SUBSTITUTE CAGED IDEAS PART 1

LEARNING ALL the chordal and melodic options on the fretboard is a lifelong task, and the ‘CAGED’ system is a great way of exploring the scales and chords. The premise of CAGED is that there are five shapes that cover all the ways of playing a chord. From there, we subdivide into Minor/7th/maj7th/9th and so on.

As well as the different chord shapes around the fretboard, there are, of course, scales, arpeggios and patterns that can link not only harmonically with different chord voicings, but geographically in the same general area of the fretboard. Here are three to get you started.

EXAMPLE 1

This slightly uncomfortable chord (use all four fingers) is shown here to demonstrate how, using the CAGED concept, we can create an E Major chord using a C Major ‘shape’. It does a nice job of encapsulating the E Major arpeggio that appears in Ex4. If we omit the open sixth string, this becomes movable, too.

EXAMPLE 2

This E Minor chord is familiar to most, using the A Minor shape up at the 7th fret. You’ll see all the notes in this chord (plus a few more) can be found in the shape 4 E Minor Pentatonic, which ‘lives’ in the same location. You could change the A Minor shape to a C Major shape and find a G Major arpeggio here, too.

EXAMPLE 3

Again, this shape is familiar: a G Major barre chord using the E Major shape, the first finger functioning like a capo. This doesn’t feel like a starting point for solo ideas, but Ex6 shows how this occupies the same territory as the shape 1 G Major Pentatonic (which happens to be identical to the shape 2 E Minor Pentatonic).

Example 4

This E Major arpeggio spells out the ‘C shaped’ E Major chord from Ex1. From here, you can build a melodic line using fragments of the E Major scale, with its ‘passing tones’ of F#-A-C# -D#, or try it as a relative Major over a C# Minor chord.

Example 5

This shape 4 E Minor Pentatonic traces the same notes as the ‘A Minor shaped’ E Minor chord in Ex2, plus the C Major shape. Add the F#, A and C to turn this into a Natural Minor scale, or add those notes for more melodic improvisations.

Example 6

A shape 1 G Major Pentatonic like this is identical to the shape 2 E Minor Pentatonic, which fit harmonically over each other. Using this shape in context with the other Pentatonics will give you a greater vocabulary when improvising.