Category Archives: All Lessons

Guitar lessons with a focus on theory and understanding the music that you are playing.

Lesson 4: The CAGED Chord Pattern

Note that in all lessons on GTR the strings are numbered in a different, more sensible way than most guitar instructors and resources teach: Numbering The Guitar Strings

A learning tool that has become quite popular over the past few years is the CAGED chord pattern. The guitar is set up and tuned in such a way that you can play chords in several positions all over the neck. This means that rather than just being able to play a C Major chord in one place on the fretboard you can learn to play it in 10 different positions (5 in each octave). Each chord position has its own feel which gives you a wider palette of sounds to choose from when playing. It is also a great tool to help you learn all the note names on the fretboard as well as the major scale.

As its name shows, the CAGED chord pattern is a pattern of 5 chord shapes. These are the C-shape, A-shape, G-shape, E-shape and D-shape. Have a look at the previous lesson to see what these chord shapes look like: Lesson 3: Basic Guitar Chords For Beginners.

Now this is the part that can be a bit confusing. In order to be able to use the CAGED chord pattern you need to learn the shapes of those 5 chords and for the moment separate them from the specific notes that are being played. So look at the chord diagrams for the chords C, A, G, E and D and pretend they are blank chord finger patterns. Memorise how you have to hold your fingers for each of those chords. How you hold your fingers for each chord is what we call its shape.

So lets say you want to find out what the other 4 positions of the C Major chord look like. To do that you map out all the notes that make up the C Major chord (C, E and G) as I’ve done below.

C Major Triads

You should recognise the C Major chord on the left side of the image at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets. In this position you won’t normally play the two G’s on the 1st and 6th string but you could if you wanted to. That’s the C-shape of the C Major chord.

The next letter in the CAGED chord pattern is A which means the next C Major chord will have the A-shape. Can you see where the A-shape appears in the image? It’s at the 5th fret. The G-shape appears at the 7th and 8th fret, the E-shape at the 9th and 10th and the D-shape at the 12th and 13th fret (the notes at the 13th fret are the same as the 1st). So now you can play a C Major chord at 5 different places between the 1st and 12th fret (so 10 different places across the 2 octaves of a guitar fretboard).

Lets look at what the CAGED pattern look like for the A Major chord (made from the notes A, C#/Db and E).

A Major Triads

Again you should recognise the A Major chord on the left side of the image. The next letter in the CAGED pattern is the G-shape which you can see at the 4th and 5th fret, the E-shape at the 6th and 7th, the D-shape at the 9th and 10th and the C-shape between the 10th and 12th fret.

You can repeat this method for the other chords G, E and D. Just start with the chord in the open position (at the first 3 frets) then find the next shape by looking at which letter shape appears next in the word CAGED. BTW you can see in the A Major diagram above that the D shape links in with the C shape. This means that the pattern repeats endlessly CAGEDCAGEDCAGED etc.

So the order of shapes for these 5 chords is as follows, starting from the open position at the 1st to the 3rd fret.

CAGEDCAGED etc.
AGEDCAGEDC etc.
GEDCAGEDCA etc.
EDCAGEDCAG etc.
DCAGEDCAGE etc.

I’d advise you to concentrate on learning the pattern for these five chords until you have a good feel for where they are in relation to each other. It won’t take long until you can find all the chord positions for each chord without thinking about it.

The CAGED pattern doesn’t just apply to the chords C, A, G, E and D. It holds for all major chords, F#, A# and Eb for example. Just take a look at the image below which shows all the notes for the F# Major chord (the notes F#/Gb, A#/Bb and C#/Db). You can easily spot the CAGED pattern shapes on the fretboard.

F# Major Triads

The E-shape appears at the 3rd and 4th fret, the D-shape at the 6th and 7th, the C-shape between the 7th and 9th and the A-shape at the 11th fret.

Learning the CAGED chord pattern is a great way to gain insight into the fretboard and music theory. If you want a more in depth lesson on the CAGED pattern including more detailed diagrams I can send them to you when you sign up for the Guitar Theory Revolution Newsletter.

Lesson 3: Basic Guitar Chords For Beginners

This lesson will show you a selection of basic guitar chords for beginners. These diagrams will show you the chords C, A, G, E and D as well as two Major bar-chords (moveable chords where the index finger forms an artificial bar across all the strings). Each guitar chord diagram shows you which notes to play on each string and a suggestion will be given on which fingers to use. The note names in coloured circles are where you put your fingers, those in white circles are strings that are played but not fretted while the strings marked with an X should be muted or not played.

If you are a beginner you should be careful with the bar chords since they require you to stretch your fingers and hand in a way that might be uncomfortable at first. Take things slowly and stop if you experience any pain. If you practice these chord shapes for just a few minutes a day you’ll quickly find your hands becoming stronger and more flexible.

Remember that I number the guitar strings in a different way than most people (low E, 1 to high E, 6). Your fingers are numbered as followed: index finger = 1, middle finger = 2, ring finger = 3 and little finger = 4.

C Major Chord
For this chord you should place your 1st (index) finger on the C of the 5th string, your 2nd (middle) finger on the E on the 3rd string and your 3rd (ring) finger on the C on the 2nd string. The 1st strong (Low E) is usually not played or muted.

C Major Chord

A Major Chord
The 1st finger holds the E on the 3rd string, the 2nd is on the A on the 4th string and the 3rd holds the C# on the 5th string.

A Major Chord

G Major Chord
The 2nd finger frets the G on the 1st string, the 2nd finger holds the B on the 2nd string. Strings G, B and E are left open and the G on the 6th string is fretted with your 4th finger. Some people hold down the D on the 5th string with their 3rd finger as well as this helps them switch between the G and D more easily.

G Major Chord

E Major Chord
The 1st finger on the G# on the 4th string, 2nd finger on the B on the 2nd string and 3rd finger on the E of the 3rd string.

E Major Chord

D Major Chord
There are two common ways to play this chord. The first is to place finger 1 on the A on the 4th string, finger 3 on the D on the 5th string and finger 2 on the F# on the 6th string. You can either mute the 1st string or fret it at the F# with your thumb.

Another way to play this chord is with your 2nd finger on the A, 3rd on the F# and 4th on the D. It is worth practicing this way of holding the chord as it will help you later on when you play barred versions of this D-shape.
D Major Chord

Bar Chords

Bar chords are chords where you hold down all strings across the neck with your index finger and use your other fingers to hold a chord. Think of it as using your finger as a capo.

This chord may be a bit hard to hold if you are a beginner. Don’t push yourself too hard as you might cause excessive strain in your hand and wrist. You can always come back to this chord at a later time.

The 1st finger holds the A on the 1st string, 3rd finger holds the E on the 2nd string, the 4th finger holds the A on the 3 string and the 2nd finger holds the C# on the 4th string. If you can, try holding your first finger down across all the strings so that you fret the top two strings A and A as well. This chord shape is commonly used to hold the F Major chord. All you need to do is slide this shape down to the first fret.

A Bar Major Chord

This chord may also be a bit hard to hold if you are a beginner. But there are several ways you can play this chord so choose one that is most comfortable for you. Remember you can always come back to this chord at a later time after you’ve developed more hand strength and can stretch your fingers more comfortably.

The most difficult way to hold this chord, but the one that will give you the most flexibility in the future is to place your 1st finger across all the frets at the 5th fret. Then place your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers on the A, D and F# notes on the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings.

The 2nd way is to mute or not hold the notes on the 1st and 6th strings and only play the central 4 strings. This way you only have to hold one note with your 1st string.

The final way is to hold the D on the 2nd string with your 1st finger as before but this time to use your 3rd finger to hold down all the notes on the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings. This is how many rock, punk and metal players hold down the chord (often leaving out the note on the 5th string as well). This may be the way you first hold this chord shape, but you might find it limiting your ability later on and you’ll want to try the other ways when you are ready. This shape is a common way to play the B Major chord, just play this shape at the 2nd fret.

D Major Bar Chord

Video 001: How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard

This video lesson shows you the universal note pattern as well as one of the exercise from my free e-book “How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard”. This video can be viewed in HD. If you like this video please spread the word by pressing the ‘Like’ button at the top of the post. Thank you!

To download the accompanying e-book go here: How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard.

Lesson 2: How To Memorise The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard

Download the accompanying e-book for this lesson here.

I admit that when I first started playing guitar I was intimidated by the amount of notes on the guitar fretboard. I thought I would never be able to remember them all. After all, a guitar with 24 frets will have 144 different note locations to remember. Luckily I found out that there are really simple ways to to memorize all the notes on a guitar fretboard within a couple of days… if you know the right way to go about it.

First of all we can cut the number of positions that need to be remembered in half because the guitar fretboard repeats after the 12th fret (the first 12 frets are an octave, the next 12 are the octave above it). The notes appear in the exact same order from the 12th to the 24th fret as they do from the 1st to the 12th. This means there are now only 72 note locations to remember.

In total there are 12 different notes in western music, these are: C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/, A, A#/Bb and B. As you can see the #’s and b’s (sharps and flats) lie between the notes C and D, D and E, F and G, G and A, A and B. So we can now cut the number of notes we need to learn down to just 42 because we will automatically see the sharps and flats appear between the other notes once we’ve memorized the positions of C, D, E, F, G and A.

Now find an image of all the notes on the fretboard (you can find one in the free e-book that you get when you join the Guitar Theory Revolution newsletter) and find the universal note pattern that every note follows. Between the 1st and 12th fret each note appears once on each of the six strings. If you take the start of the pattern to be the notes appearing on the low and high E string then you’ll see the pattern repeat over and over for each note.

Learning this note pattern is probably the quickest way to learn all the notes on the guitar fretboard, although there are others. For example if you know the circle of fifths and fourths then you’ll easily be able to find all the notes because the strings on the guitar are tuned in fifths. The circle of fourths and fifths will be covered in future articles and lessons.

As I mentioned earlier it is best to focus on the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B first because that way you’ll automatically start seeing the sharps and flats between them. In addition you should always sing the notes that you are playing in order to improve your ability to recognize notes by ear.

Finally make sure you learn the locations of the notes without reference to other notes. Although it’s helpful in the beginning it’s not good to keep doing this as it will slow you down because you’ll always be checking where other notes are before you can find the one you really want.

To memorize all the notes in the proper way check out the exercises and diagrams in the free e-book How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard which you can download when you sign up for the Guitar Theory Revolution newsletter.

5 reasons why you should learn all the notes on the guitar

Many people put off learning all the notes on the guitar fretboard because it can seem like an overwhelming amount to memorize. This article will show you why you need to learn all the notes on a guitar. You’ll also be told about the universal note pattern that every single note shares that makes learning all the notes incredibly easy.

1. You’ll understand which notes make up a chord in a particular chord

When you can see all the note names across the fretboard you’ll instantly see which notes feature in the chords you are using. This is one of the best ways to get started with music theory for guitar because you’ll quickly memorize the notes in the standard chords that you use all the time.

2. You’ll be able to play chords all over the neck

Most people are stuck with playing the same old chords in the same old open positions. I’m talking about the the chords C, D, E, F, G and A. Some people progress a little beyond that and are able to play bar-chords. But did you know that any chord has 5 easy to play variations you can play in stead of the the standard open positions? You’ll see these chord variations appear all over the neck once you’ve memorized all the notes.

3. You’ll get better at soloing and improvising

When you know all the notes on the guitar you’ll instantly become better at soloing and improvising . You won’t ever be afraid of hitting a bum note again because you won’t be blindly flailing around on the fretboard. Don’t be one of those people that kids themselves that they can play only by ear. Don’t get me wrong, playing by ear is the essence of music but most people haven’t done any ear training and can only hear bad notes when it’s too late, after they’ve played them.

This also helps you avoid getting trapped in the dreaded ‘scale boxes’ because you see scales as a collection of notes rather than patterns.

4. Better communication with other musicians

I’ve found it much easier to communicate with other musicians while jamming and improvising now that I know all the note names on the guitar. I can tell people which notes are in my riffs and chords making it a lot less confusing than naming string and fret numbers.

5. More confidence while performing

I’ve noticed that since I’ve learned all the note positions that I’m a lot more confident while performing in front of people. I still make the occasional mistake but now I know the names of those mistakes and can investigate why it didn’t sound right (or why it sounded good, some mistakes can be positive after all) by analyzing how it fits into the overall piece of music. Doing this kind of theoretical analysis is much easier now that I know all the note names.

The Universal Note Pattern

The big trick (that not many people know about) that will make learning all the notes easy is knowing the universal note pattern. It’s a pattern that all notes share and is easy to see when you look at an image of the notes on the fretboard. It shows how within any 12 fret range a single note appears 6 times and only once on each string.

If you want to see an image of the pattern be sure to sign up for the Guitar Theory Revolution newsletter so you can download the free e-book: How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard.