CAGED System Primer For Community Guitar by Andrew Lawrence Level 2

Transcription

1 System Primer or ommunity uitar y ndrew Lawrence Level communityguitar.com

2 hords and hord Shapes The system is ased on the recognition that although there are many major chords on the neck of the guitar, there are really only five major chord shapes that you can use to play them. These chord shapes correspond to the common chords,,, and, hence the system s name. To make use of the system it is important that you understand the difference etween a chord and a chord shape (which some refer to as a chord form). chord is defined y the notes that make it up (for example, an chord is made up of, # and B). It can e played on guitar, piano, autoharp or any other chording instrument. chord shape, on the other hand, is just a configuration of your fingers on the guitar fretoard. With one major chord shape you can play every major chord, simply y moving the shape up or down the fingeroard using a capo or ar. s you can see here, the distinction etween a chord and a chord shape really only ecomes important when you move the chord eyond open position. fter all, in open position an chord is played using the shape, a chord with a shape, and so forth. But as soon as you place a ar ehind an shape and play it as shown here at the rd fret, now there is a difference etween the shape (which still looks like an ) and the actual chord eing played (which is now a ). shape chord shape chord capo or ar lthough many guitarists learn to ar the and shapes and move them around the fingeroard, most would never think to do the same thing with the, and shapes for the simple reason that, when arred, these chord shapes are physically challenging. That s why it is critical to understand that the real value of the system has nothing to do with eing ale to play all five arred shapes. It just has to do with eing ale to see and understand them on the fingeroard. Your mind doesn t have the physical limitations of your hands, so you should e ale to visualize all kinds of things that your hands couldn t possily do. Let your hands worry aout what s physically possile when it comes time to actually gra something. or now, let s get the picture of the asic shapes clear in your mind s eye. xercise : Use the diagrams elow to sketch out the remainder of the five major chord shapes we ve already done the shape for you with the ar at the fifth fret. Then try to play each of them. ememer though, it makes no difference whether you can get all the notes of the chord to ring out clearly. You don t even need to pick the strings. Just make sure you know where the fingers of your fretting hand elong in each arred shape.

3 Once you ve dislodged the,,, and chords from their home in open position y putting a ar ehind them, you realize something very significant: that each major chord shape can e used to play any major chord simply y moving it up or down the fingeroard. So now the question ecomes, How do I know what chord I m playing when I put a arred shape in a given fingeroard position? Let s find out. oot onfigurations and hord Names The first critical piece of information you need in order to answer this question is the location of the root within the chord shape. ortunately, this is easy information to get your hands on: simply look at the chords in open position. Shall we? xercise : The diagrams elow show the five major chord shapes in open position. (Because they are in open position, the name of the chord and the shape are the same.) or each chord/shape, identify all the occurrences of the root as we have done for. When you ve completed the exercise aove you will have identified what we ll call the root configuration of each of the shapes. The important thing to notice at this point is that as you move the shape up the fingeroard, the actual note given y the root configuration changes (and so, the name of the chord), ut the position of those notes relative to each other and the overall chord shape stays constant. In other words although the root of the chord changes, the root configuration of the chord shape does not. The diagrams elow should make this idea clear. 9 s the shape is moved up the fingeroard, the root changes, ut the root configuration does not. Notice how the named notes in each diagram are always in the same position relative to each other and the overall chord shape. This rings us to the second piece of information you need in order to name the actual chord you are playing as you move these shapes up and down the neck: the names of the notes on the fingeroard, including those eyond the fifth fret. We ll assume here that you know how to find those notes (if not, see our Level Theory Primer) ut if you are just eginning to explore the entire fingeroard, chances are that you don t know them quickly enough to make use of that knowledge on the fly. That s the point we re trying to get to. In a jam setting you don t have time to count up fret y fret from the nut to the 8th fret to find a good chord!

4 lthough you can approach it from a variety of angles, there s no real trick to learning the notes up the fingeroard. s you work on Level or ommunity uitar material you will e playing up the neck a lot, especially if you get to the second rhythm parts and solos. In the accompanying Theory and xercises for these songs you ll e invited again and again to say, sing or write the names of the notes of the music you re learning. The more you do it, the more familiar the note names ecome in various positions, just as they have (presumaly) in open position. If you skip those exercises, however, you can pretty much count on getting lost as you move up the fingeroard. It s your choice! The following exercise will give you a chance to comine your understanding of the root configurations of the five shapes with your knowledge of the notes on the fingeroard. Together, these two elements give you all you need in order to determine what actual chord you are playing as you move a chord shape around the fingeroard. Since this is not a jam situation, speed is of no value or concern, so take your time. xercise or each diagram elow, name the actual note of the root configuration given the chord shape s position on the fingeroard. In so doing, you name the root of the chord. The first diagram is provided y way of example. 8 9 The Sequence We have already seen aove that any one the five major chord shapes can give us any major chord simply y moving the shape up or down the fingeroard. Here s a related insight: any major chord can e played five different ways, using each of the five chord shapes. The word not only tells us which chord shapes we use to accomplish this, ut it also gives us the order in which they occur as we move up the fingeroard. The fretoard diagram elow should make clear how this works. ssume we want to play a major chord five different ways. We egin, of course, with the common chord in open position. Moving up the fingeroard, the next chord we could play would e the shape (arred at the third fret), then the shape (arred at the fifth fret), and so on. Notice the order of the shapes:

5 s they succeed one another up the fingeroard there are no gaps etween the five chord shapes. ather, they fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, interlocking y means of shared notes. It will e much easier for you to see exactly how the chord shapes fit together if you keep at least one of those shared notes in mind, namely, the root. very root is shared y two adjacent chord shapes. So think aout it as long as the root stays constant, the shapes you play will give you the same chord. The diagram to the right illustrates this point. It shows the and shapes side y side on the fingeroard with their roots indicated. The notes with cross-hatching are shared y oth chord shapes. Notice that one of these is a root of oth shapes. If your guitar is neary, try moving ack and forth etween those two shapes anywhere on the fingeroard, keeping that shared root constant as you do. Then try putting this insight to use on the entire fingeroard y doing the exercise elow. xercise : The two rows of fretoard diagrams elow start with a common chord followed y a series of chord shapes that are organized in the sequence, ut at undetermined locations on the fretoard. dd fret numers to each diagram (to the right of the ar) so that every shape in the row gives you the chord that starts the row. shape shape Partial hord Shapes Once you can visualize the full chord shapes all over the fingeroard, the question ecomes, OK, so what can I do with them? You ll e answering that question for as long as you play the guitar with an enquiring mind. But for starters, you can reak the full chord shapes into more manageale units y selecting just a few notes from them, creating what we ll refer to as partial chord shapes. In Level and ommunity uitar arrangements we commonly use these partial shapes to create nd or rd rhythm guitar parts up the neck. or that purpose you don t really need the sound of a five or six-note chord, ut just enough to add something of rhythmic or harmonic interest. The next exercise will help you egin your exploration of partial major chord shapes.

6 xercise To do this exercise, start y visualizing the full chord shape indicated aove each pair of diagrams. If you d like, you can pencil that shape in with very light or dotted lines. Then sketch in the partial chord shape that would e created y using only the notes on the racketed strings. (The x s eside the racket indicate which strings to avoid.) On the top row, you ll map out partial chord shapes on strings, and ; the second row will use only strings, and. Indicate which (if any) of the notes in the partal shape would e the root. The first diagram of each row is provided y way of example. Scale orms Based on the ive hord Shapes s useful as the first few insights discussed aove may e, the system will e of very limited use if you only apply it in the cookie-cutter fashion we ve een discussing so far. To take things to the next level of flexiility we need to turn our attention away from chords per se and toward their uilding locks individual notes. We ll start with the exercise elow. xercise The fretoard to the right shows the th through 9th frets. By whatever method you choose, sketch in all the notes of the major scale (that is, all the notes of the musical alphaet without sharps or flats) etween the low and high that have een provided. or this exercise it will not e helpful to duplicate notes on adjacent strings, so move up to a higher string whenever possile. s a final step, shade in all the s in the diagram you ve just created so they stand out. When you are done with the exercise aove, have a look at the answer we ve provided at the ack of this primer (or at your own if you re sure it is correct). Notice the configuration of the s that have een shaded in. Pop Quiz: those s give you the root configuration of which chord shape? If you said the shape, you re right. (If you re having troule seeing that, you might want to review our discussion of root configurations aove.)

7 So now you can look at the notes of that root configuration in either of two ways: as the roots of a -shape chord (as we ve een doing up to this point), or as reoccurances of the tonic of a major scale that references the shape. No matter where you position the shape on the fingeroard, you will now know not only what chord it is, ut how to play two octaves of a major scale starting on the root of that chord simply y following the finger pattern you yourself outlined aove. We ll call that finger pattern the scale form. That is different from a scale, just as a chord shape is different from a chord. scale form is similar to a chord shape in that they oth refer to a certain finger pattern on the guitar. In the case of a scale form, that finger pattern gives you a series of intervals. nd just as a chord shape can give you many different major chords depending on where it is positioned on the fingeroard, so too the scale form can give you any major scale you d like. Prove that this is true y trying the next exercise. xercise or this exercise there is no writing involved, just playing: position a chord shape anywhere on the fingeroard and then use the diagram you just completed to play two octaves of the major scale that references that shape. The tonic of the scale will coincide with the root configuration of the shape. When refering to your diagram you ll want to ignore the note names (for now) and simply pay attention to the finger pattern. You could do the same, of course, with the other four chord shapes as well. nd so we shall, ut as we do let s look at them in terms of scale degrees. Scale orms and Scale egrees The ig advantage of thinking in terms of scale forms on guitar is that although the actual notes change as you move the reference shape up and down the fingeroard, the underlying scale form does not. nd notice this: just as the root configuration of the chord shape is fixed, the position of every scale degree is fixed within the overall scale form. Learn the scale form in term of scale degrees and that information is good no matter where you use it on the fingeroard. Try the following exercise to oth deepen your insight into the five scale forms and to egin getting them under your fingers. xercise 8 The diagrams elow show five scale forms that reference the chord shapes. We ve only filled in the root/tonic of each scale form now you fill in the rest of the scale degrees (,,, etc.) Then egin to familiarize yourself with the scale forms y playing them. scend and descend through all the notes of each form, always starting and ending on a. This note is oth the root of the chord and the tonic of the major scale. It would e very good practice to say or sing the scale degrees as you play. It will also e helpful if you notice the intervals etween the various scale degrees. or example, notice that there is always only a half step etween the pairs / and /. Your goal is to start seeing and hearing each scale degree as having a distinct flavor within the scale. That way, you can decide whether that s the flavor your own musical recipe calls for.

8 Be aware that the scale forms shown aove are not the only options within the system. In these, the emphasis has een on visualizing the forms within a very narrow range of frets. There are advantages and disadvantages to seeing and playing in position in this way. To compliment this approach, we will include horizontal scale forms those that span two or more shapes at the end of this primer. These forms will also crop up on various esource Sheets (found at communityguitar.com) as well. Neither is etter than the other; knowing oth is est! Putting chord shapes and scale forms together Once you can see the fingeroard in terms of the five root configurations and use them to visualize either chord shapes or scale forms, you have some very powerful tools at your disposal. The rest of this system primer will e devoted to some of the more practical ways you can apply these insights. These exercises are only intended as introductory examples. In the course of the exercises that accompany Level or ommunity uitar arrangements you ll have many more opportunities to put them to work in a variety of musical contexts. Major rpeggios Since arpeggios are commonly expressed as scale degrees it should e ovious that the scale forms you outlined aove are a treasure trove of movale arpeggio fingerings. In our Level and material you will e encouraged again and again to play through chord progressions using only arpeggios up the fingeroard. If you would like to move toward crafting your own solos with confidence, there is proaly no single thing you could do that would e more valuale over the long haul than to drill yourself on common arpeggios. Use the exercise elow to map out a few moile major arpeggio forms. xercise 9 Major arpeggios consist of the root, rd and th of the major scale. The diagrams elow give you the root configuration associated with each shape. Use the scale form diagrams you have already completed to sketch in the major arpeggio for each shape, including the scale degree of each chord tone. ominant Seventh rpeggios and Voicings s you know, the dominant th chord is created y adding the scale degree to a major triad. (If this is new information to you, please see the section in the Level Theory Primer devoted to this.) lthough this note is not included in the major scale forms we ve discussed so far, you can easily derive it from them simply y flatting the th scale degree. This note will end up one whole step elow the root of the underlying chord shape you are referencing. Once you have identified that note you can incorporate it into either arpeggios or moveale chord voicings. That s exactly what you ll do in the exercises that follow.

9 xercise 0 The diagrams elow give you the major arpeggio associated with each of the shapes. Turn these into dominant th arpeggios y adding the th wherever possile. xercise The notes of a dominant th arpeggio provide the source material for exploring different possile voicings of th chords, so let s try doing just that. ove each of the following diagrams you ve een given a shape with the position of the root shown to help you orient yourself. On the strings indicated y the racket, sketch in a three-note th chord derived from the arpeggios you just completed aove. Identify each note of the chord y scale degree. Since there may e several ways to solve each of these puzzles, limit your options y following these guidelines: on t doule any scale degrees within a chord. ll your voicings should include a rd and th; ths and roots are optional. Other xtended hords ominant th chords elong a larger family of so-called extended chords. chord extension is any note eyond the asic triad of root, rd and th. We set dominant th chords apart ecause they are so common, ut the same method you employed aove could e used to find voicings of other extended chords as well, such as th chords, sus chords and majth chords, to name just a few examples. or all of these chords, the numer that has een added to the chord s name indicates a major scale degree, and these can e drawn directly from the scale forms. Try your hand at exploring different voicings of extended chords in the following exercise.

10 xercise The first diagram shown elow is the scale form spelled out in scale degrees. iven its position on the fingeroard, the root configuration falls on. ach of the other (empty) diagrams has een given the name of an extended chord. Sketch in a voicing of the named chord including scale degrees using only the racketed strings and drawing the notes from the scale form. If there is more than one right answer, choose the one that sounds est to you! scale form add sus maj Minor chords Since a minor chord is nothing ut a major chord with a flatted rd, you would think that one could easily convert the five major chord shapes to minor. nd you can on paper. But when you do so you end up with minor chord shapes that are not just challenging to play in their full form, ut impossile. or example, the diagrams to the right show what happens when you flat the thirds of a full major shape. The six-note chord to the right is unplayale. ull major shape onverted to minor This explains why only three of the five shapes are commonly converted to minor when the player is looking for a five or sixnote chord the, and shapes, shown here. (If you want to trying playing these, leave out the lowest note of the m shape.) m m m But as is the case with some of our arred major shapes, even if a full chord shape is impossile, the system can help you access eminently playale partial chord shapes, arpeggios and scales. or example, take a second look at the impossile m chord shape aove. Try playing it note y note as an arpeggio rather than a chord, (excluding the lowest string for now). Not so hard is it? We ll explore a few more possiilities for minor arpeggios in the next section.

11 Minor rpeggios The diagrams elow show one way you could play a minor arpeggio ased on each root configuration. Notice that the first diagram ased on the shape starts on the first fret, which means the root configuration falls on. s you play through these arpeggios, give yourself a little extra practice y positioning them on the fingeroard so that each one gives you an minor arpeggio. m m m m m Partial Minor Shapes Since several of the full minor chord shapes are rather unwieldy it is worth our while to look deeper to find partial minor shapes that will prove useful in actual playing situations. One way to do this, of course, is to derive them directly from the arpeggios in the diagrams aove. ny comination of, and will give you a minor chord. Try extracting some partial minor chapes in the following exercise. xercise Use the arpeggio diagrams aove to sketch a three-note minor chord shape (including scale degrees) on the racketed strings of each diagram. The root configurations are provided in dotted lines to help you orient yourself, ut include only those that fall on the racketed strings in your partial minor chord shape. m m m m m Other Scales, rpeggios and hords There are many other scales, arpeggios and chords that can e understood in terms of the system. We won t go into a detailed discussion of any of them in this primer, ut you will find esource Sheets devoted to many of them at communityguitar.com. We ll steer you towards them as the need arises in the context of songs you re learning. If you understand what we ve covered here at least in theory you have the most important thing: a way to organize and integrate whatever new information you find or seek. Have fun putting it all to work making music with others!

12 nswers to the xercises ) ) ) ) 9 B B

13 ) ) 8) 9) B B B

14 0) ) ) add sus maj ) m m m m m

15