The CAGED system

The CAGED system connects five open chord shapes — C, A, G, E and D — into a map of the entire fretboard. It's one of the most useful ways to visualize the neck for chords, scales and soloing.

The idea

You already know five open major chords: C, A, G, E and D. Each one can be moved up the neck as a barre shape (you did this with E and A in the barre chords lesson). The magic is that these five shapes connect to each other in that order: C → A → G → E → D → C again, all the way up the neck.

C major in five shapes

Here is the same chord, C major, played with all five shapes, moving up the neck. Click each one: they all sound like C (at different heights).

1. C shape — open position.
2. A shape — barre at the 3rd fret.
3. G shape — around the 5th fret (usually played partially).
4. E shape — barre at the 8th fret.
5. D shape — around the 10th fret.

Then the C shape comes back at the 12th fret.

See it on the fretboard

All the notes of C major (C, E, G) across the neck. Each CAGED shape is a "window" on this pattern:

Why it matters

• Chords anywhere. Need a G chord high on the neck? Use the E shape at the 3rd fret, the D shape at the 5th, the C shape at the 7th…
• Scales around chords. Every pentatonic box and major scale position wraps around one CAGED shape. When you solo, you can always see the chord tones (the safest notes to land on).
• Connect the neck. Instead of five unrelated boxes, you see one connected map.

The pentatonic connection

Each of the five pentatonic boxes from the pentatonic lesson matches one CAGED shape. For example, A minor pentatonic box 1 (5th fret) sits around the E shape of C major / the Em shape of A minor.