corresponds to one of the 5 pentatonic shapes.
      “G” shape = pentatonic shape #1—–“E” shaped G chord = Pentatonic shape #2—–“D” shaped G chord = Pentatonic shape #3—–“C” shaped G chord = Pentatonic shape #4 and “A” shaped G chord = Pentatonic shape #5

      G=1 E=2 D=3 C=4 A=5 spells CAGED 1-5 are the pentatonic shapes. If your playing, for instance, an open G chord, that corresponds to the 1st pentatonic shape, if you move that G chord up to the next position in CAGED, that’s an E shaped bar chord and it gets the 2nd pentatonic shape in soloing. Then move that G chord up to the CAGED D shaped G chord and you will see it fits nicely over the 3rd pentatonic shape and so on for the last 2.

  8. Alex says

    Thank you, Brian!

    I like it very much when you do these country, with a touch of blues lessons!

    I’m still practicing the lesson from December, as well as all the lessons in this style. Not sure if I will ever grasp the CAGED thing, I am just not good at all with comprehension! I just try to play what I see and hear you play.

    One interesting thing that had happened over the last 10 years of subscribing to your channel and service, is that I’ll learn the lesson, then try to play the exact same thing in other keys, then eventually I will start improvising without even being aware that I’m doing it at first. It just sort of happens. I don’t understand the technical concepts and dialogue much, but I think my playing has gradually transformed from playing cowboy chords for 20 years, then 10 years with you, and now days people have definitely made comments that I have come a long way in recent years. I always tell them that you are the reason!

    I have tried many teachers before, but walked away from them frustrated, and with very little improvement.

  9. Phil G says

    Oh yes!! Love my country with a little blues thrown in! But the best thing about this lesson is the application of CAGED, and how you’re showing pentatonic scales relative to the chord shapes. I know you use “pattern numbers”, but I really don’t see them. I see the chord shapes and the “scale” notes within them. Thanks for your lessons!!

  11. sunburst says

    A terrific common 145 country progression using triads and ascending descending chromatic turnarounds.. some cool blues notes and like the dominate chords too .. good CAGE exercise for major intervals. utilizing again once again the preferred mixolydian (flatted 7th) with the dominate good lesson.. I think triads are so cool to understanding /how to utilize them

  14. eames28 says

    Another great lesson, Brian. I am also trying to connect the dots, shapes with the caged system. Question, you do a great job on measure 8 explaining that it is a c chord using the g shape because the pinky is on the first string eighth fret. However, you don’t use that note. To me ( confused me), it looks more like a c chord using the a shape. It probably doesn’t make any difference but I am new to the caged system and trying to visualize it.

    • Phil G says

      If I may be so bold as to jump in here. I guess you’re talking about part 1 around 10:28? If you noticed earlier, he played the A shape C chord, with his index finger on fret 3, and holding down the B and G strings at fret 5. At 10:28, even though he is barring the same fret 5, he is using his index finger there. The reason he showed the pinky on fret 8 was just to show it is a G shape this time. Why? think of t his way. CAGED. So, the A shape bumps up against the G shape. That barre at fret 5 is the shared notes between the two shapes, and the dividing line. Any embellishment notes played between frets 3 and 5 will be out of the A shape. Notes played between frets 5 and 8, which he does when he plays the D and G strings on fret 7, will be out of the G shape.

      Another way you might think of it is, the index finger on the A string fret 3 (the root C note) and barring D-B on fret 5 (with ring or pinky), will be an A shape. The index finger barring D-B on fret 5 will be a G shape. The C root notes are actually G5 and e8 (e8 not used in this case).

      Hope that helps.

  16. Angelo I says

    Incredible….I’ve learned a few of your lessons that used CAGED but wow, just that simple pattern 5 under the “A”chord shape, with the embellishments & chord change example in the very beginning of this lesson was HUGE all by itself. So simple but sounds so complex and melodic. Thank you.

  17. Angelo I says

    I’m enjoying this lesson so much. I was able to do simple improvising right away using the triads of the top of the “A” chord shape with embellishments & the triads of the “E” chord shape with embellishments along with different chord progressions in different keys to make simple but pretty cool sounding music. Major Lightbulb moment.

  20. wforrest2 says

    I think the Bb chord works theory-wise as it’s the 4 chord in key of F. Can be thought of as the flat dominant 7 of the 1 chord (C) and resolves to F.

    Great lesson. I’d personally enjoy a lesson, swingy blues, that involves finding leads through adiminished chord and 1-6-2-5 sequence.

    G / / / C/ / /G / / /G / / /C/ / /Cdim/ / / G/ / / E / / / A / / / D / / / G / E / A / D

    Wayne

  25. severin k says

    Hello
    sorry to be silly, but for the first F chord, you go for the 4th note G chord, which is a B. I read it as a flat 5th, which is not part of the chord, unless mistaken. can you please explain ?

    thanks a lot for the great stuff 🙂

  26. Marty H says

    Brian,
    This is a very useful lesson. I’m at that place in my guitar playing that I have so many pieces to the puzzle but have no clue on how they fit together. Frustrating! I would love for you to put something together that shows the big picture. How do i use all the things that i have learned? If i were to be inserted into a band as a guitar player (lead or rythym) what would i need to know? If someone asked me to play anything right now i would just be able to do some small licks and some chords. I have very little knowledge of how to put it all together. I hope this makes sense. Thanks for listening.☺

  28. Richard F says

    I’ve been playing guitar for a long time. Have used CAGED for years, which helped me navigate the fretboard, but I never learned how to integrate the scales & chords. Started ActiveMelody with EP346. After a few runs through it, I started hearing other melodies. I then played Hank’s “You Win Again,” and the riffs from 346 fit right in. Amazing.

    Would love to see more classic 40’s & 50’s Western Swing lessons, especially interested in Eldon Shamblin-style chord progressions. Th anks.

  29. Roy B says

    In my guitar learning journey, I followed a suggestion to always devote practice time to start with scales, then move on to chords, and finish with songs. This helped me to learn diatonic, pentatonic and blues scale shapes as well as open and closed chord shapes but I did not make a connection between the two. I used the CAGED system in learning the the chord shapes and sensed a connection with scales but I just didn’t get the connection.

    Last evening I finally had my Aha! / Eureka! moment and made the connection. With a developing insight I drew out the CAGED chord shapes and overlaid the corresponding pentatonic scale shapes on some fretboard paper and then went to the joyful moment of playing these corresponding chord and scale shapes on my guitar. With this insight I made these shape connections for both major and minor chord and scale shapes. So cool! This new insight even affected my sleep last night as I had pleasant dreams of different chord / lick phrases.

    This morning I am really enjoying this lesson, EP346 as I have a better understanding of why it works. This is a lesson that I really want to learn. Going forward I hope to see a similar lesson done with corresponding minor chord and scale shapes.

    Really enjoying my Active Melody membership… I enjoy Brian’s lessons that provide the how with a good measure of why… really helps to develop skills that are transferable across music of all genres.

  30. Mike H says

    Brian, great lesson. I have seen different videos with a feature I wish you would add to all of yours if possible and that is the backup 15

    seconds or add 15 seconds. It would make it easier repeat a lick that you need to see again. Thanks. Keep on pickin!

  31. Pat says

    Yep, this is a fun piece to play especially playing along with Brain using the video tablature function which is great for sight reading practice , trying not to look at the hands.

  33. Ian D says

    Brian, I can’t express how much I appreciate you as a teacher. After 45 years of fiddling with catatonic scales, etc, and just sounding mediocre, my playing has, in one month, reached the “wow” level with my friends and family. You have a unique way to teach that – finally – helps me understand how to tie it all together. I truly appreciate it, I learn a new piece very week, so keep them coming. And, know that there are many like me who appreciate you. – Ian D.

  35. William T says

    This lesson is very exciting and I’m determined to master it. I think a simplified version, just playing a standard song or a simple one of your own, in different places up the neck, would be really helpful. But this is great.

    One thing driving me crazy is talk of THE numbering for pentatonic shapes. If you just pull them out of thin air as though everyone agrees on what number one is. But do they? In your reply above you say that 1 corresponds to the open G chord, and that shape 2 is the E shape at the third fret.

    But the first site I found on Google says I is the G chord played at the third fret, i.e. the E shape. And on you (very useful) chart for the major chords you don’t have numbers, but the first on your list of G scales is the Eshape.

    I guess I’ll figure it out, but it’s driving me crazy.

    will

  36. William T says

    ps.

    Is it possible that when you teach the first figure, for the a shape c chord, you mean pentatonic scale pattern FOUR??? As I say, I’m baffled.

    As you think about your weekly lessons, you might want to do some that are even more basic and patient. If I came across this on youtube I would give it a try and just give up, as i have done with some of your other lessons. When you a show a chord, don’t just say “this one”; you know where your fingers are, but I have to make inferences.

    two other revelations, fwiw. Whatever the convention may be for naming pentatonic scales, it’s NOT C= 1 A= 2 etc. Now If I can just figure out what your convention is. I’m getting there.

    Also: a country blues “long A” chord turns out to be (in the CAGED system) a partial G chord. Totally obvious, now, but it had me stumped for years.

    will

  37. George N says

    The numbering system a bit of a problem.i believe the E shape for the major penta is considered as the 1 shape,The 1 shape for the penta minoris the G shape.For the full major scale the Ionian is the 1 shape for the full minor scale the Aeolian is the 1 shape The E shape is the 1 for the mixolydian shape.

  38. Mark says

    Another fantastic lesson! I don’t know where CAGED was for the first 20 years of my guitar playing but I sure could have used it! I learned it about 3 years ago now, and that along with the other lessons on Active Melody have made me a real guitar player, not just a song memorizer. Learning where the root notes are for chords and scale patterns is what helped me I understand how to move them around. After seeing how valuable that was, I took the time to learn what the other scale degrees are in every pattern. If you are serious about learning to play, this lesson is must know information! Thank you for explaining the “why” something works in all of your lessons.

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