The CAGED System: Play Any Chord Anywhere on the Guitar Neck

CAGED

The CAGED system is a way to see five familiar open chords, C, A, G, E and D, all over the guitar neck. Learn the five shapes once, and you can play any major chord in five different places. Diagrams follow the left- or right-handed setting at the top of the page.

What is CAGED?

CAGED is named after five open chords: C, A, G, E and D. Each one can be moved up the neck by turning it into a barre chord. A barre chord is a chord where one finger, usually your index finger, presses down several strings at once, a bit like a capo. Move the shape up one fret and the chord moves up one note.

The letter in each name is the open chord the shape comes from, not the chord you end up playing. The shape of the open E chord with your index finger across the 1st fret is F major. An A shape played at the 5th fret is D major, because D is the root note, the note the chord is named after.

Before you start, make sure you can play the open chords and read a chord diagram. If not, try How to read a guitar chord chart first.

The five shapes

Choose a shape to see how to finger it, where its root note is, and how to find it in every key. Each diagram shows the open chord. The letters in the dots are note names, and the amber dot marks the root.

One chord, five places

Here is the C major chord in all five shapes, from the open strings up the neck. Each shape has its own color, and the amber notes are C. Where two shapes share a note you will see a split ring. The shapes join end to end: C, A, G, E, D, then C again 12 frets higher, one octave up.

Shape	Frets	C major, low E to high e	Root string
C shape	open–3	x-3-2-0-1-0	A
A shape	3–5	x-3-5-5-5-3	A
G shape	5–8	8-7-5-5-5-8	low E
E shape	8–10	8-10-10-9-8-8	low E
D shape	10–13	x-x-10-12-13-12	D
C shape, one octave up	12–15	x-15-14-12-13-12	A

How to use CAGED

1. Choose the chord you want, for example D major.
2. Choose a shape. Each shape has a root string: the A string for the A and C shapes, the low E string for the E and G shapes, and the D string for the D shape.
3. Find the chord name on that string. That fret is where the shape goes.

Example: D major with the A shape. D is on the A string at the 5th fret, so play x-5-7-7-7-5. With the E shape, D is on the low E string at the 10th fret, so play 10-12-12-11-10-10. B major works the same way: the A shape at the 2nd fret is x-2-4-4-4-2, and the E shape at the 7th fret is 7-9-9-8-7-7.

Good to know

• CAGED is five shapes of one chord, not five different chords to memorize.
• Minor, seventh and other chords come from the same shapes by lifting or moving a finger. The E and A shapes work best for this, and each shape page shows how.
• Barre chords take most players a few weeks to get clean. Short, regular practice works better than one long session.

CAGED and scales

In C major each chord shape sits inside one of the five patterns on the C major scale page: the A shape in Pattern 4, the G shape in Pattern 5, the E shape in Pattern 1, the D shape in Pattern 2 and the C shape in Pattern 3. That makes it easier to find scale notes around any chord. You can see all the patterns together in the Scale Pattern Tool.

Where to start

1. E shape: the classic barre chord, and the most useful one to learn first.
2. A shape: compact and common, with a flat ring finger.
3. D shape: a small four-string chord with no big barre.
4. C shape and G shape: the biggest stretches, so save them until the others feel comfortable.

Practice plan

• Play C major in all five shapes in order, four slow strums each: open C, A shape at the 3rd fret, G shape at the 5th, E shape at the 8th and D shape at the 10th.
• Pick one shape and slide it up one fret at a time, saying each chord name out loud.
• Pick two neighboring shapes and change between them, keeping the chord the same.
• Finish with five minutes on whichever shape feels hardest.

Now try it