PDA

View Full Version : Caged scale positions



fsenseman
05-19-2012, 04:31 PM
Hi Justin,

Quick question for you. I printed out the A Ionian scale in all 5 CAGED positions. I was curious how you came up with the position numbers. They move from left to right on the fretboard, positions 1 to 4 until you get to position 5 (G shape) which is to the left of position 1 so that doesn't seem to be it. They don't match the Berklee types either so there must be some other logic which I don't know of. Could you please school me some?

Kind Regards,
Fleet

Justin
05-19-2012, 06:29 PM
Hey Fleet,

Yes it's a little different to the Berklee way. It's the way I learnt it and also was presented this way when I attended the Guitar Institute (now 'The Institute (http://www.icmp.co.uk/)' of Contemporary Music Performance, who have loads of awesome instructors like Dario Cortese (http://www.dariocortese.com/) and Justin Sandercoe (http://justinguitar.com/)).

Anyways, it's the same as regular CAGED, but instead of C being 1st we have E 1st. So you kinda get EDCAG. Maybe not so nice as its not an English word but I feel makes more sense as you start with the lowest note on the guitar, the open E!

I've thought about having an option in the Preferences so that you could choose the preferred CAGED system in drop down list, either 1=E as current or 1=C etc. Maybe that's something for the task list?!

Hopefully that answers your question, or have I misunderstood..?

fsenseman
05-19-2012, 07:24 PM
No misunderstanding at all. My teacher went to Berklee and I had printed out the diagrams for the positions. I guess at Berklee they use "Type" as opposed to position. Your position 2 on the A Ionian is taught by Berklee as being "Type 1A" and it's voiced a bit differently. There are 12 types in all I think (memory is fading after just a few hours.... :) ) but the other types are hybrids of the 5 major types which I think are called Types 1, 1A, 2, 3, 4 with no type 5 (or if there is it's one of hybrids. Not sure on that as we only covered the major 5 types.) I'm also not saying what you've done is wrong, in any meaning of the word. I'm only trying to understand the differences.

Position makes sense if looked at from moving left to right (nut to bridge) on the fretboard, but that can be misleading as well I suppose if you have a scale that would be behind the nut and therefore played 12th fret or more to the right. (Haven't looked at them all to see if that actually happens.)

The reason I've asked is so that I don't get confused and think I'm misunderstanding when different people use the same terminology in different ways. Pentatonic boxes were easy as they follow the notes in the scale. For example, Am Penta position 1 starts with A, 2 starts with C, 3 with D, etc.

An option would be nice, and it may be an easier thing to do than some of the other requests I've posted. Knowing why helps a great deal in that I don't question if I'm misunderstanding so I wouldn't consider it critical. I'd rather have the others requests first though :) :)

Kind Regards,
Fleet

Note: there may be some confusion or errors in what I wrote above, I'm just learning this stuff. I've got the pentatonics down, now it's time for major scales and modes, etc. And your software is a great way for me to present my questions to my teacher. Very, Very helpful in numerous ways. I will use it also to teach my wife once she gets past cowboy chords :)