# Caged System - the basics to know



## dsmart (Mar 16, 2013)

I was getting ready to explain the caged system to a friend when I decided to put together this video. The video covers some basics that anyone that has wondered about the caged system should find useful.

Let me know your thoughts and good luck.


----------



## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Your noise gate is set pretty high. I think you're trying to filter out the 60 cycle, but it's chopping up your voice quite a bit. Makes it hard to understand what you're saying at times.

There are some plugins that can filter out noise. I think Izotope and Waves have theirs. But it's often a trade-off. A straight up noise gate is a bit heavy-handed for this type of thing.


----------



## dsmart (Mar 16, 2013)

Grab n Go said:


> Your noise gate is set pretty high. I think you're trying to filter out the 60 cycle, but it's chopping up your voice quite a bit. Makes it hard to understand what you're saying at times.
> 
> There are some plugins that can filter out noise. I think Izotope and Waves have theirs. But it's often a trade-off. A straight up noise gate is a bit heavy-handed for this type of thing.


Are you watching a low resolution version?


----------



## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

dsmart said:


> Are you watching a low resolution version?


No, I'm viewing at 720p on my phone with Bose headphones. (My phone's native 720p.)

Around the 4min mark is a good example of what I'm talking about. Your explanation cuts in and out. I can piece together what you're saying because I'm familiar with the material, but someone new to the concept might have trouble understanding.


----------



## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Hey, it occurred to me that this might just be the internal mic system in your phone that's doing its normal thing. (A built-in noise gate and compressor.)

Cellphones are great for video, but terrible at recording audio. Also, where you position your camera(phone) to get your shot is rarely going to be the best place for a microphone.
Recording videos on a cellphone generally means recording audio and video separately and recombining later in an editor.

Do you record at home on your computer? Maybe put up a couple of mics and record the audio from your computer at the same time. You can clap your hands loudly at the start of the recording so that you can synch your video and audio in the editor.

If you don't have a recording setup, a digital field recorder would do the trick. Just put it close to you, out of frame and it should pick you up just fine.


----------



## dsmart (Mar 16, 2013)

Grab n Go said:


> Hey, it occurred to me that this might just be the internal mic system in your phone that's doing its normal thing. (A built-in noise gate and compressor.)
> 
> Cellphones are great for video, but terrible at recording audio. Also, where you position your camera(phone) to get your shot is rarely going to be the best place for a microphone.
> Recording videos on a cellphone generally means recording audio and video separately and recombining later in an editor.
> ...


I'm well aware of how to sync audio and video.. this was just put together super quickly but I'll keep it in mind if I do anymore vids.


----------



## zztomato (Nov 19, 2010)

That was good. Gives a general idea of the possibilities once you have opened up the fretboard. Personally though, I don't like the GAGED system because it focuses too much on an entire chord shape. What I find more useful is to learn triads in string groupings of 3. Take C major for example. Start on strings 1,2 and 3. Play the root position C triad- (1,3,5) - 5th fret 3rd string, 5th fret 2nd string 3rd fret 1st string. That's the starting point. You then move up each string using the scale to the next available note in the triad. On the 3rd string you go from root (1) to 3rd, 2nd string from 3rd to 5th, 1st string from 5th to root (1). so you end up at at fret 9,8,8 respectively (strings 3,2,1) carry on from there. Then go to string grouping 2,3,4 and do the same thing, then 3,4,5 etc. 

Without knowing the building blocks of a chord, all the rest is kind of just a stop gap to know a bit more but not enough. There are guitar players who have been playing for years that don't understand what a b5 is or how to make a maj7 chord. They might _know _a maj7 chord by the shape but they don't know the interval or the difference between a maj7 and a min7. If you understand the intervals you can play a maj7 chord with just two notes- 3rd and major 7th taken from the major scale. This approach frees people from having to play so many barre chards.- 2 or 3 notes is often all you need.
When I teach someone about chords it always starts with the major scale and triads. I can then point out to them the various shapes they are playing as 3 note chords as sections of common open (cowboy) chords that they may already recognize but it's not really the focus. Take the basic C major chord, if you add the low G you have four complete chords made up of 1,3 and 5 and that's just following the tight string groupings- 123,234,345,456. My goal is to have someone be able to make a chord from any position on the neck just by knowing the formula to do so. I will freely admit though that not everyone connects with this method.


----------



## Derek_T (10 mo ago)

zztomato said:


> I don't like the GAGED system because it focuses too much on an entire chord shape.


IME, like many thing on guitar (learning a lick, transcribing...) as long as you stay on a superficial level, like knowing where to put you finger on the fretboard only, you don't really get much out of it.

I think it's as good a starting point as any, as long as you don't stop at just learning chord shape, unless you want to memorize Chord Chemistry by hearth .


----------



## zztomato (Nov 19, 2010)

Derek_T said:


> I think it's as good as a starting point as any, as long as you don't stop at just learning chord shape, unless you want to memorize Chord Chemistry by hearth .


I think Ted Greene later referred to that book as "Chord catastrophe". I think he recognized the basic flaw in expecting people to be able to memorize thousands of chord shapes as apposed to knowing how to build a chord anywhere using a formula. I use the page on chord formulas from that book though. Still a cool book.


----------



## dsmart (Mar 16, 2013)

zztomato said:


> That was good. Gives a general idea of the possibilities once you have opened up the fretboard. Personally though, I don't like the GAGED system because it focuses too much on an entire chord shape. What I find more useful is to learn triads in string groupings of 3. Take C major for example. Start on strings 1,2 and 3. Play the root position C triad- (1,3,5) - 5th fret 3rd string, 5th fret 2nd string 3rd fret 1st string. That's the starting point. You then move up each string using the scale to the next available note in the triad. On the 3rd string you go from root (1) to 3rd, 2nd string from 3rd to 5th, 1st string from 5th to root (1). so you end up at at fret 9,8,8 respectively (strings 3,2,1) carry on from there. Then go to string grouping 2,3,4 and do the same thing, then 3,4,5 etc.
> 
> Without knowing the building blocks of a chord, all the rest is kind of just a stop gap to know a bit more but not enough. There are guitar players who have been playing for years that don't understand what a b5 is or how to make a maj7 chord. They might _know _a maj7 chord by the shape but they don't know the interval or the difference between a maj7 and a min7. If you understand the intervals you can play a maj7 chord with just two notes- 3rd and major 7th taken from the major scale. This approach frees people from having to play so many barre chards.- 2 or 3 notes is often all you need.
> When I teach someone about chords it always starts with the major scale and triads. I can then point out to them the various shapes they are playing as 3 note chords as sections of common open (cowboy) chords that they may already recognize but it's not really the focus. Take the basic C major chord, if you add the low G you have four complete chords made up of 1,3 and 5 and that's just following the tight string groupings- 123,234,345,456. My goal is to have someone be able to make a chord from any position on the neck just by knowing the formula to do so. I will freely admit though that not everyone connects with this method.


I agree with you that it is best to know the actual notes that make up the chords. Simply knowing patterns is one way to start, but eventually you hit a plateau.


----------

