Description
This week’s guitar lesson is a continuation of last week’s CAGED System deep dive in which we’ll be exploring the E shape and learning how to play major and minor chords, scales and arpeggios. We’ll also connect the C and E shapes to create a standalone blues composition
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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Great Follow up! Can’t wait to spend the weekend on this!
This was an excellent Brian. Understanding how th e riffs tie into the underlying chords and how to progress from one to the next is incredibly helpful. Thank you! Please keep them coming.
Great lesson can you do this for all the shapes even if not as a lesson make it available. I experiment with this stuff but your lesson can take the guesswork out of the project. All the best and pray for peace in Israel. The world has gone mad and we are back to 1938.
Rabbi Kalter
Thank you so much for continuing with your caged system. You are eally giving me the knowledge to change boring stright strumming into beautiful and meaningful music.
Rabbi Kalter
Nice transition to the E shape Brian! Thanks so much for these CAGED lessons.
Lots of info to absorb. I particularly like the piece.
This is a fantastic mini series. I had just started trying to do some of this on my own, and here it is with even more info. Should really help in learning the fretboard. Please keep them coming.
Yay thanks so much these lessons are so helpful
For the song, I liked how you identified both the chord and the chord shape. Very helpful.
Wow! I was just blinded by the light bulb! Finally starting to connect all this to the chord shapes!
I think it would be helpful to include in this lesson the thinking/reasoning behind starting with the C shape last week and jumping to the E shape this week. Why not A shape this week and E shape two Fridays from now?
I can’t answer for Brian, but my guess is because if the C shape is the I chord, the E shape represents the IV chord, so they can be easily used together and get right to the idea of creating the melody around the chords.
That makes sense. That’s definitely a really important “connecting the dots” type of point to make in a series like this. Thanks, Michael.
David
I thought this too for a moment, but then realised the previous lesson was revolving around the C shape at the 5th fret (E), so the A shape there would be a D chord – which would suggest a V – IV, which would then resolve to a I chord being an E shape (A at the 5th). Made more sense, staying around the 5th fret to teach the E shape. My guess is that the A shape might be next week for a I -IV-V in A around the 5th fret….
I wanted to create a simple song by connecting different chords (but in the same general area) – so the E shape was perfect as the next closest shape to play the 4 chord. There’s no theory reason behind it, nor is there any order to these CAGED shapes… they’re just labels for where you are on the fretboard.
Great lesson as usual Brian. I’m thirsty for some A and G and D shaped lessons. We might as well open the entire fretboard! Thanks so much.
Completely agree – and if they can be named in sequence, it makes them easier to keep close when you save them.
I sure wish my guitar instructor would have shown me this stuff 50 years ago. I would be a totally different guitar player today. He sold me a Christopher Parkening songbook and a classical guitar and needless to say I didn’t get very far. If reincarnation is a real thing hopefully I’ll have a head start. You’ve had so many great theory lessons made easy. Thanks Brian.
Been down that ‘groan-some’ road too! The Internet has really changed the learning of skills for the better and guitar tuition is amazing today as proven by Brian.
Brian ,I heard an audible click along with the light bulb illumination with this one . Thanks
Another monumental lesson. I really like this series! Lots of ideas for connecting scales to chords, arpeggios. I am having a lot of fun just fooling around with todays progression and adding to it. Thanks for the cheat sheet. I had to write it out last week. Wish the print above each scale was a little bigger, but I have a magnifying glass. Just a side effect of getting older. Thanks Brian.
Your composition really puts it all together, Brian.
Really good follow up Brian, and reinforces the value of the CAGED system. Thanks again for all your work!
Great stuff! I really need these types of lessons. thanks Brian
Hello Brian, this was a very very informative lesson. I have been a premium member for a long time and I am really enjoying all that I have learned over the years. I am certain that I’m going to get a lot of people disagree with me on this but the guitar you used in this video was very very annoying the chrome and lattice work to me was very distracting. Otherwise it was a very good and informative lesson. Thank you.
These last two lesson as also the one some time back with all the scales 1 note away have really improved my playing. I noticed this when playing songs I already knew how to play and now can enrich with scales and arpeggios. Thanks
This really is the magic of Active Melody all coming together – working around the CAGED system, melodies wrapping around chord shapes/progressions, mixing the pentatonics, major, minor and mixolydian scales and adding that vital ‘spice’ of the chromatic runs.
It’s all quite simple (in theory) when it’s broken down slowly and carefully, but it takes repetition and multiple examples each week to really sink in and become fluid. Brian always includes that little extra in his compositions too – here we get the B6 thrown in and a hint of a sus chord.
Appreciate the addition of arpeggios too – I know they are simple but I’m only starting to pay attention to them and how useful they can be for building melody lines.
Another great lesson Brian. Thanks. The major scale in the E-position is also the second position of it’s minor relative, in this case A > F#m, isn’t it?
Hey Brian, why no printable Tab for the musical composition ? Perhaps you thought that the song was contained in the other Tab PDFs for this lesson but the song TAB in pdf would sure be helpful for those of us who like to print that out.
Thanks
Hey Gary, the song tab is there. maybe you overlooked it?
I like your combining the shapes to make music out of the stuff very much
and I hope you will continue this way for all the other shapes
Thank you very much Brian
Greetings Klaus
Thanks Brian! Exactly what I needed, put’s it all into perspective. It’s a great help to me, surprised no one has thought to do this before. A great help to us all out here.
Another great lesson Brian! Thank you for continuing this series.
The pdf’s are a great help – but does anyone know if these is an easy way to print them over two pages? A little difficult (small) to see printed onto one page for me.
You can scan the pdf into the computer and then use Photo Shop to cut and paste it back together. can get it up to one measure per line if you want to. Takes a little time but definitely worth the effort for improving the readability. Maybe Brian could post the original script along with the PDF and then it could be broken apart much easier.
Great lesson…. Again! Very effective manner of presenting the relationship between scales and chords. Thank you
This lesson is exactly what is needed to create the connections. Love the fact you added the arpeggios. Thank you so much, Brian!
Just keeps getting better and better. Dominant 7 Arpeggio sure sounds familiar. Is it Pretty Woman? Each one of these lessons is making the next easier. Thank you Brian. When we get thru
all of these I know we will be a lot better guitar players . Just keep them coming. Thanks, Thanks, Thanks. Dave
Brian, was time :18 in your part 2 intentional? It is very atypical of your videos. An editing oversight?
hah – yes – that was supposed to be edited out. oops!
Brian,
As Chris Farley would say…. Remember when you did that series of lessons on the CAGED system? That was AWESOME 👏
I love the explanation of the “graceful” recovery from the mistake at the end. I had never thought of that but I will be aware there is a possibility of recovery and not panic!
Another great lesson! I’m not sure about copyright issues, but is there a way you could sometimes recommend some popular songs to learn that relate to the specific lesson you’re teaching?
I agree, that is a good idea. More recognizable chord patterns, years of tunes humming in our head could help the learning process in each of these chord shapes.
This is keeping me hopping. The song tying the two shapes together is awesome. Please continue.
Brilliant, gonna be my go to lesson set.
I think a later course lining 6th and 9th chords and any other loose ends to each CAGED shape would be good too, you keep squeezing those 6ths and 9ths in, and classic movements between shapes.
This was so helpful! Hope you continue with the rest of the caged shapes!
Hello Brian,
Thank you so much for doing the E-shape as well and for adding the arpeggios and uploading the updated PDF document of episode 556 from last week. That’s great and exactly what I need. I hope you will continue this series for the remaining shapes.
Have a nice Sunday and a good week,
Georg
Hey Brian, fantastic lesson. I just want to verify I’m with the program. On the Maj 7 arpeggio you were calling the 7th interval a flat 7 but it’s a major 7 correct?
correct – it’s a major 7 – i screwed up and called it flat 7
Three comments. All your lessons are very eye opening and knowledge expansive
1) The font on the tablature is too small. For those os is older students, having to pull out the reading glasses is annoying
2) Why the F# Major II chord. Why not minor the chord progressions always interesting but unconventional
3) The Major 7 arpeggio section. You cite the flat minor 7? Isn’t it the Major 7 ????
Brian – I am guessing the A shape will be next. It fits into your 4 to 7 fret range to make your V chord on the 4th fret. Curious to know your thoughts. What I have just discovered, if this makes sense, is the A shape and G shape share the same ground as the C shape and D shape share the same area to each other. To put it this way, the D shape lives inside the C shape and they both share the same 4th position pentatonic scale the only difference being where the root is located. Just as the A shape lives inside the G shape both shapes share the same 1st position pentatonic scale. I’d like to know your thoughts.
Thanks Brian, I started something along these lines back when we were working on triads. This lesson and my work back then with chords is hitting the mark. With chords I was using the C shape for my I chord, E shape for my 4 chord and A shape for my 5 chord. All the while, looking for scales to correspond. These lessons just smoked it out. Fun stuff.
Running out of superlatives. Thanks so much, and thanks for adding in the arpeggios
Brian
These CAGED series lessons are great – huge help
Thank you
Just got to this lesson today, I had a little setback with Covid. That was fun. Anyhow thanks for another great lesson. This was very helpful.
Thanks again Brian.
Great follow up. I do miss the window in a window teaching method you did in the C shape video. It’s really powerful to get a teacher on a teacher moment, even if it’s the same teacher in both cases. But, I’m loving this series.
John
When you have done all shapes figure out how to squeeze them onto a page (A1/A2) to be printed as a poster to pin to my wall – Thanks Brian!
This is a nice little, digestible lesson that stands alone as a nice blues piece. The interplay of C, E and G chord shapes has always intrigued me. I also like the way you upgraded your tablature – much more readable and helpful to follow.
Again, thanks! One question, can you supplement last week’s C-shape lesson with a cheat sheet like the one you provided this week?
Hey Glen, I did that last week
Never mind, looks like you did, or I missed it.
I am back just in time, been absent since back in 2019 but ha ve been up to date on my membership the whole time. Been camped out with the pedal steel , lol. Now I am back just in time to get in on a real valuable subject. Taking a 50% break from the steel. Back to the telecaster.
Hi Brian,
Great lesson. keep the CAGED stuff coming. At 10:24 in the first video you said now we have the flat 7th when talking about the Amaj7 arpeggio. Would that be the natural 7th not flat 7th?
Blues scale lives also as part of this possition as well! C ou E shape… or…. any other shapes.
Thanks Brian
Hi Brian
I’ve been watching your videos for two years now and this is my first post
In the first video you mentioned that you would explain where the F# maj 2 chord had come from but either you didn’t or I missed it. I would have thought that it should be an F# minor ?
Also you went from an A maj to A minor why does that work ?
Great lessons by the way I’ve learnt more than I ever knew from your lessons
Apparently I edited that part out accidentally – The F# Major is the 5 chord of B – which is the next chord in the sequence, so it’s a secondary dominant chord. Here’s a lesson I did on Secondary Dominant chords
Thank you Brian
I didn’t think of that but it makes sense to me now
Wow, that guitar is beautiful! Since you now have this national I’d love to se some lesoons about slide or on open tunings blues. Thanks Bryan!
For me Brian, the arpeggios just muddy up the waters and made the cheat sheet too small for reading. Was better without them.
Yes Peter I agree it is small but I have a program that looks a lot like what Brian is using here called Neck Diagrams 2 that I like to input patterns like this into then it allows me to use dots like the pattern here or change it to actual notes or my personal preference is intervals and you can make it as big as you like which for me is BIG.. for me it is another way of learning and understanding what is going on. At 75 it takes me longer than it does these young talented guys here.
i saw a great quote at some point about creativity and I may be paraphrasing . Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes , and knowing which ones to keep. Thanks to the great ones!
This series is the answer to all my questions! Brian you are a genius putting this together in such a way that i can now connect all the dots. I will be trying very hard to absorb all this info, and its definitely going to help me understand what you are talking about in all your other lessons. Thank You
Brian, this is really great. Thank you again! I have never spent the time to count my intervals. I know more chord shapes than I know how to name. I have been slowly going through the effort of counting note interval numbers and corresponding interval note names, which while a total drag for playing, is great when I can dissect what I am playing on the neck by naming interval and note names relative to my current key.
As you said in the first video, this really is a missing piece from all the CAGED lessons on the internet.
Lastly, you truly have a passion for teaching guitar and it shows. I thank you for sharing your passion with all of us!!
As a funny (but somewhat serious) side note, I am ready to know the theoretical construct of 9’s and 6’s. Maybe a micro lesson?
Thanks!!
Good day all!
Here is an analogy from Part 2. Brian goes “off camera” but stays on camera.
I write documents which are based on other documents. Brian’s “The Song” is my “Offer to Purchase”. Both start and end. In between are lots of phrasings, arranging the phrasings creates context. My “Time shall be the essence…” is where you see Brian pick up his phrasing from his recording of “ The Song” so he can explain it in the context of the song but more importantly he listens to a bit of it and knows the balance of that phrase that he then teaches. His notes are the same as my words, they fit in a certain pattern, like forming a sentence. The trick here is to put together the phrasings (sentences) in a contiguous manner so it will make sense to the reader or listener.
Now, one better, in a document I can go back and edit before I present, same with recorded music, but live, note that you can learn how to correct a mistake while not losing context. Be present when playing. What I mean is the note, chord, etc you are playing at that moment requires your full focus and intention. And when you hit that note you naturally can place that “word” in many “sentences”. Join the notes together to create a meaningful phrase and join the phrases to create your song.
The fretboard is an adventure waiting for you to explore! Enjoy the music!
If you want a good example of what I am trying to say in my previous comment, please go to EP060. Try the different licks. Notice how your hands will automatically finish the “sentence” for you and give your mind time to plan your next “sentence”. Enjoy the music! Thx Wade
Struggling with this one…
Brian, I think there’s a problem with the part 2 video. It’s not playing smoothly and there are some false starts at the beginning which normally you’d have edited out.
Hi Brian,
What is absolutely great and helpful is that you didn’t just write down the chords for the tablature of the solo, but also the forms from which the chords originate.
Georg
Brian, great production on these video lessons. The focus feature is fantastic! Being able to learn a bar and add the next when I get it under my fingers is really helpful.
Brian,
Your approach in teaching the CAGED system, connecting that to the different scales, and then putting that together with a very tasty melody to practice really works for me. This was a very fun and beneficial lesson.
I find your lessons high quality, they.always have something to help me improve, plus, very enjoyable.
Jim
Hi Brian,
Can you direct me to a video where you explain how you create these melody pieces for each chord? I understand the theory and have learned the chords and the scales, but I’m having trouble creating melodic lines that are also in time with the beat. Thanks.
I think I missed it, but why did he use the F# chord in there? Is it because a) it’s in the key, and b) its flat 7 is E again?