Caged / minor pentatonic for beginners

blacknblack

I had been struggling to get my head around connecting chord shapes and pentatonic positions.   I found this page excellent.  http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/a-beginners-guide-to-the-minor-pentatonic--audio-11234

now if only I could make my fingers play an A minor chord using C shape - position 3 !!!!

paul_c2

I'd not worry too much about the "C shape" bar chord and the "G shape" bar chord - they're handy to know in theory, and you will obviously recognise the shape, but pragmatically getting your fingers to hit those notes is much harder than the E and A shapes. You'll see that the examples show chord fills where only 1, 2 or 3 of the notes are sounded at the same time.
So if you needed to play the whole chord you'd just shift position and go for the E or A shape. The D shape is in between in difficulty for new fingers but because only 4 strings sound rather than 5 or 6, isn't quite so strong/powerful (IMHO). (You could sound 5 strings by adding the 5th on the A string if you wanted to though, but then the chord voicing is the 3rd inversion).

blacknblack

paul_c2 said:

I'd not worry too much about the "C shape" bar chord and the "G shape" bar chord - they're handy to know in theory, and you will obviously recognise the shape, but pragmatically getting your fingers to hit those notes is much harder than the E and A shapes. You'll see that the examples show chord fills where only 1, 2 or 3 of the notes are sounded at the same time.
So if you needed to play the whole chord you'd just shift position and go for the E or A shape. The D shape is in between in difficulty for new fingers but because only 4 strings sound rather than 5 or 6, isn't quite so strong/powerful (IMHO). (You could sound 5 strings by adding the 5th on the A string if you wanted to though, but then the chord voicing is the 3rd inversion).

That is also very helpful - thanks. 

stratman3142

The CAGED approach underpins my thinking, but I relate the 5 major CAGED chords to the major scale shape that's built on each of those shapes. Plus I know the intervals for each of those 5 major scale shapes. So, for example, knowing where the major 3rd is located it's easy to create a minor chord by simply flattening the 3rd.

With a knowledge of the intervals of the major scale associated with each of the 5 shapes, and how chord formulas work, it's possible to quickly work out any chord, even if you encounter one you're not familiar with.

TheBlueWolf

I struggle with fretting the 'G' and 'C' shapes too; so much so that I don't use them much as chords.

What I *do* do is visualize the chord shapes over the relevant scale shapes.

viz

I use them both a lot, all the time in fact:

if I want to play E major 1st inversion (or E/G# as some call it), it's a C shape: 4 7 6 4 5 4.

And if I want an A 1st inversion (A/C#), I play x 4 2 2 2 x, which is basically a simple G shape without the top or bottom strings. 

They're both easy chords and completely invaluable, at least for what I want to play. 

TheBlueWolf

@vis just spotted your reply! I'll try those chords tonight