1. The pentatonic formula – 1 b3 4 5 b7

2. The Pentatonic Box Pattern (Ok, I lied about locking away the five positions, we’ll be needing just this one)

   

3. Jam Track in A Minor

4. The ‘A’ Root Notes

   

5. A few easy scale patterns

   

Okay, enough of the holiday metaphors, what is this all about and how will it propel your pentatonic scale playing?

Well firstly this idea is much easier to work with than the common five pentatonic positions. The few easy patterns above still cover virtually the entire fretboard once they are pieced together and can be put to musical use easier than the traditional five position method. Secondly and most importantly, it will almost force you into letting the scale dictate the pattern rather than allow the patterns to dictate the scale – probably the biggest difference between guitarists stuck in the pentatonic box and those having total control of the scale across the entire fretboard.

This isn’t any kind of groundbreaking new method nor is it a replacement for other methods, just a kick in the right direction to help you see scale patterns and positions for what they are … the notes belonging to a five note pentatonic scale and not a set of fixed ‘patterns of the moment’.

Like everything else it’s up to you to put it to practice. I’m going to give you a few ideas to get going but it’s your job to do the thinking and piece it all together, do this and I guarantee you’ll start to realise that using the whole fretboard isn’t really that difficult.

Learning The Notes

Guitarists with great command of scales and the fretboard know a few things. Things that take a lot of hard work and time to master. Among these are all of the notes on the fretboard, the CAGED chords and other chord types, chord and scale notes and intervals, music theory knowledge and the structural and theoretical relationship between all of these things.

The more of this you know the better but you can’t learn it all overnight, it can take years. Right now it doesn’t matter but one thing there is absolutely no substitute for is knowing the notes on the fretboard. If you can’t find them quickly then moving forward and getting out of the rut is going to be impossible without resorting to memorised patterns, scale runs and counting frets from a fixed point of reference – analogous to having a piece of elastic tied between your fingers and the pentatonic box, the further away you stray from it the harder it gets and you are constantly being pulled back to it.

The good news is learning the notes isn’t as hard as you might think. Practicing all of this in one key only is the best way to quickly learn the notes. We are only using the ‘A’ notes as our reference for every pattern and as there’s only one on each string between every twelve frets, you can get used to these confidently in just a few days. Master this technique in just one key and you should find everything suddenly making a whole lot more sense as you see how the scale ties together across the fretboard. After this it’s just a matter of practicing in the other keys to learn the other notes. Enough banter, time to start practicing!

Exercise 1.

Take the first octave of the pentatonic box and move it around the neck to start on the ‘A’ note of each string. Remember the scale sequence is 1 b3 4 5 b7. Even though the pattern itself changes on some strings, get used to the fact the note order is the same, it’s only the string tuning that changes the actual shape of the pattern, the scale sequence doesn’t alter.

Play along with the jam track and get used to jumping randomly between these patterns. A few days and you should be able to do it fluently without pausing.

Exercise 2

The first exercise dealt with single octave pentatonic patterns ascending from the root. Now do the same thing again but this time use the highest four notes of the pentatonic box and jam along randomly moving between the strings. Like before, remember it’s the same sequence of notes even though the pattern changes slightly, this time only in one place.

Exercise 3

For this final exercise we are using a simple Amin7 arpeggio pattern in just three positions starting on the sixth, fifth and third strings. This keeps things simple and still manages to cover a large amount of the neck when combined with the patterns from the previous exercises. Note that a minor seventh arpeggio is only one note short of the full pentatonic scale. If used sparingly this works well with the pentatonic scale while at the same time can help get you out of the habit of stepping through scale patterns in predictable sequences. Like before, fire up a jam track and spend some time randomly jumping between these patterns until you can find and play them fluently.

That pretty much sums it up. Play around with all three exercises everyday until you are comfortable with them and can jump to every ‘A’ note without hesitating, combine them and mix them up randomly. Learn the scale intervals in each pattern even if they don’t help you right now, they certainly will later. Get used to sliding and moving between the patterns, it won’t take long before you can seamlessly join them all into one large scale up and down the neck. If you practice this everyday you’ll have come a long way in just a month or so. By this time you will find learning the notes on the fretboard for every key get’s easier and quicker, find jam tracks for various keys and play about with the same ideas for all of them. After a while you should be adding your own ideas and discovering new ways to play about with the pentatonic scale. The five common positions will suddenly become easy as you see how these smaller patterns overlap and integrate with them. The diagrams below give you an idea of this, study them and work the five patterns back into your practice routine.

The single octave patterns from exercise one

The four note patterns from exercise two

Minor seventh arpeggios from exercise three

All of the above combined and including the full pentatonic box position 1. As you can see, virtually all of the notes have been covered.

Now go practice!

This is not going to be an in depth article simply because as far as I’m concerned the CAGED system doesn’t deserve one. Why? Because it’s five chords and nothing else, it is not a system and it won’t make you a great guitarist overnight. What it is, is something that you should just know and think about but certainly not restrict it to just five major chords. The whole idea of the CAGED system (in most teachings) is a method to use chord patterns, that you already know, as a guide to finding your way around the fretboard and relating them to major scales. The basic idea is a good one and has it’s uses but it’s not a system, it’s just common sense that will unfold as you progress. As a beginner it is a lot to think about.

Another problem I have with the way it’s (generally) taught is that it’s centred around the Major triads and major scales. The idea itself can be used with any scale and any chord.

CAGED Guitar system summarised.

C A G E D refers to the five common open chords (major triads) that most guitarists are taught from the beginning.

The A and E major chords are often moved anywhere on the neck, what we all know as barre chords. The C, G, and D chords aren’t moved as often, especially among beginners because they are difficult to finger and require difficult stretches. The thing with these chords is it doesn’t matter how difficult they are to play you should still know how to locate there positions anywhere on the neck. I’ll speak about this in a moment but for now I’ll just get on with the summary, which is nearly done anyway

Learning to locate these five chords in any position on the neck is generally easier than learning to locate the five most common major scale patterns anywhere on the neck, I personally disagree with this because it’s much more involved in real world guitar playing but I can see the logic and yes, it does have it’s uses but I think we should drop the word “system” and replace it perhaps with something like “guide”.

If you already know the five chord patterns above and think you can locate them reasonable quickly anywhere along the fretboard then take a look at the diagrams below because this is the CAGED system in a nutshell. Learn the chord shapes, learn how the chord shapes integrate with the major scale patterns below and then decide yourself how much a better guitar player you are now you have learned the CAGED system, I doubt you’ll find many Eureka moments.

Even though it might sound like it, I’m not knocking the idea, it’s just the way it’s taught like so many things in the guitar world, mishandled, incomplete or borderline pointless just to create more content to fill books.

So what should you know about the “system”. I think the main thing is to not waste any time specifically learning it as it’s taught above.Learning scales and chords and finding ways to relate them to each other is a natural part of the learning process and it takes time, a long time. Also think of CAGED as a foundation, not just major and not just triads. Over time you will want to naturally integrate and relate all varieties of chord and scale types, let this happen naturally don’t try to rush it, even after years of playing there will always be more ways of looking at the fretboard, I’d go as far as saying it’s never ending.

What is important to learn is the foundation, being able to find these chords anywhere on the fretboard quickly is extremely important. Spend time learning this and the integration part will happen all on its own and will happen slowly. The chord tone series in the practice sessions are aimed at doing just this, learn slowly and build your experience in small steps.

Tips for learning the CAGED chords

I’ve covered barre chords elsewhere and most guitarists understand them even if they cannot play them yet but what about the other three that so often get ignored? The reason they are ignored is because they are difficult to play. Simple answer, stop making them difficult. Break them down into smaller manageable chunks and start using them in your playing. You don’t need to use all six strings every time you play a chord, if a chord is difficult then split it up into two small independent chord shapes. If you do this with the G form chord you will have one of the chord tones missing (in the yellow part). Don’t let that stop finding ways to use it, worry about it only if it starts to sound wrong, most of the time it won’t.

The D form is a slightly difficult stretch. Until you get used to it, dump the use of the D string and use just the three notes outlined in yellow. Try not to use your index finger at all even though it’s more difficult. Once you can play the chord this way it will be easier to put the index finger back on the D string.

If you split the C major form then one half of it becomes the D form. Getting used to these kinds of relationships are also very useful

That outlines the basic concept of the CAGED system. Don’t try too hard to make more out of it than what it is because without trying, the idea will probably become a large part of how you think your way around the fretboard anyway. It certainly won’t be restricted to major scales and triads.

If you really want to become a master of the fretboard then the best way to do so is through practice. Being able to play guitar solos and melodic phrases that always blend perfectly with the music and sound professional is one of the best skills you can learn. Starting with simple chord tone soloing and getting used to using target tones within your playing. Do this everyday for a while and things will start to come together all on their own. Building your knowledge one step at a time in small doses is what the brain thrives on. Put this into a practice schedule and you’ll master the fretboard in the quickest possible way.

My advice is just go and buy a book called Chord Tone Soloing by Barrett Tagliarino. It’s easy to follow, none of the exercise ideas are challenging and it’s designed purely to get you mastering this very thing, hence the title! I own it and highly recommend it, but you have to stick with it or you are wasting your time. You can check it out at Amazon from the links below.

Chord Tone Soloing at Amazon.com

Chord Tone Soloing at Amazon.co.uk

Bar chords can extend beyond those listed above but these are the most important and they give you enough variety to play most rock and blues songs. Barre (bar) chords are also called moveable chords and this is what makes them so handy to learn. The fact they are moveable chords means you simply learn one shape for each chord type and move it along the fretboard to change it’s starting note.

For instance, you already know the common ‘E major’ shape chord as shown in the diagram below.

The sixth, open E string is the ‘root’ or ‘starting note’ for this chord. If we now move this entire shape up by one fret and use our finger to act as a barre, effectively moving the nut or mimicking a capo, then the chord is now an F major. This shape then becomes the full moveable fingering pattern for a six string major chord.

The same method is used to create five string bar chords. The diagram below shows how you move the common ‘A minor’ shape along the fretboard to create a ‘D minor’ chord.

That summarises the basics of barre chords. Practice the common five and six string shapes shown below and you’ll have most every chord you ever need to play many styles of music. The five and six string notes on the fretboard are shown for reference if you don’t know them and a few examples should help clarify things if you are new to bar chords..

Notes on the fifth ( A ) and sixth ( E ) string

Five string barre chord diagrams

Five string bar chords example 1

Five string bar chords example 2

Six string barre chord diagrams

Six string bar chords example 1

Six string bar chords example 2