Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

THIS is how to USE the CAGED System to play lead over chord changes – Guitar Lesson – EP582

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play lead over a 1-4-5 chord progression in all 5 positions on the neck by using the chord positions of the CAGED System.

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

    • MANUEL M says

      Bonjour Brian,
      Je m’aperçois que c’est très difficile de bien improviser en respectant l’harmonie des changements d’accords en utilisant le système Caged et les différentes gammes qui se co nectent aux positions. La leçon 582 est très intéressante et essentiel pour comprendre ça.
      Manuel,

    • Stephen B says

      My most helpful lesson so far Brian. The idea of knowing what shapes I can work with wherever I am is of great use to me. By the way the Abby Road song you couldn’t recall was the end to “Octopus Garden”

  7. Manley says

    FINALLY!!!
    Thank you.
    I have been silently begging for you to do a lesson in CAGED in this format. (Format). With the on screen display showing the caged system as your playing.
    Again,
    THANK YOU

  8. Jimmy W says

    Brian, this lesson took me what seems like a million miles toward learning the guitar. This I believe, is the key to improvising. I suffer from not being able to remember the interval numbers. Do you have a diagram of the interval numbers of the 5 caged shapes? If I have missed them please forgive me. This would help me greatly.
    Best Regards

  12. Malcolm D says

    I struggle when to use the arpeggios and when to use the pentatonic / Major scales on the chord changes. Any help on this would be much appreciated, or should I just play what I think sound good to me..

  14. Daniel H says

    Great lesson to pull together so much of your previous teaching! Years ago studying your lessons, I created a simple drill of playing 1-4-5 chords in each of the five neighborhoods. Then I would substitute arpeggios for the chords, then i would substitute the associated pentatonic for the chord shape, then the mixolydian for the chord shape. I knew you would eventually create a lesson like this but would include your catchy melodies as well! It is drill I still practice frequently and it has helped improve my ability to play the changes (so much music is based on the 1-4-5 progression). I am so grateful I found you online years ago. I have been faithful student since!

  15. Scott M says

    Amazing lesson! Having the chord layouts walking down at intro over the top and then the lead work really ties all of the other caged lessons together. Once again, thank you for your organization and ideas for making lessons easy.

  18. Kevin H says

    Great lesson! One thing to consider is distinguishing between the strong and weak beats (down beats and up beats) of the bar. At first, try to have the chord tones of the arpeggios and pentatonic scales on the strong beats and the chromatic notes on the weak beats. This adds cohesion to the phrase. Later you can mess with coming in on the different 16th notes of the bar. for effect.

  20. Mark V says

    Hi Brian – Is there any chance you can share the Guitar Pro files in addition to the PDFs of them? I wanted to add the CAGED shapes to each of the chords in addition to the ones you notated. I took screen caps of the chart and put them in powerpoint so I could notate them, but it would be easier in Guitar Pro.

    Thanks.

  24. James S says

    I believe I’ve seen every one of your CAGED videos, and this one is the best. You obviously put a ton of work into the multi-part series earlier this year and it was very comprehensive as a reference tool, but I think in terms of making it applicable this is the video I would recommend every beginner and intermediate lead guitar player start with – and come back to, repeatedly.

  25. daniel M says

    I haven’t even started on lesson for premium members yet. However i really like how you have been building on lessons 556,557,558,559, and 560. For me those lessons were a real work on opening up the the fret board.

  26. Glenn P says

    Hi Brian, Can you recommend a set of drills — perhaps a particular book even — that will take me through the various forms (arpeggios, pentatonic scales, 7th, etc) based off of the CAGED shapes? Thanks!

  31. Steve D says

    Brian,

    This is a great lesson because seeing the cords you are using as you do the fills is sooo helpful. I usually don’t make comments, been a subscriber for a couple of years and you hit the jackpot on this one!

    Steve

  32. Patrick J. G says

    This is great! I know the cage system but haven’t played off the different shapes only playing the notes. I see how Brian use the shapes in all his lessons, but I wasn’t putting in the time to really learn it. This lesson is the lesson I will begin to really learn how to. I’m excited and agree with the others, super awesome lesson Brian. Thank you.

  33. Rick C says

    WoW!

    I’m going to make this one a deep dive.

    note names… root notes… scale degree… counting (hardest for me)… Pent pattern #… mode name…
    A spread sheet does show the CAGED sequence horizontally… 1-4-5 vertical… of course…

    Thanks Brian.

  34. Georg B says

    Hello Brian,
    I’m really happy to have come across you on the Internet. I had some extra time during the past few days and went back to your lessons ep390 and ep391, among others. I wanted to finally grasp the topic of mixolydian mode. In connection with ep580, I can now also connect these dots. Actually, every time I work on one of your lessons there is a lightbulb moment, which brightens up my day and keeps me motivated.
    Thank you very much,
    Georg

  41. Rick B says

    Great lesson Brian! It really pulls together your series of lessons on the CAGED system as a way of pulling real music from it. Love this kind of lesson…almost as much as I love your stand-alone blues pieces;-)

  46. Barry H says

    Excellent stuff, and seriously seminal practice material.

    Brian, when you mentioned the Beatles, I guess you were thinking of those nice major pentatonic licks on Octopus’s Garden?

  47. Slimpicker says

    Your lessons have opened my mind to a greater appreciation of music from
    Country, Western swing, and Blues. You have given me an appreciation for all.

    Thanks for the CAGED System Series. This lesson really helped inspire me to unlock all the tools that the CAGED system offers.

    Playing the Chord Changes is Most Inspirational!

  49. Kathryn L says

    So much has been said, and I am embarassed to to say that even though I learned about the arpegeggio shapes a few years ago (from one of your lessons), I just keep that shape in mind and the sound of those shapes – BUT, it wasn’t until I listened to what you talked about in this lesson – that I now know that arpeggios are the notes of chord shapes!! There is so much science and art in learning and playing guitar!!! Thank you! Brian.

  52. Claudia M says

    I just cannot get the scale shape inside the chord shapes. I get the scale and the chord but linking them into arpeggios is just losing me. What I DO know is that if back up to lessons before this one it will finally click for me. You are such a good teacher that I KNOW it is in there waiting for me. Anytime I have gotten stuck in ActiveMelody I just have to back up and redo the lesson before. And it starts to fall into place. Hope that helps someone else. It’s in there!

  56. Peter E says

    Is there a cheat sheet, perhaps from an earlier lesson, that shows a graphical representation of all three chords (G, C, and D) in different positions up the neck, i.e., in each of the CAGED “buckets”?

  57. James W says

    There is a lot of feedback on this one, but this may be one of those classic lessons. I have been mixing G C D chords all over the neck and then playing the corresponding pentatonic positions. Game changer for someone like me that just plays the scales and depend on the ear to hit the key notes. So much easier to play well if you really listen to what Brian is teaching.

  58. Vern F says

    I love this lesson! Way above my skill but it sure is fun playing the parts I know. I think I’ll be able to play lead (one day) in our music group at church. Thank you Brian for making the pieces fit together
    Vern

  60. Stewart K says

    In my opinion this might be one of the most consequential lessons you have posted. I’ve gone through all of your 5 caged videos and had progressed to feeling comfortable to moving through all five positions, up or down, in one scale as long as I could find a starting place (usually the e position) . But I knew I was missing something. I had just gone back to revisiting those lessons when this came our. Whether I can actually learn the song you presented is a long term thing but the idea that you can move through the pentatonic scales with flat 7ths that make the transitions sound great is the proverbial lightbulb. I’m just fooling around with that at this point and it takes me a while, much more than a couple of weeks, to actually learn the exersise but I’m starting to learn how to move through the chord positions and it’s making a big differnce. Thanks

  62. Anthony D says

    Brian, I am confused. I guess I am the only one who doesn’t understand this. When you play the barre chore G you play G, C. G, B, D, G (from 6 to 1). Bur when you play the arpeggio, you pick G, B, G,B, D G! Then you add in the major pentatonic which confused me even more.
    Please help me understand.

    • DAVID M says

      Brian is building on the foundation of the chord tones (Root, major third, perfect 5th) , and adding the the major 2nd and the major 6th to the chord tones to create the major pentatonic scale (made up of the Root, major 2nd, major 3d, perfect 5th, and major 6th).

  63. Franz K says

    Hi Brian, here is the Austrian guy Franz for the first time . Sorry for my English. But this Chapter I think, was a revolution for my first steps in Improvising.
    Many thanks Brian, is a great lesson for me.

  64. Chris R says

    Hi Brian, great lesson as usual, look forward to your weekly creations. I have a question about the pattern that is tied to the shapes. It seems that on various lessons the shape/pattern is referred to differently. I have made the assumption that there are 5 shapes and each shape has 1 particular pattern. For example the “E Shape” uses pattern 1, and all the derivations like Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic,, Dominant 7th, etc. are still all tied to that one shape. In this case Pattern 1.

    There is not 5 patterns for Shape 1 for example. So what I am asking is there are 5 shapes C A G E D and there are 5 shapes 1 2 3 45 . Each of these shapes have Major, Minor, etc but that shape never changes. So if you are playing the G chord on the 3rd fret you are using the E shape, and if you play the G chord on the 10th fret you are using the C shape.

    I think I have the Patterns/Shapes right but I would like some input as to which shape ties to which pattern.

    I have E shape to pattern 1, D shape to pattern 2, C shape tied to pattern 3, A shape tied to pattern 4, and G shape tied to pattern 5.

    Is that anywhere near correct?

    Thanks Chris Raven

  65. Simon I says

    Yep, what everyone said. Thanks Brian, this is genius. Having worked through the recent deep dive into the 5 patterns – this one shows how to put it all together. Enjoying it so much, this is brilliant.

  66. DAVID M says

    This is a great lesson, just this one lesson alone is worth the prime membership and has saved years of trying to figure this out unaided – there is so much to be gained from taking the time to work through the whole tune ; the icing on the cake for me was realising that the ‘soundslice’ could be printed as well! The other light bulb moment was it finally clicking that the E shape’s root is on the E (and D)string, the A shape’s Root is on the A (and D) string, the D shape’s root is on the D (and ‘C’) string, and G shape’s root is on the G (and high e) string. The other revelation, which might be obvious to some but wasn’t to me, is that in a I, IV, V song whatever the first shape is in the ‘set’ (of three chord shapes close to eachother vertically ) , the next shape is itself the 4th and 5th of whatever shape started the set ! IE if the set starts with the A shape , the next will be the D shape and then the E shape (because that’s I ,IV, V if you imagine the song is at that point in key of A)

  67. Alana S says

    Brian, this lesson ties the CAGED system together nicely. I appreciate the way you explain it all and I generally find the pdfs and jam tracks extremely helpful. I’ll be coming back to this lesson again and again! Thank you for these videos and excellent lessons!

  69. Tony P says

    I love the lesson. It put together something I’ve been trying to figure out for years. Even though I feel like I’ve made a big step forward, I feel like I’m at a new roadblock.

    Question: Let’s say I get all the shapes and understand how they’re connected by CAGED. Is there some trick to knowing:

    1) If the 1 chord is an E, the 4 and 5 are A and C shapes, respectively (same for DGA, GCD, ADE, and CEG) other than memorizing it? I have a feeling the answer is “if you knew all of the notes on the fretboard, you’d see it”, but I needed to ask.

    2) The major and minor pentatonic scale that goes with each “shape” other than memorizing? I got the trick about skip one fret for major and go down a string (in tone) and do the same thing for major and do the same thing for minor, but skip two frets. But there are a couple instances where those 4 notes appear in more than one scale shape and I either have to have it memorized or I need to know which one has the root note where.

    Thank you.

    Tony

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