One chord, five grips up the neck – and each one holds the whole scale.
Back to the music mapC major · C shape · frets 0–3
The chord as you fret it. It is made of just three different notes: 1, 3 and 5.
Try it
Listen to C major in all five shapes, one after the other up the neck.
What do you notice?
Does that sound like five different chords – or always the same one, just higher or lower?
What it's called
CAGED – The five shapes are named after the open chords C, A, G, E and D – and in exactly this order they follow each other up the neck. After the D shape the row starts again with the C shape.
Why
The strings are tuned almost evenly. Move a shape up one fret and everything sounds a half step higher – the same shape, a new root. Only between the G and B strings is one half step missing, which is why the shapes bend there.
And the five interlock: where one ends, the next begins – they share one or two frets. After the fifth the series starts again an octave higher.
Choose another root above and all five move along – the same patterns, just somewhere else on the neck.
Quick check
Two grips in a row – the same chord or two different ones?
Distance from the root in half steps
A chord is every other note of the scale: 1, 3 and 5. The arpeggio plays exactly these three – wherever they lie in the shape.
The scale has two half steps (H). At each one a chord tone sits right next to another note: 4 and 7. The pentatonic leaves these two out – then no half step is left, and no note rubs against the chord.
Stack every other note of C Major (Ionian) - a triad appears on every degree. Tap one to hear it.
Upper-case numeral = major, lower-case = minor, ° = diminished, + = augmented. A ♭ or ♯ in front means: this degree sits a semitone lower or higher than in major.
What these chords are for: HarmonyIn minor only three of the five shapes exist as a chord grip: the A, E and D shapes (Am, Em, Dm). The C and G shapes would span more than five frets in minor – no hand can fret that.
Played note by note it works, though. That is why minor has five boxes too, and they are the same as those of the major key with the same notes: A minor shares them with C major.
0 of 5 notes