Getting cagey

I'm taking a break from recording to work on my playing. Despite making some good recording progress, I really need to keep up on my practice. Plus, I miss my Line 6 (I need my Insane setting!) and I need to write more things to record.

I've been playing guitar on and off since I was 11 - that's 25 years of my life. Unfortunately, the off years outnumber the on years at least 2 to 1, so that number is a little misleading. I'm also predominately self-taught, having only about four years of lessons to my name. My playing consists mostly of getting tablature for songs and learning them note for note or figuring them out half-assedly by ear. This has worked somewhat - my high school band had about four hours' worth of material to play - but has more disadvantages than advantages. First off, I don't really know what I'm playing. I know basic chords - open position and barre chords - but for some of the weirder ones I just memorize fingering. I also run into problems when I lose my place. Since I don't know what I'm playing, if I miss a note or lose my place I don't have the fundamental knowledge to get me back to where I need to be. This has happened many times with my band and is usually accompanied by a sense of extreme panic before I get back on track.


Since I became serious about my playing about a year ago, I've attempted to bridge that knowledge gap. I picked up an excellent book - Scales Over Chords by Wilbur Savidge - and I'm now learning the CAGED system. This is a great way to learn the fretboard. Basically, there are five patters based on open chords C, A, G, E and D. These patterns can be moved around the fretboard and transposed into other keys. They also fit together, so once you learn all five, you know the scale pattern for the entire fretboard. Neat, huh? I'm up to G, and I want to learn E this week.

One thing I did learn during my years of lessons that has proven invaluable is the pentatonic scale. This scale has been the cornerstone of my playing and is really the only piece of guitar theory I know well. The pentatonic scale also has five patterns and they coincide with the CAGED patters, so this previous knowledge has helped me learn the full scale. Basically, a pentatonic scale is a major scale with no fourth or seventh note. So the transition between pentatonic pattern and CAGED pattern is the addition of two notes. Not bad. Things are finally starting to make sense for me as these patterns come together.

I really think that anyone learning the guitar should learn the CAGED system. It is really helping me to unravel the mystery of the fretboard and has made me a much better guitarist in this last year than I ever was in the previous 24.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to practice.