How To Practice Intervals (with CAGED) 

"I don't deal in hot licks" - love it! Your style is direct and the way you break things down is so approachable.

You’re the single reason i feel like i actually understand the real value of CAGED. Thank you, Eric!

Love your approach to teaching. I’m currently in the middle of my second Eric H course on TrueFire. I’ve noticed over time how your “laid back” approach to instruction - slowly layering in with lots of intentional repetition - works hand in hand with muscle memory. I don’t know how many times I’ve spent an hour or two playing simple grooves and fills with your courses on TrueFire, and then several days later realized my ears and hands seem to intuitively know what they’ve heard and where to go next. Thank you for being such an impactful contribution to the music-making community!

This is a godsend. Just recently started trying to wrap my head around intervals, but was getting frustrated as I didn't know how to approach practicing them. CAGED makes so much sense I should've thought of it. Can't thank you enough for all you do!

This hit my In Box, so of course I immediately grabbed my guitar and started watching it. Fantastic work, as always, from Eric. I'm about halfway through this and I now need to pause it because of a -- (lets out grunt of annoyance) -- work meeting. How dare they interrupt this important moment for me! Alas, duty calls. I shall return.

Man, that tone is so good. Like, you’re just demonstrating a simple exercise, but somehow it’s the coolest music I’ve heard all day. Great lesson, as always. Appreciate all you do.

I really loved this lesson. I’ve been on a personal journey to get better at guitar and I’ve just immersed myself in caged, triads, and pentatonics. This lesson really helped add one more layer to the whole thing. Thank you so much.

Man, I swear you have a crystal ball and know exactly what I need to work on. You're the best in the business, sir. Thank you!

This is the lesson I've been waiting for all my life. Can’t wait to geek out on this one. Thank you so much!!

i love the way you teach eric thank you for uploading all this

Excellent Eric, very helpful. Thanks.

Keeping it real, thanks Eric. This little session is a perfect complement to your Caged course which I started a couple of weeks back. Thanks.

Wonderful lesson. This is such a good way to teach this concept. I look forward to introducing this idea of playing grooves and then melodies to my students.

Allright Eric my man, this is the best advice. You're nailing it!

You, sir, are an asset to the musical world! Thank you!!!

Can't tell you how much I have learnt from your videos..... absolute legend!!

I don't remember a lesson I think will be as powerful as this one, as easy to remember when I get to the guitar. Best of your videos FOR ME

Absolutely fantastic video have a wonderful weekend ❤😊

Spot on. The means of “gatekeeping” from the musical “authorities” keeps the caged in the background. Thank you for sharing 🎸

Valuable information Eric. Thanks!

Dude i love your approach. Awesome 😎

Great Job as always! I have been trying to memorize Dorian and Mixolydian. This is going to help!

Hi Eric, im encouraged to wright to you because I feel like im in a cooking tv programm watching you playing and teaching so chill...

Groove and fill. Love it.

Just beautiful, just beautiful.

Great lesson. Thanks, Eric

Yay! Another fun, groovin’ exercise idea.

Yeah man, love it. I dont play real fast either, but I find having that groove and soul is so much more satisfying.

Coll. I love this. Thank you.

Fantastic Eric! I come for the Firebird and stay for the investable insight and music sensibility.

this must be one of the most helpful guitar videos on youtube, at least for non-noodlers! Thanks man!

fantastic lesson. Thank you.

I don't have any patience for gate-keepers. Thanks for keeping them open for us.

No matter what, I really like your teaching style and appreciate your playing. I think you re an excellent player.

Another perfectly helpful video. One little build on the targeting exercise…after landing on, say, the 6, find the note above and the one below…then two notes above and two notes below. It just naturally builds on the base you’ve created and before long all the dots overlap and connect so nicely. Thank you again.

Great lesson Eric

Great lesson Eric as always, keep on keeping on👍🖖✌️

Thank you for a tool that will be invaluable- thanks for keeping it simple too!

This is a great lesson Eric, I always find myself falling into the trap of playing a lot of notes for playing sake rather than ‘feeling’ the notes I’m playing to create a mood within the melody lines. Will be practicing this a lot, thanks :-)

The way you explain these concepts clicks with my ADHD brain and i just wanna say thank you!

Thank you! I think this will help me get the sound/feel of the intervals so I can more quickly play whats in my head before losing it.

I love the focus on intervals and tuning you ears and fingers to their sound over (or just after) the chord! I will be trying out this practice technique with as much discipline as I can muster. Starting with minor scale as you've fone here, but then gradually stepping through different chords (major and extended) and scales (major and pentatonics). Seems like it should be super effective mind-drilling for all of them!

Great lesson!

This was so handy thank you so much!!❤

Awesome video. great exercises! I dig the attitude, the info and that fu*kin' guitar is beautiful.

kick butt lesson, good job thanks for sharing.

Thank you, Eric!✌️😌🎸

I've been playing for 40-odd years and consider myself a decent guitarist, but I ALWAYS learn something and get inspiration from Eric. It's all incredibly musical/yrical etc. It doesn't sound like some sort of Calculus II exercise.

So many words of wisdom in this one Eric! 11:47 "I don't think I need to explain why that's useful." definitely not - that's like, the first and the last thing! Everything we do is in the service of deliberately making the sound we want to hear

Thanks!

Mind blown. Subscribed

Thanks Eric!

If you're just discovering Mr. Haugen on RU-vid and this lesson seems helpful, I would highly recommend his lessons on TrueFire around the CAGED system. I've found these lessons and his whole approach to be massively helpful.

You're the most wholesome youtuber ❤

This is really great, Eric. It's hard for me to go this slow (and to NOT noodle), but I really need to. It's the only way I'm going to improve at this point. And thank you for rescuing relative minors from their oppressive major-key overlords!

Thanks you son much sir y'r the best

Re runs in the background! Perfect sir😅 💯

woow what a lesson

Yes!

Another super useful video, thanks Eric! Go Heels

What a glorious flex 🎉

You really love that guitar. And it’s dark pickups. 😁 I do too. Nice round mellowness. Suits a mellow guy.

Good as gold

Smoked paprika is the best. Thx for the upload

Wish I had you as a teacher back in the 90s

ha man I don't know what it is but you're a really interesting guy and an awesome teacher. Thanks a lot for making this.

You teach music, not guitar gymnastics! Thank you!

Love that you covered a minor key in this lesson - I sometimes get hung up on practicing the major shapes/chords/scales too much. Thank you Eric for these wonderful practice tips!

great stuff. "that's disrespectful to the tonal center of Em" Preach Brother Haugen! I love minor keys and I'm tired of acting like major keys are more important.

Im a marshall man but this hiwatt deal has me intrigued....Great sound and the gibson is tops.

I didn’t know Marc Ribot played an Explorer!? Great as always, just what I needed. A thought those folks whom you excuse and say this may not be for them… instead ask them to try it a little bit. A little like trying to get my kid to eat avacado, she loved it at first bite but I can’t put in writing what I had to do to get that first bite passed her lips

Gold data! Bird’s the werd Maestro!

i feel like this is how godspeed you black emperor write songs

You are the six million dollar man, man !

Thanks for the great video! Appreciate it. Would you be willing to Tab out a great live version of "Look out miss Ohio" by Dave "The Rave" Raww for a one on one zoom sesh? Thanks again dude!

Great stuff. Now I need to go watch some Jim Jarmusch films. :-)

I always seem to gravitate to the minor as the home sound

You must not have kids. Your house is always so clean. I would love to come draw on your walls

What language of notation are them fret marks in? Never seen that before. Thanks again and again for keeping me moving along on my musical journey.

Hey Eric, when you're doing the groove exercise are you generally resolving the interval to the "correct" place (7th to the root etc), or are you randomly selecting somewhere else in the scale to get a handle on all of the potential jumps?

Great lesson! Curious though...how much does that Gibson cost? Thanks

Hey Eric, I remember there was a video where you talked about getting a new neck on one of your guitars. Was that a Warmoth? How's that working out?

Eric, you touched on something (4:32) that I have heard mentioned before, but I never have seen, or heard it explained. The idea that each of the intervals has an "emotion", "personality" or "feeling" attached to it. So for example if you play the perfect 5th over a particular chord, it will invoke one feeling. If you play the flat 6th, it will invoke another feeling. Do you cover this idea somewhere?

referring all my guitar students to this video

🎶 Money... we make it before we see it, you take it da-da da da da ?

Firebird.. When you want your guitar to also be a coffee table!

Total aside: when you said "Queue the comments" RU-vid inserted an Old Spice ad with the Dolph Lundgren dude spraying his armpit and going , "ah". lol.

Yup I will begin annoying my wife with this exercise. After I get it under my fingers and into my ears, I’ll change the single note interval into a shell chord to help me place the rest of my chords into the caged boxes. To me knowing how to play a one chord at the 5 locations isn’t very practical, I need to know how to play the progressions in all 5 boxes.

Is this an upcoming TrueFire Guitar Zen course I see before me?

That flat 6.....so much pain in there...

i honestly love lessons like these. I think alot of people overlook the importance of the ear, I understand that theory is great to know but knowing how to play what you hear is HUGE! if you can play that then you can play whats in your head, which is any idea that you have which (for me) is such a big deal and something that I strive to do. I have got caught up in the theory bug where I have to know everything and hope that would lend to " creativity" but it never did... it made me less creative. So understanding how to connect your imagination to what your imagination emits to what you hear in your head to actually playing the thing is such a cool deal. @EricHaugen I 100% plan on taking a lesson with you sooner than later. You are awesome !

It’s hilarious to me that I know all this, but I don’t dooooo this. Not enough anyways. Thank you for telling me to do this teach. Intervals are life, each one is a character with something to say. “Muppet head” 😂 yes- respect minors and their intervals looool always ..

Orange Cassidy reference? 😉

Hey Eric. I love your stuff, thanks for posting this. But aren't you talking about Scale Degrees, not Intervals? An interval is a musical distance, but once you pin it down as a tone within a scale, isn't it better to call it a scale degree?

Love your content! Just one small issue: Any chance of showing the scale diagrams horizontally, as that's the way we see them from above the fret board?

Inner City Blues got you feelin caged?

One Eric Haugen video. 21 minutes. Time to put it into practice? Who cares, it has to be done. I'm good to go for the next several years.

Can we get a full lesson and breakdown on the pull off lick at the end??? Ha, kidding!

this is like if Freemasons had guitar lessons

what's your favorite kind of sandwich?