IN THE WOODSHED
Improve your chord knowledge and fretting fluency with Charlie Griffiths as he introduces the minor CAGED system.
Charlie Griffiths continues his examination of the CAGED system (this month minor) to unlock the fretboard for both rhythm and lead.
Last month we looked at applying the CAGED system to create five positions of major, major 7th and Dominant 7th chords as a method to find progressions all over the fretboard. This month we will apply the same logic to minor and minor 7th chords. Just like last time, we will start at Example 1 by ensuring we are familiar with the five open chord shapes; these will be the foundation upon which all of the following chord examples are built.
These shapes are adaptations of the common five major open chords. The only difference is that there is a minor 3rd rather than a major 3rd present. If you are already familiar with the five open minor chords and know the shapes, then spend some time naming the intervals and note names within each one. Example 2 focuses on moving up and down the neck using all five of the CAGED shapes. The general fingering rule to follow here is to play the open chord shapes using the second, third and fourth fingers, then use your first finger to barre across the relevant open strings; essentially acting as a movable nut. This particular example shows the Am chord in six different places, but of course this method can be applied to any minor chord from an Am to a G#m. The aim is to be able to pluck any minor chord out of the air and see if you can play it as close to the nut as possible, then move up the neck one position at a time. In this example the lowest possible way to play an Am is with the open position. The following chord shapes will follow the same order as CAGED, only starting with the A shape: A-G-E-D-C.
Example 3 shows the practicality and efficiency of the CAGED system. Here we have shown an Am-Dm-Em progression in five different places. Each one of them uses three of the five possible shapes to change chords as efficiently as possible. Rather than having to move your hand up and down the fretboard, we stay in one place and play the closest possible chord shape. Notice that we have adapted the Dm and Gm shapes into slash chords to make them more easily playable; b3rd now they both have the interval is in the bass. Examples 4 and 5 are based around minor 7th chords. This simply means adding a b7 interval to the existing minor triad giving us
1-b3-5-b7. the intervals Once again we are utilising the CAGED system in order to find the nearest possible chord, but rather than playing a chord progression we are approaching it as a kind of thought exercise.
In Example 4 the root notes are moving up in 4th intervals and in Example 5 the chords are moving up in 5th intervals. This will challenge your mind and your fingers equally and will strengthen your visual and physical navigation on the the fretboard.