The CAGED System
Five chords you already know — C, A, G, E, and D — turn out to be a map of the entire fretboard once you learn to slide them.
Five familiar shapes
CAGED is an acronym for five open-chord shapes: C, A, G, E, D. You already know these as open chords near the nut. The insight behind CAGED is that each of these shapes can also be played as a movable barre chord anywhere on the neck — and if you follow all five shapes up the fretboard in order, they connect end to end, covering every possible spot to play a given chord.
How the shapes connect
Starting from an open C shape, the next C-chord shape up the neck is built from the A shape barred higher up. After that comes a G shape, then an E shape, then a D shape — and then you're back to a C shape again, an octave higher than where you started. That's the "CAGED" order: C → A → G → E → D → C, repeating up the entire neck.
Why it's worth learning
Once these five shapes click, you're no longer stuck thinking of chords as isolated, memorized fingerings near the nut. You get a mental map connecting open chords, barre chords, and — eventually — scale patterns across the whole fretboard, all built from shapes you already know.
Common questions
What does CAGED stand for?
The five open chord shapes C, A, G, E, and D. Played as movable barre shapes, they together cover every chord anywhere on the fretboard.
Why is the CAGED system useful?
It connects chord shapes you already know to the whole neck, giving you a mental map for finding any chord or scale in any position.
Do I need to know barre chords before learning CAGED?
It helps a lot — CAGED shapes are the same open-chord fingerings moved up the neck and barred, so open and barre chords are the building blocks.
How many shapes do I need to learn for CAGED?
Five: C, A, G, E, and D. Each shape can represent any chord depending on which fret you move it to.
See CAGED shapes connect on a live fretboard
Melody Monkey visualizes all five CAGED shapes for any chord, up and down the entire neck.
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