Major and Minor Pentatonic Position, Pattern or Scale. CAGED System

It is called Pentatonic is because it consist of 5 notes (this is also the CAGED 5 notes)
For Example: Key of C and Relative Am

Am:     A   C   D   E   G   (1, 3, 4, 5, 7)    Am  Minor Pentatonic
C   :     C   D   E   G   A   (1, 2, 3, 5, 6)    C      Major Pentatonic

The Word CAGED comes from this 5 Pentatonic notes



C Major Pentatonic is exactly the same as A Minor Pentatonic



Basic Lesson on C Major Pentatonic and the corresponding A Minor Pentatonic 1st Position

There are a total of 5 positions or 5 Scale Patterns to Pentatonic Scale. The above showed the C Major correspond to A Minor Pentatonic Scale on the 1st position. As beginner, try not to be overly ambitious. Try to learn 1 position and play along with the key signature before moving to the 2nd position.

C major = Am Pentatonic Scale
D major = Bm Pentatonic Scale
E major = C#m Pentatonic Scale
F major = Dm Pentatonic Scale
G major = Em Pentatonic Scale
A major = F#m Pentatonic Scale
B major = Gm Pentatonic Scale

Penta   Tonic
   5       tones

Take the key signature of C for example
For major Pentatonic, the 5 notes are 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (C, D, E, G, A)   (Key of C)
For minor Pentatonic, the 5 notes are 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 (A, C, D, E, G)   (corresponding Am)

Following are 5 positions of the Pentatonic Scale

CAGED SYSTEM

Objective of CAGED

1. Help to locate same the same chord in 5 other shapes on other fret of the fretboard

2. To achieving different voicing (without having to change to different key signature and using a capo)

3. Play "cheated way" to a difficult chord shaped (eg. barred F chord play in D shape on fret 5). 

4. Play without the help of capo based on point 2

5. Play without having to play barred chord based on point 3 (play only on the string that is pressed

The 5 shapes are C shape, A shape, G shape, E shape and D shape

These are the playable open chords without having to bar them.

F shape and B shape not involved because they don't have open chord, they are barred chord.

The above also can be applied to 7th chord

C7, A7, G7, E7, D7

However the CAGED cannot be applied to minor chord because the minor only have 3 open chords not 5 open chords

For objective 3 to be achieve in a "cheated" way, you play only the 3 strings you pressed for A shape, E shape and D shape. 

For G shape, you have to barred the bottom 4 strings with index finger, then use the pinky press the bottom most string 4th fret away from the index finger.

The 3 open chords and their respective minor 7th chords are 

Em, Am, Dm.

Em7, Am7, Dm7

You still can use the above open chord shape to move down the fretboard to achieve the same theory an same effect as CAGED

Any chords that can play open chord can use the same theory above to move down the fret

The whole idea about CAGED is to using these 5 open chord shapes to move down the fretboard.

How to move down?

1. Using connecting root note

2. Using the ending fret of the chord as the start of the next chord

1.1 Example for C Chord playing in other fret. The connecting note is C note (root note)

- The one octave jump is 2 down, 2 right (from top down, applicable only top 4 strings)

- The one octave jump is 3 right, 3 up (from bottom up, applicable only top 4 strings)

2.1 Simplified version using connecting fret instead of connecting root notes

Test question:

Show me how you:

Play C chord                       Play D chord                       Play E chord

Play C chord in A shape     Play D chord in C shape     Play E chord in D shape
Play C chord in G shape     Play D chord in A shape     Play E chord in C shape
Play C chord in E shape     Play D chord in G shape     Play E chord in A shape

Play C chord in D shape     Play D chord in E shape     Play E chord in G shape

Play F chord (also started E shape)  Play G chord

Play F chord in D shape                   Play G chord in E shape

Play F chord in C shape                   Play G chord in D shape

Play F chord in A shape                   Play G chord in C shape

Play F chord in G shape                   Play G chord in A shape

CAGED System is a system to remember all the 1, 3, 5, the triad of a Chord, example C Chord



You realized from the above example. C major and Am exactly the same 5 notes CDEGA or we called it CAGED. The 5 patterns or positions of the Pentatonic Scale has the shape of the chords C chord, A Chord, G Chord, E Chord an D Chord. That's why is it called CAGED

Fret   1     5     7  How to move down?

1. Using connecting root note

2. Using the ending fret of the chord as the start of the next chord

1.1 Example for C Chord playing in other fret. The connecting note is C note (root note)

- The one octave jump is 2 down, 2 right (from top down, applicable only top 4 strings)

- The one octave jump is 3 right, 3 up (from bottom up, applicable only top 4 strings)

2.1 Simplified version using connecting fret instead of connecting root notes

Looking at the above image

Start with C open chord, ended on 3rd fret

The A shape begin on 3rd fret (realize there is a cap fret between the bar and the A shape, that is because the open chord for A shape also have a cap fret from the open chord natural barred..

The barred finger of G shape starts on the 5 fret because that is the ending of A shape

The barred finger of E shape starts on the 8 fret because that is the ending of G shape

The barred finger of D shape starts on the 10 fret because that is the ending of E shape