What is the CAGED system?

The CAGED system is method of mapping out your guitar’s fretboard by visualizing the common open C, A, G, E, and D chord shapes up and down the guitar neck in any key. CAGED is incredibly useful for unlocking your fretboard in the context of lead guitar. In this article, we’ll run you through the fundamentals of what is the CAGED system.

Imagine you just moved to a new city where the streets are laid out in a grid: Every block is the same length and width, much like frets on the guitar neck. Every street corner looks like the last.

In the beginning, you have to pull out a map whenever you want to go somewhere. Maybe you let your phone guide you: “In 100ft, turn left.” In time, you get to know the grid until it becomes easy to navigate the city via landmarks. Eventually, the map is ingrained in your mind, and you can navigate the grid with ease.

The same is true for navigating your guitar fretboard. In the beginning it all looks the same, and the right map is crucial for helping you get around – ‘If I play a G on the lowest string, A is just two frets up.’ 

Landmarks are the way to go, and that’s the CAGED system for us guitarists. It’ll help you solo across your entire fretboard with ease and pave the way for improvising within complex scales. If you dedicate enough practice time to learning the CAGED map, you won’t even have to think about navigating your fretboard – you’ll have an intuitive sense of where to place your hands. 

With CAGED, your fretboard landmarks are the open chord shapes most guitarists learn first:

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For the system to cover the whole neck, we can’t simply play these chords all in the open position. though. We’ll connect them in a row across the fretboard, one by one. We’ll show you next how they connect.

Full introduction to the CAGED system

CAGED is kind of our thing at Pickup Music. We partnered with Dr. Molly Miller to create an extensive Learning Pathway on the CAGED system that’ll teach you how to map out your entire fretboard so you can solo in any key and style.

If you don’t want to take the full 90 minutes with Molly, keep on scrolling for a brief overview of CAGED system fundamentals.

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How to find CAGED shapes on the guitar neck

To properly internalize the CAGED system, you need to memorize five chord shapes that you can move to any fret along with where the root notes are in each shape.

The first CAGED shape: C

Below, you’ll find: 

• The C CAGED shape as an open C chord
• The C CAGED shape as a C# chord
• You’ve likely never played a C shape this way, so it’s natural for it to feel uncomfortable at first.

• The numbers refer to which finger is used to fret each note (1 = index finger).
• The root note of the open C chord is on the 3rd fret on the A string. 
• Once you move everything one fret up to the C#, you get the moveable C shape.

Important: Keep in mind the difference between CAGED shape and chord name. The second chord below is a C# chord, that we’re playing with a C CAGED shape.

Remaining CAGED shapes

Your task now is to analyze the rest of the open chord shapes. Use the list above and do this for each chord, one by one:

• Play the open chord
• Memorize where the lowest root note in the chord shape is (ie. where the lowest note C is in the C chord, the A note in the A chord, etc)
• The lowest root note is either on the low E, A or D string

Then, work on developing the ability to play the shape anywhere on the neck:

• Notice where the chord shape includes open strings
• Move the whole shape up one fret
• Adjust your fingering to account for the notes that were previously open-string notes

Once you’ve figured out what each open chord shape looks like without using the open strings, you’ll have your moveable chord shape.

Now, play each shape but make the root note a C. You can check your work using the graphic below.

• See how they all connect? 
• Each shape shares one or more notes with the next shape. 
• This means the system covers the entire neck.