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CAGED System Blues – Using the D Shape to play solo Blues – Guitar Lesson – ML131

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson you’ll learn how to play a 1-4-5 Blues composition out of the D shape from the CAGED System. This video connects the chord shapes with the Minor Pentatonic pattern, showing how they’re all connected.

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Comments

  1. Michael Krailo says

    January 16, 2026 at 6:43 pm

    I kept hitting refresh to see when this lesson was going to drop. I have been working on some older lessons on the blues. I can’t wait to dig into this one. I would never approach the blues using the D-Shape, but what you showed us here works. It’ s just a little harder to do that stretch D7, but it’s easier than the stretch A7 from the 2nd fret. Now mix all this in with what you already know with the blues an you have some nice variations. Nice micro lesson.

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  2. Michael Allen says

    January 16, 2026 at 6:53 pm

    This sounds great! I love the CAGED lessons! Thanks Brian

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  3. Kevin D says

    January 16, 2026 at 7:37 pm

    more take aways like it

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  4. Jimmy W says

    January 16, 2026 at 8:15 pm

    These are better than a ML. These caged fretboard orientations are excellent. Please keep them coming. Id love to see some arpeggios included if you would. Thanks!

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  5. Christopher W says

    January 16, 2026 at 10:58 pm

    This is great. I think I need a lot more practice with hybrid picking…

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  6. Theodore J says

    January 16, 2026 at 11:25 pm

    Thank you Brian, opens up a nice melody/chord arrangement I don’t normally use…I like it very much…

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  7. Olivier P says

    January 17, 2026 at 3:55 am

    I really enjoy working with CAGED; I feel like I’m making a lot of progress. Everything is becoming clearer. Thank you, Brian.

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  8. Tony V says

    January 17, 2026 at 6:31 am

    Blending some of these licks with the c-shaped blues from a few weeks back. Keep ‘em coming!

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  9. Frank M says

    January 17, 2026 at 7:17 am

    I dont understand the format? 14 bars.

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    • jgreen says

      January 17, 2026 at 5:27 pm

      Hi – The way I think of it is a standard 12 bar structure and then adding a 2 bar tag using the 1 chord to create an extending ending. Think you could use the same format to add a longer turnaround and then loop back to the12 bar structure..

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    • Brian says

      January 17, 2026 at 8:56 pm

      Don’t worry about the number of bars, that’s honestly irrelevant.

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  10. Daniel H says

    January 17, 2026 at 7:35 am

    So cool! This lesson lit up a lot of musical ideas. I like that you are taking us into some under appreciated areas of the neck. I love the sound of the dominant 7 hiding in the d-shape G. Excellent follow up to the C-shape blues lesson. Is the a G shape blues lesson up next? Lots of fertile ground in the G shape! THANK YOU Brian!

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  11. Michael K says

    January 17, 2026 at 8:32 am

    As always BRIAN. You explain it so perfectly. I look forward to getting some time to practice this. I’ve really been able to learn the fretboard through your lessons. Your most recent lessons over the past few years have been especially intuitive and thoughtful. That said I enjoy Watching all of them. Thanks so much!

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  12. Guy H says

    January 17, 2026 at 8:53 am

    Finally an ah ha moment. I’ve been at this for years and this is the first time everything seemed to gel. Get the 1,4,5 chords in the same neighborhood (the d shape works well), map out the flat 7’s. Get a blues scale you like also in the same neighborhood. Noodle a few rounds of 1,4,5 then add the flat 7 chords to the noodling rounds, when comfortable with this throw in a few licks from your fav appropriate scale. Viola, the blues

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  13. Laurance K says

    January 17, 2026 at 9:10 am

    Yes! Great new take on voicing and pattern 2!! More variations like this one ! Thanks Brian!

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  14. MANUEL M says

    January 17, 2026 at 9:25 am

    Merci Brian pour toute la culture artistique musicale que vous nous apportez depuis des années Continuez à nous apprendre la guitare,
    Manuel,

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  15. Jim M says

    January 17, 2026 at 11:02 am

    Enjoying this lesson modeled around the “D shape” of the CAGED system. A shape that I have often ignored.

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  16. Imerio A says

    January 17, 2026 at 11:44 am

    so happy for this lesson. I was hoping you would go on with the CAGED system shapes idea.
    great ES 175…dog ear single P90..is it from the 50’s?

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    • Brian says

      January 17, 2026 at 9:01 pm

      yes, 1950 (I think)

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  17. Steve M says

    January 17, 2026 at 12:12 pm

    Hey Brian,’ after enjoying your lesson on blues in the C shape , I was so hoping that you would follow on with the other positions of the caged system. I’m getting a lot out of this and so hope you will continue to do the other positions in future lessons.

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  18. Rick B says

    January 17, 2026 at 12:45 pm

    Love this Brian. It’s exactly what I had hoped for when you did C shape a couple of weeks ago. Hope you keep going with this. In my opinion it’s much more effective for learning than a series you had done in the past on the CAGED shapes showing the major scales, pentatonics…and arpeggios.

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  19. Raymond P says

    January 17, 2026 at 12:55 pm

    Another great lesson on showing us how the pentatonic scales and the CAGED shapes are connected
    . Very cool.

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  20. sciencefiction says

    January 17, 2026 at 12:58 pm

    That opening lick sounds awesome! Great guitar tone.
    SF

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  21. Steve says

    January 18, 2026 at 6:58 am

    I like this series of shape based videos, helps round my playing. related to D, how about an open-root string blues in D? Only normally see those in E and A, perhaps there is a reason for it not being used?

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  22. Eric K says

    January 18, 2026 at 7:58 am

    LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! these microlessons! please keep going and do the same for the other 3 shapes. I know you’ve done other CAGED lessons before, but these last 2 microlessons have made me understand the relationships of the shapes/chords/scales better than anything else. Thank you Brian!

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  23. Patrick J. G says

    January 18, 2026 at 10:43 am

    Great lesson. These chords( triads ) are shapes I normally don’t use and really didn’t know. This will be great to learn the middle triads. One step closer.

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  24. Slimpicker says

    January 18, 2026 at 8:33 pm

    My D drawer desperately needed filling.

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  25. Tom D says

    January 19, 2026 at 9:49 am

    What a great idea Brian, to create cool blues based on the different caged shapes and their neighboring chords and scale tones. It’s very effective and a fun way to reveal fretboard magic, e.g., my answer to your question of where would I play a G Blues was to naturally base it on the “C-shape” G7😉. Also, it’s super instructive just to watch and hear you play!

    Thanks, Tom

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  26. klox says

    January 19, 2026 at 3:44 pm

    Another thoughtful lesson which for me almost created areas between ‘normal’ CAGED shapes. Thanks Brian

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