Hey Friend,
Today is ging to be a short one, mainly because it’s family fun day at another Disney park (Epcot this time). This will be the last one (at Disney), as our three-day pass is running out by Tuesday.
I got an interesting question the other day from Brad. He explained that he has mastered the A and E shape barre chords, but asked, what are my thoughts about the C, G and D barre chords?
Hmm, I thought as I scratched my head. I had an idea what he was talking about, but I wanted to make sure I was thinking the same thing. Because if he was talking about the same thing I was thinking, I wondered who would want to put themselves through that level of frustration!
I guess there’s an opinion in some circles that if you’re not utilizing barre versions of ALL the CAGED chord forms, you haven’t made it yet.
Before I get to what I shared with Brad, let me just give a short explanation of what the CAGED System is, in case you’ve never heard of it.
CAGED stands for the five basic triad shapes we use for open chords. You have: - C major
- A major
- G major
- E major
- D major
Each has a specific shape you use on the fingerboard to form the chord. When you play the three consecutive strings the shape falls on, you are playing the major triad.
C and G have the identical shape, so I’m guessing one of them was included in the system just so they could spell out “CAGED” (this is purely conjecture on my part). A, D and E have their own shapes.
I’m running out of time today, but I’d like to have you try a something. Play through each of these shapes in order. Then I’d like you to imagine playing each of these as barred chords, with your index finger laid across five or six strings.
We’ll talk about that tomorrow.
Don’t spend too much time on it - it’s Saturday! Get out and enjoy some Spring/Summer!
Peace~
Dave
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