Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Part 5 – The CAGED System Series – The D Shape – Plus a lead that demonstrates how to use – EP560

Description

This week’s guitar lesson is the final lesson in this 5 part mini-series on The CAGED System, where we’ll do a deep dive into the “D” Shape. You’ll learn how to play major and minor chords, scales, and arpeggios in this shape, and how to actually use it by learning a lead in the 2nd half of the video.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walkthrough

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  3. William H says

    Brian, This mini series has been phenomenal. It’s going to take quite awhile to learn most of it. But already I am taking the information and seeing how it fits with other lessons and songs I play. I can see it leading to a much greater understanding of the fretboard.. Big Thanks.

  5. Dale G says

    Thanks for this one Brian! Perfect tempo for me. Love the way you put blues together. Always loved playing this style.Looking forward to learning this one and the theory that goes with it is a real bonus! . Am just amazed how you come up with such awesome solos every week!
    This one’s totally cool!

  6. Harry B says

    These last five lessons have been a real “tour de force,” Brian, in terms of what you sometimes refer to as the “academic stuff”—meaning, I suppose,, theory.

    I have greatly enjoyed them. They have helped me understand better how all the “academic stuff” is interrelated. But not just that. You give us practical tips on how to incorporate it into our playing.

    It will take me a while to absorb it all. I have saved them all in my “favorites” so I can go back and study them. There is a lot there to help us become better guitar players.

  7. Joe N says

    Brian
    Another Great Lesson, very cool tune and logical conclusion to the CAGED series. The series will definitely be included in my Favouries. Thank You for all your hard work.

  8. Steve W says

    Brian:

    What a wonderful job of:

    interleaving the CAGED shapes in relation to the root notes up and down the fretboard

    outlining the major, dom 7 and minor in chord, scale, pent, arp of each

    this really unlocks the fretboard for me.

    Thank you so much for putting these last 5 lessons together.

  11. Andy N says

    Brian, this has been an outstanding little series of lessons. Although I knew quite a bit of the material already, to have it all pulled together and presented in these CAGED compartments has changed the way I think about improvisation. Previously it was chords and scales in a random collection of “bits and pieces”. There’s so much material though that it’s going to take a long time to absorb so I’m going to favour this as reference material and keep going back to it.
    Maybe you could pull the lesson links together and post them under the courses section of the site as a kind of course or just as reference material?

  13. Laurel C says

    This has been a fantastic series on the 5 shapes of CAGED and will be a go to resource that will keep giving into the future. So well done and packaged, CAGED is the best filing system for visual comprehension of using the fretboard and to see all these tools available under the umbrella of these shapes makes it all clear. All the arpeggios filled in the gaps for me. As said on the thumbnail, it is the CAGED System video that has been missing. This has also opened up other avenues of using this filing system eg. seeing all the modes under these 5 shapes rather than trying to work out what to adjust from the key scale perspective, it can get confusing when in other keys. This lightbulb moment just made it so much clearer and simpler to put modes to the 5 shapes to see the difference. CAGED (shapes) is definitely for me.

  14. Rob N says

    Rather than a sudden ‘light bulb’ moment this series has been like a dimmer switch gradually turning up the brightness. I knew all these separate pieces, but putting it all together in such a concise way has been really helpful. Great solo too!

    The challenge now is really internalising all those scales in relation to CAGED , getting a decent number of licks and phrases into my vocabulary then building up my speed, fluency and feel. I notice how important dynamics are to the sound of the solo, which notes to highlight, when to increase and decrease volume…

    That’s my longwinded way of saying….great stuff Brian

  16. Stephen V says

    Brian,

    Love you stuff!

    There are two more cord shapes outside of the cage system that would be nice to have a deep dive.

    The B7 shape and the m7b5 and/or 7b9, both that can be used up and down the fret board.

    • Brian says

      The B7 shape (in first position) was covered – it’s in the C shape. as for m7b5, b9, and all of the extensions, augmented chords, diminished, etc. they can all be included in CAGED as well – literally every single chord can… but i had to draw the line somewhere. best to show the main useful tools that are essential to improvising.

  18. Joel R says

    Hi . I finallly begin to understand the links with this CAGED system .
    Great stuff for improvisation .
    Those 5 lessons will be marked .
    By the way , the solo is no 1 in the charts in Europe .!!!
    Thanks Brian
    Joe

  19. John S says

    Brian

    The entire series has given me an excellent fretboard understanding and practice plan for the months ahead.

    Repetition of these 5 modules are helping me understand the fretboard and connections. Thanks for this excellent series

  20. Klaus G says

    I can understand that you compose your leads of this series for accomplishes players who can master fast and difficult and interisting leads.
    But I am only beginning to learn to improvise and I cannot practize your leads of the 5 shapes.
    You are certainly doing a wrap up lesson with a lead.
    Perhaps you could also include a slow lead for players like me. If not possible in the lesson then perhaps in a micro lesson
    I like your approach and I would very much partizipate
    Greetings Klaus

  24. David S says

    Brian, Thanks so much for this series. #1 Favorite..Will be going back to this for a long time to make sure I don’t forget. As Elvis would say Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, for all you do. Just keep it up. Best on the internet. Bless You Dave

  26. Michael D says

    For those of you who have not yet viewed Part 2 of the video, you will, of course and as always, find a lot of insights on how to play this melody. Better yet at about 14 minutes into the video right up to its end, Brian includes a segment the helps explain the linking of the CAGED system, as well as an invaluable insight into how to train your ear to help improve your ability to improvise. While I benefitted from all five lessons on CAGED that were part of this series, Brian’s unlooked for closing thoughts at the end of Part 2 were incredibly insightful and instructive. Thanks Brian, that was extremely helpful.

  27. Brian D says

    Great series Brian – incredibly helpful. Why is it we apply number to the Pentatonic patterns but not so with the major scale patterns? They are all shared across major, minor and the modes and there would be a easier way to memories the five patterns across the different applications – maybe another lesson 🙂

  29. Georg B says

    Hello Brian,
    Thank you for your five-part series on the CAGED system. The series gives an excellent, clear overview and has helped me to understand the whole thing. It couldn’t be better.
    Georg

  30. T-Bish says

    What particularly resonated with me were the two notes from the E shape you highlighted being used in the chord voicing using the D shape. I hadn’t thought about that before but I will start to look at the CAGED chord shapes to find the same connection between two sequential CAGED chord shapes. There was a sense of resolve playing the E shape after playing the D shape. The two octaves of the root note really comes to life when playing both chord shapes.

  33. Michael C says

    Got to tell you, I have been working with the videos for the last year. I have learned more in that time than in all the years I have been playing (and I’m 75 years old). Getting more and more comfortable with playing leads, theory and the caged system. Thanks!

  34. Mike R says

    Thanks for all the thought you put into this series of lessons. It has helped me a great deal to understand the best way to think about the CAGED chords and the the scales that lie within their buckets. I am going to have the cheat sheets blown up and turned into posters at office depot and then put them on the walls of my music room. I want to make sure that I never forget any of this information. I am already creating some great sounds just noodling around with all the ideas these lessons have brought me. Thanks Brian.

  35. James W says

    Great series and thanks for the “big solo end” to the series. Lots of great licks and ways to connect them to the shapes. Rock on – and maybe you need a break next week 🙂 Except I am looking forward to Friday!

    Jim

  36. Tom B says

    HI Brian

    Great series – I’m slowly working through it all and understand the theory of it all. Now the challenge is to apply it.

    As an idea would it be worth doing a half-way house for the practical application?

    I might not have reviewed it all yet but rather than jumping from the construction of all the shapes and their content into “lead-style” examples would it be worth doing some simply “chord-style” examples so we could see how to indentify the connections between the shapes and the underlying structure of the music.

    Maybe appregio-type application with some limited “licks” for challenge…

    Not sure if good ide but I think it would help me make the connections…

    Tom

  38. Joe Z says

    Awesome caged system lessons. Can we get some sort of structured practice routine? For example, do this for 10min, do this for 10min etc…maybe different days doing different things. Thanks

  39. slopace says

    Brian, I love how you threw in the flat 7 chord progression (F chord), probably didn’t say that right, and then went to the 4 chord. That’s a great way of not having to play a diminished chord for the 7th position! Another great lesson!

  40. James W says

    One thing that helps me with all the caged stuff is to play the rhythm. I always go straight for the solo and listen to Brian’s thought process on why he is playing what he is playing, but if you are not thinking about the rhythm than you are just playing licks in the key and hoping your ears and fingers find the key notes. If you play the rhythm using a bunch of different spots to play the chords, then you can start to follow the rhythm with your lead rather than just playing over the top of everything.

  44. Harry G says

    Excellent as ever Brian. Every time I listen to a lesson for the first time I think “I won’t be able to do that!” but by the end of the lesson it becomes achievable , because you explain it so clearly and break it down in a way that makes it easy to understand and much easier to master. It may take me a bit longer to learn (I’m in my 70s), but the learning journey is so much fun! Thank you!

  45. Joseph C says

    Thanks Brian this series has been so awesome for me!

    QUESTION: For scale selections when improvising; you mention the mixolidyian (Spelling?) scale is best for 7th chords; is that Maj7 or Dom7?

    I ask because playing Mixo sounds good to me with the G dom7. But I have learned to play Dom7 scale positions with reference to the minor position of the key but the truth is I am not clear what I should be doing.

    Can you clarify which scale position (1 or 2 or 3 etc) for which 7th chords?

    Hope my question is clear – much harder to write guitar questions than I ever imagined. 🙂

    Thanks!

  47. Paul N says

    Hey Brian, I waited until the series was complete before commenting. The series was a great idea! Not sure if this was mentioned by you or anyone else, but your statement “I wish I had started with this” – maybe put the series into a course for new comers. I know it would have helped me a lot sooner. Also, the solos are great! Really helps to tie everything together, and the melodies are awesome. Thanks so much!

  48. Jack F says

    these are the best– all five. i saved the cheats on my local drive and added to the name the Shape and Key you play in and which major and minor pentatonic scale is used– like this D shape plays in the key of G using major pent pattern 2 and minor pent pattern 2! E has A with 1 and 1, G has B with 5 and 5, A has D with 4 and 4 and the first C shape was key of E with 3rd major and 3 minor pent patterns. great way to practice a shape or a scale or a pattern quickly.

  51. Max d says

    Hi Brian, been away from my guitars for a month or so travelling, and came back to your five-part CAGED series. Wow for the whole lots! As a finale, very clever the way you linked the CAGED D-chords at the end of 560. Lightning bolt for me that put the whole fret board and the CAGED system in perspective. I now understand a little more about Bob Weir’s style, and still would like a “such“ style lesson, barring copyright problems of course.?

  52. Marty H says

    Hi Brian,

    I’m curious if there was a reason why you covered the the CAGED shapes in the order that you did. For example, is there a reason why you started with the C shape instead of E, etc? Is there some advantage, like being able to transition between C and E is a common thing? Or, is it simply because you felt that E and A had been covered more, so you started with C to give it some focus, then continued with the other shapes when you saw how much everyone loved your lesson and wanted more?

  60. James W says

    Hi Brian,

    As much as I liked this series in general, I really like this particular composition/solo. I love playing your version and then improvising my own. In bar 23, you hit that last note which almost sounds like a harmonic. You have that tabbed as a G (8th fret B string) which works but seems like you hit a different note and I cannot figure exactly out what that is. If you know what you did – let us know!

    Jim

  61. Slimpicker says

    This series on the CAGED containers is most welcomed. Thanks for unpackaging the containers completely one by one. You are a gifted instructor who continues to elevate your game year after year.

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