The 5 Shapes On The Fretboard (that's it... there's no more...)
In case you missed the previous video, or you want to go back and try building other chords from these shapes now, the previous video is here.
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Utterly impossible for small hands!!
It’s not impossible, but it may be a challenge. My hands aren’t that big either. But notice that I didn’t say you have to play them all effortlessly and get all the notes to come out, you need to memorize them and understand them, you’ll almost NEVER play them as-is.
It’s not. I have no chance with the C shape, my pinkie ain’t going there in a million years. So if i do play that shape as a chord i use the 1st 4 strings.
G the same, i just use the 1st 4 strings and bar strings 1 and 2 with my pinkie. My horror show is the D, no matter what i do that one is not happening. I just can not get my 2nd, 3rd and 4th finger to make that shape. My cheat is to not play the 1 st string…Unless Griff has another version.
But a lot of the time you use this for solos,that’s why you need to know the order of the chords intervals. I know the notes on my fret board only because i need to know my next root note, after that i think intervals, not notes because the notes change,the intervals don’t.
Caged is used by just about every guitarist you can think of. It fits the pentatonic shapes. A minor pentatonic same notes. So don’t stress over the small hands issue,i did that and now i don’t because i don’t need to. Many players have small hands,they still play well though. Stick with it because you will gain a lot from learning this. It took me years to figure it out, no internet.
Have you tried moving your thumb more in the center of the neck, which allows a more extended reah
My fingers are too short, too, I can’t play the C and D too good either, so I improvise and modify and fake it and make it work, it’s all okay, I knew a player who had lost the index finger of his right hand to a table saw, he had learned how to do it “other ways” and could still do pretty good,
I use the E shape mostly, works for me, and so many chords based on the E, the major, 7th, minor 7th, dim, 6th, min 7 / 6, 9th, that I can reach easy, and it’s good all over the neck from E to E, add the A minor shape and you got it mostly covered with just 2 chord shapes, then if I need to use D or C shapes I just play 3 or 4 strings, with 4 strings I can play C7 or C6 anywhere, and the dim shape is easy anywhere, there’s another shape I call the “smashed B7” I don’t know what anyone else calls it but it’s kind of a slurred B7 shape and it works all over the neck for what I do, a kind of mashup of country, blues, and jazz,
Be Nice if you left a tab!
Try putting the guitar on your left leg if you are right handed aka ‘Classic’ style. It Puts you arm and wrist in a much better position to make these shapes because it allows for your body and arm to be closer and your thumb also. It will surprise you. It’s the only way I can comfortably get it. I too have small hands but have NEVER allowed that to hold me back.
For consideration: A basic chord is 3 notes. Add a note here and there as you like and can reach. Sometimes you don’t even need all three to make what you need right then.
Griff, you are one of the best!
I agree ,Griff`s lessons and presentation is incredible !
Great video
I think another way to use this system is to develop the feeling in the fingers from where you are on the fretboard.
Finger Memory! I leanred to finger pick “The Streets of London” aged 17 and had forgotten 40 years later – totally – but my fingers still remembered decent chunks. I wasn’t moving my fingers, really, muscle memory was. Almost miraculous.
Amazing how that happens, remembering stuff you did but forgot decades ago.
Griff the last few minutes of the video were missing…..the part where you were supposed to leave us with the practice instructions!
Griff already showed you how, all that is missing is what 60 beats per minute looks like.
60 beats per minute=one note per second
the video ended before we could see the practice!
You really are a great teacher !
I have been playing for 40 years and since I purchased several of your courses I finally starting to understand
Next course will be your music theroy I want to come see your band too I live in HB
I’ve known of the caged system for quite a while and this just cleared up the whole thing!!! Thanks
Thanks Griff this is starting to make sense,
It was either late 90’s or early 2000’s I bought Fretboard Logic course.
I think Griff’s way is easier and less boring.
I purchased his Caged course when it first came out.
It really is a good roadmap for the fretboard.
Lost me, sorry.
Griff uses “lttle chords.”
CAGED G- useless.
Unless you simplify it.
And when you simplify them (usually top strings) there is always a pentatonic shape close by.
Simplifying chords- triads, double stops- is a good thing.
Just checking my understanding — are you saying that if I go from the C shape on the first three frets on up to the A shape higher up as you showed, then up more and in the G shape, etc, that at each point I will be playing a C chord, just in a different place? If you said that, I missed it.
yessir, the C chord in all 5 shapes
That’s what I was trying to figure out. I will definitely have to watch this several times but this answer helped.
Thank you! Very clear presentation. Can’t wait to practice this and lock it in. Incidentally (I’m an MD so speak with some authority) finger and muscle memory are actually located in the brain. It’s just that the synapses are built so that we don’t have to use the frontal lobe to get them to happen.
Good point!
I’m not an MD but did some workshops and reading on the brain, as a therapist. Be nice is there was a brain in the fingers. Is he talking about the cerebellum? I get what he is talking about.
Excellent lesson, Griff! My hands are smaller than yours, and I can play the full G shape up the neck. It’s what you train yourself to do.
This lesson should be a heads up to all new players to practice using different fingers for the cowboy chords in anticipation for playing them up the neck.
Folks, if you just want to do the easy stuff that’s okay, but if you want to be advanced, then get to work!
Griff!…. Thanks for these past 2 lessons…. Its stuff I kinda knew but didn’t know I knew. I love the way you explain things! Your a natural born teacher brother!
Griff. This one was really good. Knew the caged thing but never got the connection before. Eye opening. Well done. Thanks
Would you please give us tabs for the practice sequence of C chords? Seeing the chord shapes will make it easy to practice and more understandable when I go through the video again. I guess I’m not as quick to pick it all up as many others are. Thank you.
What a great video
Yeah the cords are kinda clunky . When I think about what I know well is everything but the C shapes . The open cords dominate over all the caged system just my opinion . There was a ah ha moment when you kinda played here comes the sun. I worked that out all over the fret board it was cool. Last night on the fly I changed the cords of a song . The tune was to be played with a capo third fret. I played it 3 frets down and it worked out a okay spot on .
I finally understand the movement of the chord shapes up the fretboard. Thank you for that. However I still don’t see the how you arrive at that particular chord. For example when you move the D shape up to A; just how do you know it’s A? I don’t see any relationship to any notes on the strings.
Good question David. Remember that the root note in the D form chord is on the second (B) string 3rd fret. The A chord using the D form will have the root note on the B string at the 10th fret. If you go up 2 more frets it will become a B chord at the 12th (octave) fret. I hope that this helps.
This and the last video have cleared up a lot of my questions with the CAGED system. I will practice the way on this video. I hope you will make one about its applications.
Thank you.
BTW: I have a number of your courses, but lack of discipline to practice is the reason that I am still at beginner level. Shame on me. These videos are motivating me to restart again.
Hi Griff
Great lesson !!
I don’t seem to be able to download your MP4 and wondered if you knew why ??
Thanks
Not being very adept with my hands, I’ve reconciled myself to the idea of “small chords”. Except where I can reach, I abandon the 6th & 5th strings: I often just use the “open chord” fingering for the upper 3 or 4 strings and play only those when I need that chord. Saves me a lot of “guilt”. Played as an arpeggio, they don’t sound too bad, and if you already have a bass, or backing track, the lower strings are unnecessary/redundant. Also, knowing the root note in the chord shape helps with knowing where to take advantage of the Pentatonic shape (whether major or minor) you need.
Not being very adept with my hands, I’ve reconciled myself to the idea of “small chords”. Except where I can reach, I abandon the 6th & 5th strings: I often just use the “open chord” fingering for the upper 3 or 4 strings and play only those when I need that chord. Saves me a lot of “guilt”. Played as an arpeggio, they don’t sound too bad, and if you already have a bass, or backing track, the lower strings are unnecessary/redundant. Also, knowing the root note in the chord shape helps with knowing where to take advantage of the Pentatonic shape (whether major or minor) you need.
I get the idea but like everything else in my life, including my golf swing, things have slowed down.
I found it hard to keep up. Even it I replay the video. If I could get a
PDF showing the fingering of the chords on the fret board that would be very helpful.
Griff….Thanks for another great lesson! Have you ever done a lesson on how to create and add “double stops” to your playing? I know you have mentioned double stops at times in lessons, but not on how to create them and use them, say in solos for example. Thx JT
excellent lesson Griff. thanks
excellent lesson, thanks
you are a great teacher Griff thanks!
Griff, I had to learn a variation of your “plus 1” system 45 years ago when I cut part of the tip of my forefinger off at work. It was in a splint so I had to get creative in order to play while healing. Played everything with just the 2, 3 and 4 fingers. Just wish I had this knowledge then! Great lesson! Thanks for sharing.
Knew you could explain Gutherie Trapp’s method of playing so we all can understand, see it coming together in next video. Need return on $$.
I just stumbled on something confusing. It seems that I can play all 5 shapes from the 5th fret, 6th string key of A (or any other 6th string root) and they all sound good.
What gives? Sorry that I don’t have enough theory to answer this myself.
Frankly, I’ve slowly picked up the “CAGED” system over the years.
But over the last six months I’ve begun to see the connection between that system, arpeggios, modes and the Chords associated with the modes. How’s that for weird?
Re. “CAGED” the one shape I find difficult (because of my short pinky) is the “D” shaped chords.
I have tended to just use the “high note triad” or the “C” Shape (which is right there too) because I find I cannot play the D shape and successfully bar the higher strings at the same time.
Oddly enough I can play both the higher and lower ends of the “G” shape with little problem.
Thanks Griff!
g-riff, couldn’t make video Full screen,is that part of the caged system?
G-riff, the video won’t go full screen,is that part of the caged system?
Commenting is fun,now i just need to figure out what to talk about..ha
Griff, I never really understood CAGED until I saw your video.
Using barre chords I know A & E.
In fact i play E and Am starting with my middle finger to the pinkie.
D chord is good almost anywhere, lots of songs without the barre are in there too.
Fantastic lesson! You took the complicated structure of Chords and took out the complexity.
Thanks!
I gotta say Griff, you said it right that no one teaches the actual use of caged chords in the simple way that you do. Throwing out all my other references to caged! Thank you Griff!
excellent lesson, thanks, Griff. I vowed to get this into my playing as a NY Rez this coming year and can see how it will help a ton on solos. Merry Christmas to you and your family! Ho hoho!!!
Great insight on how to effectively leverage the G shape upper and lower sections. Still have an issue getting the bass note in the D shape, but I’m getting there. Thanks, Griff.
Gawd, those stretches!
The only caged chords I can play is the one based on E (standard bar chord) and the A. Theoretically, I understand but accomplishing the other caged chord shapes feels so awkward as I have attempted these trying to use an entire bar of all six strings. Perhaps, with a lot of practice, I can use the “smaller” modified chords. But man……
Caged isn’t necessarily a way to play as much as it is a way to find a chord shape in the area of the fret board you are playing. What makes caged most useful to me is when I use it to move 7ths and minors and minor 7ths around the fret board.
Also remember that a major or minor chord is just 3 notes. The D shape is a whole chord on just the first three strings you don’t always need to play a bass note also.
Griff, you mentioned the “in the last video”. Where can I find it?
I am pleased to hear I am not the only one struggling with D and G shapes I cheat and spin the D shape to a 4string C shape.
I did see you do this some time ago and practice it 2 or 3 times a week, to try and improve my finger dexterity and strength that is failing as a 77year old.
As always a great post thanks again Griff.
Seems like the key thing (no pun intended) is knowing the notes in each chord and being able to find them while playing. If you can do that you can move the chords around the neck.
You are right Griff, I think I will leave this one until I really need to learn it as when learning other BGU lessons it all makes sense.
But it looks like a clear way to understand the Caged system..
I have tried reading about the CAGED system a few times, but never got far enough to have any idea what it was really about so I have up each time. This video is the first time I’ve actually been able to see how it can be applied. Great explanation and demonstration as usual – looking forward to the next.
Nobody is going to really use these whole shapes in their playing. This is about knowing where your chord tones are. Remember how Griff always talks about “little chords”? This shows you how/where to find what you need. For me the G would be totally impossible to grab in a real world playing situation. I can do it but not fast enough to be usable and it HURTS my hand but again thats not what this is really about. And as many others have said, Griff, you are the best! I know alot of you guys don’t realize it but Griff is classicly trained and I think his greatest talent is “dumbing down” this stuff to make it usable for those of us who just want to play and have fun without having to spend years mastering every little detail.
Griff that is a great explanation of caged. I’ve struggled to understand this system for a long time. You cleared up some stuff here.
Thanks!
Right right now the D chord shape is the only one that is giving me serious trouble. When I first learned how to do that C bar chord shape I thought I would never get it, but I eventually did.