wow thanks really. I've been looking up some videos about the caged system from "proffesional players with over thousands of students" (that's what they said) and I understood none of their words. But you, without wasting 5min on promoting yourself, got immediately right into the point and just made it all clear. I really felt like I had a real teacher sitting in front me and really understood that this thing we're learning is not easy for the new. Thanks again for the lesson. I don't know if it's your talent or not, but you're doing your thing really good. Have a nice day.
Well, that was simply excellent. The penny finally dropped on the CAGED system. I think you have been teaching for a long time and also have a distinct talent for it. Best to you and thank you for taking the time to do these videos.
I'm so grateful to have found you! I've spent the last years bouncing around watching videos from a variety of other teachers. I'll no doubt focus solely on your videos going forward. You're very easy to listen too, the graphics are extremely helpful, and I appreciate that the sound volume of your guitar and your voice track are very similar. So many others have the guitar volume so much higher than their voice track, that I'd often find my self constantly adjusting the videos volume. Most importantly, you make things make sense!! God bless you Nate! Thank you.
that was the best explanation of the CAGED system and how to follow it down and up the fretboard - thank you!!!! I managed to follow your video brillirantly
Thank you sooo much! I felt like you were in my living room giving me patient, clear instructions! You used clear easy to understand terms without my eyes glazing over... Thank you so much brother, and God bless!
Best video on the caged system I'm seen so far, and I have looked at many! Thanks for getting me to this point. I have a lot to learn, but it should easier from here. Thanks!
So glad I watched your video - you gave me a few precious nuggets to help me apply the CAGED system in my future practice sessions. Like you said, it's not a one time lesson but one that requires many revisits. I'll be back for sure - and also looking for your other on line lessons. Thanks a bunch, Nate
Mate this was awesome. I had some notion of the caged system, basically going from the standard C position and playing the shapes up the neck but couldn’t make the connection as to why these shapers appeared on the frets that they did. You explaining this was the game changer ie starting the new shape on the fret where the last shape finished. Cheers!
Thanks Guitareo for this nice CAGED explanation...your...such a Talented Guitarist...hope more Lesson to come keep up the good work...thanks and have a good day...men...
I wish you could have demonstrated what you mean by using a barre chord shape to play arpeggios, pentatonic scales and modes. Lessons I've seen on playing scales involve the fingering of individual notes across the fretboard rather than holding down a chord shape, unless you mean that the index finger (barre) is held down while the remaining three fingers play the individual notes of the scale by moving on and off the strings one note at a time. Would have liked to have seen that.
Good video. Prior to coming upon this, this is the first time I have watched your channel, I found written explanations elsewhere, but no real back end. The overlay at ~ 7:14 is good and the graphics you put up at the left corner of the screen, the bar patterns are good. As you said there is a lot of information. If you introduced the graphics for what they are and the overlay for what it is, both right up front and continue as you did before, instead of bring them in to the video as things for which context had already been established, then the video would be truly the stand alone go to video for CAGED guitar chords. Reading the comments, I think many had already looked at a lot of explanations, but as I said the back end, playing the actual chords and going through one chord for all shapes doesn't seem to be a favorite topic with many of the "instructors" out there. I am still pretty much a beginner, but I do know piano at a passable intermediate level (or pretty good beginner level) and your video here is unusual for its clarity, conciseness and completeness in the world of guitar instruction. Enough said, I'll follow the link. It turns out that the page that the link goes to was some of the material I had looked at and had i mind when I made these comments. My comment is confirmed.
It would be nice to have sheet music available that shows all the notes stacked up on the staff for every chord played in this lesson. i.e. one stave to show the voicings of all the C's, another for all the A's, etc., as you move up the neck. Then students could actually see the music they're playing as they practice it. Since C-A-G-E and D make up only 5 of the 12 notes in music, I'm now wondering how the other 7 chords get played all up and down the neck, unless the idea is to simply choose a shape, put it on the fret you want, and voila, there it is. I thought that's what the A major, Am, E major, and Em bar chords were suppose to allow you to do, as taught in a previous lesson. There's still some work to do to figure this all out.
Thanks for this video. I had a hard time following at first and gave up. It wasn't clear to me how to determine where to barre, without counting frets from the open position. Then some time after, I decided to stick to one chord (C), and observe how the barred fret relates to the shape used. I noticed that from string to string, the fret to barre is the same as the fret where (in the case of C) C occurs on that string and the shape to use corresponds to the string you're on. So for instance, C occurs a 8 on the E string, so barring the 8th fret and using the E shape, you are playing the C chord. It may be easier to conceptualize it the way you explain, which is to take the highest note from the chord down-sequence and make that the lowest note (barre fret) of the chord you're playing. Noteworthy, is that the B string, since B is not in the CAGED system, doesn't have a function - at least I couldn't see any way to make the same sense of it. Now I map my method to your to confirm that the logic works. Not getting it the first time was all me. You in fact present a good explanation of the system. Oh, by the way, my primary interest are the blues and right after getting a bit of a grasp of the concept in this clip, I was just instantly able to move around a scale region, producing some blues licks that didn't cause tears from the ears. Don't quite see how they relate but hey I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Thanks again mate, oops, Nate
Thanks for the video. If I'm right then, the purpose of this system is that it allows you to play chords that consist of notes that are HIGHER IN PITCH (further up the neck) than the original open chords, expanding the range of pitches that make up a given chord, which is basically just a different and higher voicing. When a guitarist sees a chord symbol on a piece of sheet music, they have more options in terms of range and voicing than if they just stuck with the one standard textbook chord diagram all the time. (i.e. the fingering for the basic open chord version). Correct or no? If any of the shapes for a major chord can be moved up the neck for the key of your choice, I'm not sure why all 5 shapes, or even 2, have to be used, unless it's to have multiple options depending on the chord progression, so that the guitarist can pick a shape as they go along that requires the least amount of movement between the chords on either side of each chord. So what are the '3 notes per string' systems and why are they only for rock guitarists? Never heard of them. Do you have a video?
Hey Joe, Sounds like you've got the right idea. :) These shapes are just to change the flavor. And for ease of use with certain transitions. These different inversions really do sound different then the open chord version though. And a G shape D chord and an A shape D chord sound different too. It's all about the little things. :) There are only 12 notes in music, so these small variances are pretty important. The 3-notes-per-string scale is just a different way to play scales. Instead of the typical 2 notes per string with a few 3 notes per string, you play the scale as 3 notes per string. It requires you stretching a fair amount to do though. And this is just commonly used in Rock. You can use it in any genre, but it seems Rock players are the ones typically using it. :) I don't have a free lesson on it. I do cover it in The Guitar System though.
8:21 that's a bit different... In all other formations when we found the note D in this case we barre that fret and play the other open chord following CAGED but whenever C formation comes up we place the barre a fret earlier and use the D note as the first note of the C formation.... I'm not able to understand that
I've not seen this before. 1:17 Top of chord diagram: 'X' = don't strum string; open circle = strum string but what does a closed/filled in circle mean? In the meantime, I've got my Ibanez in my lap, going along with you. I heard, CAGED years ago but only 30 seconds ago did I realize it was the name of the chords. duh (forehead still showing slap mark)
Hey Nate. I want to get into guitar, but I don't know what to buy. I've heard of different types of brands, strings, all sorts of stuff. I do have a musical background, but not with guitars. I want to play acoustic, but like I said, I don't know what to pick. I want to play more modern songs and songs from the '80s and '90s. I would prefer and electric acoustic to play on. I am wondering if you'll help me pick one by giving some suggestions. Great channel bye the way, and thanks :).
Yeah, an acoustic electric guitar is only for performing on stage really. There isn't really much you can get for under $200. Everything under $200 is going to be the same quality, so it doesn't really matter what you go with. For a starter guitar, the cheapest one I recommend is a Yamaha FG700S.
It seems to me that guitar players should start learning open chords with the same fingers they'll use to fret bar chords. For C, that would be fingers 2, 3, and 4 instead of 1, 2, and 3. Then once you learn that shape for the open chord, you only have to learn how to bar with the index finger instead of learning an entirely new fingering for the same basic shape. Same is true for other open chords like the A and D shapes. When teachers teach the G open chord, they often teach two fingerings - one uses fingers 1, 2, and 3, the other uses 2, 3, and 4. They will say that the 2nd one is better for transitioning to other chords later, but without elaborating further or mentioning bar chords or CAGED. The shape for a bar chord is already learned with fingers 2, 3, and 4, but students are only tipped off to this for the G chord for some reason. I don't know why people aren't taught the same thing for other open chords as well, from the beginning. Why would anyone need to learn the traditional fingerings for most of the open chords, unless they know they will never use bar chords or CAGED in the future, and how would any beginner know that? (unless someone recommended for them to just settle for strumming with a capo and be a perpetual rank amateur)
That's a good point. However, sometimes the traditional chord fingerings are easier to use for certain transitions. Best case scenario is knowing every possible fingering for each chord shape. :)
That last comment has me realizing now that a chord shape is not a fingering. I had been thinking of a chord shape as a combination of strings, frets, and specific fingers. Not so. The shape is the dotted chord diagram before you add finger numbers, though most diagrams will include finger numbers. i.e. the two most used open G chord options are one shape, but two fingerings. Someone correct me I'm wrong. Btw, my Notifications is telling me that Andrew Clarke typed the comment, apparently representing GuitarLessons.com, but I don't know who that is. I thought all GuitarLessons.com comments always came from Nate.
Try different fingerings and play whatever's comfortable or better for the transition. I sure as hell don't use the same fingers for open chords as I do in other places on the neck.
Isn't the chord diagram wrong at 2:40? The barre goes across the 2nd fret, as shown in the demo, (not the first fret), with what should be 5 total frets in the diagram, not 4(?). If I'm right, that means I'm the only commenting viewer paying full attention!
If you look at the diagram you'll see that there's no nut at the top of it. And that the fret indicator is telling you that the C not is on the 5th fret. That puts the bar on your 2nd fret. So the graphic is correct. :)
When he says "highest up the fretboard" does he mean note with the highest pitch? Like why for the E shape is the #4 the root note, when it is in line with #3? Is it because that note is the E note? I just don't understand why he is saying furthest up the fretboard instead of, " Note that is the root note, or the note that is the chord"
so it actually means "Note that is the root note, or the note that is the chord"? Thanks, that was the bit I was struggling a bit with here, but now it made sense :)
Why does a person need so many ways to play the same chord, all up and down the neck? Is this just to accommodate different voicing preferences for songwriting or improvisation? And I don't understand why multiple chord shapes are necessary if you're trying to produce the same basic major sound of 1-3-5 for any chord. As long as you're dealing with major chords, why not just pick ONE shape and maintain it, moving it up and down the fretboard for whichever of the 12 major chords you need? Can you list all the reasons why a player would even need to change shapes if they're using only major chords? What are the practical reasons for all of this as it relates to the writing and performance of an actual song, before you even start explaining the relevance to scales, arpeggios, etc?
The main reason is for different voicings. Depending on where you play the chord it's going to sound slightly different. The same goes with inversions of different chords (having a different chord tone in the bass). Different shapes put the different chord tones in different octaves which gives the chords a different quality as well. Also, a lot of the time knowing multiple shapes is really helpful when you're playing with another guitar player. Oftentimes, you don't want to play the exact same chord shape as the other player. Playing different from one another voicings will create a richer effect. Lastly, knowing different shapes can make some transitions a lot easier by making the distances/movements much smaller. You don't have to learn different versions of chords, but man is it ever a good skill to have. :)
I guess this video is only meant to provide various ways to play 5 of the 12 major chords. Other chord types like minor, 7th, etc are not discussed. The remaining 7 major chords get included by moving the shape up the fretboard, to each and every fret. The "Guitar System" must be something people have to pay money for, providing more details on the CAGED system. I'm not sure.
Technically, the other 7 major chords are made using these 5 shapes. So yes, you're right. minor, 7th, and all the other chord variations are done simply by adjusting the shape. The CAGED system is something you'll use as your base. :) The Guitar System is a paid course, yes. And I do go into more detail on the CAGED system there. :)
If it helps, I have found that barre chords are easier to form the more you tilt the top of the guitar away from your chest rather than tilting it toward so you can see your fingering. You give up maneuverability for seeing. What may also be helpful is tilting the head stock ceilingward. Actually, you don't have to give up seeing. tilting the headstock up, you get to drop your head and plant your eyes on the fingerboard. Works for me anyway. Dunno if it is considered bad posture though. I'm a beginner
I do love your lessons a lot But, man you either yell into the mic or you are super soft spoken all within 5 seconds over and over. makes it kinda hectic...
Rishes Dwivedi if your a beginner then all you have to memorize are the C A G E and D chords after that you can move on but just focus on the main chords and memorize them
