The CAGED System
The 5 CAGED shapes
The same C major chord, voiced five different ways along the neck. Each shape is just the open C, A, G, E, or D shape barred at a new position. Five shapes, one chord, twelve frets covered.
C shape
Frets 0–3
The open C chord. The root sits on the A string at fret 3.
C shape
Frets 0–3
The open C chord. The root sits on the A string at fret 3.
A shape (barred at 3)
Frets 3–5
The A chord shape barred at fret 3 to make C. Roots on the A and high e strings.
G shape (barred at 5)
Frets 5–8
The open G shape stretched up the neck. Roots on the low E and high e strings.
E shape (barred at 8)
Frets 8–10
The classic barre chord. Roots on low E and D strings — most metal/rock power chords live here.
D shape (barred at 10)
Frets 10–13
The open D voicing barred high up. Roots on the D and B strings — bright, treble-heavy.
The shape letters spell "CAGED" walking up the neck. C lives at the nut, A at fret 3, G at fret 5, E at fret 8, D at fret 10 — and then C starts again at fret 12 (the octave). Knowing all five = knowing the chord everywhere.
What CAGED actually is
CAGED is a memory framework, not a separate scale system. The premise: there are only five unique major chord shapes on the guitar — the open C, A, G, E, and D chords. Every major chord, in every key, anywhere on the neck, is one of those five shapes barred at a new fret.
Learn the five shapes cold, learn how they connect, and the neck stops feeling like 132 random positions and starts feeling like five overlapping windows.
Why CAGED beats memorizing every chord
A "complete" chord list would have 12 roots × dozens of voicings = hundreds of shapes. CAGED collapses that to 5 shapes that move.
| Open chord | Shape | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Open C | C shape | Roots on the A and B strings |
| Open A | A shape | The classic 5-string barre. Roots on A and high e |
| Open G | G shape | Stretchy but big sound — roots on low E and high e |
| Open E | E shape | The classic 6-string barre. Roots on low E and D |
| Open D | D shape | High-register, treble-heavy. Roots on D and B |
The visualizer above shows all five for C major — each shape barred at the next CAGED position, walking up the neck.
The CAGED order walks the neck
The shapes always appear in the same sequence, low to high: C → A → G → E → D → (C an octave up). For any major chord:
- Find the chord's lowest position using the C shape.
- The next position up uses the A shape.
- Then G, E, D, then back to C an octave higher.
Memorizing this order is half the battle. The other half is learning which shape works at which fret for each key — and that's just one transposition each.
How the shapes connect
Adjacent CAGED shapes share notes at their edges. The high notes of the C shape are the low notes of the A shape. Knowing this overlap is what lets you transition between shapes mid-solo without thinking.
Three connection points to memorize:
- C → A overlap at the root note on the A string (fret 3 in C major).
- G → E overlap at the root note on the low E string (fret 8 in C major).
- E → D overlap at the root on the D string (fret 10 in C major).
If you can find any one of those overlap notes, you can navigate to either neighbouring shape without losing your place.
Pentatonic boxes line up with CAGED
The 5 minor pentatonic boxes are the same five shapes — they just contain different notes (5 per box vs. 3-4 for the chord). This means:
- Playing C major with the E-shape barred at fret 8? The lead position is A minor pentatonic Box 1 at fret 5 — relative minor of C major, same five frets.
- Soloing in A minor pentatonic Box 4 at fret 12? You're sitting on top of the C-shape C major chord at fret 12.
This is the single most important pedagogical insight on guitar: chord shapes and scale shapes are the same map, viewed at different zoom levels.