| CAGED is descriptive, ie it's the result of someone noticing "we all know these chord shapes, and they have some useful properties which can contribute to your fretboard knowledge". Those properties are: - those 5 chords are the first you learn, and mechanically easy to play in open position, so you know them by heart See this diagram (https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...): - the CAGED 'order' (C then A then G etc) matches the order in which octaves of the same root appear as you go up the neck, therefore CAGED is a good way of visualising octaves (see how in the 'C-shapes' column the chords 'share' root notes when played in that order up the neck) - each chord matches a root note position (C: top part of the neck box on the 5th string, A: bottom part of the neck box on the 5th string, etc), therefore if you're playing a scale, no matter what position you're playing it in, you can choose a CAGED chord to overlay on it and easily find the root, third, and fifths (see how in the 'C major scale' column, you can overlay each chord onto one way of playing the C major scale) - learning these mnemonics should eventually help you 'unlock' the guitar neck, ie have an intuitive knowledge of what intervals you're playing and how to build melodic lines with them Generally, music theory 'works' because it describes why things sound good. It's not theory that informs what sounds good, rather theory attempts to describe what sounds good and build patterns which will help theory learners, in turn, make music which sounds good. |
