How to Follow Chord Changes Using the CAGED System
Here is the main takeaway I want you to leave with today.
When you are playing any sort of lead, make sure you are following your chord progressions and not just rolling through your scales all willy-nilly until something sounds good.
It is already laid out for you. You do not have to guess at all. So why guess when it is already there?
This one picks up where we left off with the CAGED system, so if CAGED is still fuzzy for you, the shapes below will make more sense after you have spent some time with it.
The chord progression we are using
I wanted something simple, kind of familiar, but a little challenging too.
We are going to use E major to B major, then drop down to D major to A major.
It is very much that pop punk, poppy sort of chord progression. But here is what is interesting about it.
E and B are both part of E major. Once we swap down to D and A, that is part of D major. So there is a key change halfway through this progression, and it is something we really want to pay attention to.
Get a simple backing track going with those four chords so you have something to play against.
Finding the shapes
Using CAGED, we can take the A shape of the E chord, the E shape of the B chord, the A shape of the D chord, and the E shape of the A chord.
That is really confusing to say out loud, I know.
But remember how CAGED works. If I am using the A shape, that is just the back wall of the G shape sitting right next to it. If I am on the E shape, I also have access to the D shape, and even better, the G shape on the other side.
That matters because that is where your triads live.
What “following the chords” actually means
When we say following the chords, it literally means we are pulling the triads out.
Those are our chord tones. The root, the third, and the fifth from each chord.
So while my E chord is playing, I could take the triad sitting in that bar shape we typically use. Or I could take the top of it. Or I could take the part from the G shape that is connected to that A shape.
Those shapes influence the lead by saying here is the one, the three, and the five. Here are your chord tones.
So when I am playing my three-note-per-string shape of E major, I am not just guessing. I am not playing the one, then maybe the two, then maybe the four, then the six.
I know that at the very least I need to start and kind of end my phrase on a chord tone. Start on the one, end on the fifth. Or start on the one, work my way through, and end on the third.
In doing that, it engages the listener’s ear, and your own ear, to say oh, I am playing over the E.
The easiest way to test this
Focus on just moving between the thirds of each chord.
Play the root first, to designate to your ear that is the chord, that is the key I need. Then play the third.
Those two notes alone already begin to tell you: I am playing E major. B major. D major. A major.
All I really did there is take the root note and use the major scale shape I know in my head. A whole step, plus a whole step, to get from the one to the three.
You can use CAGED for it too. That third I stole for the E chord is the seventh fret of the A string, then the ninth, then the eleventh. That is the third from this triad, and that is actually what I am seeing in my head. I am seeing that chord shape right there.
All of those are my good notes. And here is my third.
We also have the C shape sitting back there for E that we could steal from. That is the A shape into the C shape, and there is another third.
The thirds, written out
Let me put the specific ones on the page, because this is the part worth memorizing.
That third I stole for the E chord sits on the A string. Seventh fret, ninth fret, eleventh fret. Walk those and you’ll find it.
E B D A
A|-----7-------------------------------
(the third of E lives in here)
For the E chord I’ve got two places to grab a third, because the A shape and the C shape both sit in that area. One from the bar, one from the C shape behind it.
For B, the third is in that E shape. For D, the A shape. For A, the E shape again.
You do not need to memorize four separate facts. You need to memorize where the third sits inside each of the five CAGED shapes, once. Then it comes with you to every chord in every key for the rest of your life.
That’s the whole reason to do it this way instead of learning notes.
Play with the music, not alongside it
If I just play the root, the third, and then grab the fifth, I am literally dissecting those triads.
And I do not even really need the backing track for that. You can hear those chords.
This is a great way to play with the music instead of alongside the music. That is the best analogy I can make for it. There is playing to it, and there is playing with it. We want to play with the music, not to it.
Instantly it sounds like I am following the chords, because I am. I am just dissecting them and playing segments from them.
Putting it together
While I am playing to this track, I know it is going to go from an E major to a D major, and I want to be cognizant of those chord changes.
So I take that third on E. That third on B. That third on D. That third on A. All of that, I am just stealing from my CAGED shapes. It is a way for me to very quickly identify where those thirds are instead of straight memorization.
There is a bit of memorization to this, I suppose. But once you have identified where those chord tones are, the road map is there.
Take A major. I have my root, my fifth, another root, a third, a fifth, and then another root at the very top. Once you have got that down for each of your CAGED chords, it is all mapped out.
Everybody talks about fretboard fluency and understanding the fretboard. This is the way to get comfortable with it. Once you can start applying your scale shapes to your CAGED chords, it is all laid out there for you.
One more layer, if you want it
Here is what is actually happening underneath, musically speaking.
I am using my E major scale and my D major scale, just the root position three-note-per-string patterns. Those are positions one and two of the major scale, connected.
When the E chord is on, I am playing the thirds of E. When the B comes up, those notes are actually the seventh degree of the E major scale. When the D comes up and we shift down, I am doing the exact same thing, playing its thirds. And when the A chord hits, I am playing D’s sevens.
In my own head, though, I am just thinking of the thirds from the CAGED system. Whatever way is best for you to think about it is the right way.
Common mistakes
- Playing the scale and hoping. That’s the thing we’re fixing. If you don’t know what chord is underneath you right now, you’re guessing
- Only targeting the root. The root tells you which chord. The third tells you what kind. The third is the one that sells it
- Ignoring the key change. This progression moves from E major to D major halfway through. If you stay in one scale the whole way, the back half will sound slightly wrong and you won’t know why
- Landing on chord tones in the middle of phrases only. Start and end is where the ear is listening
- Playing too fast to think. If you can’t name the note you just landed on, slow down until you can
Your practice this week
1. Loop the progression. E, B, D, A, one bar each
2. Play nothing but roots for a full pass
3. Then nothing but thirds
4. Then root to third on each chord, the two note test from earlier
5. Then improvise, but force every phrase to start and end on a chord tone
6. Once that’s comfortable, find the same four chords somewhere else on the neck and do it all again
That last step is the one people skip, and it’s the one that turns this from a party trick into fretboard knowledge.
Go try it
Stay within the first octave of each chord’s scale to start. Play slowly. Do not play extravagantly.
It sounds like you are following the chords instead of playing the guessing game, and you really will not be doing much.
The guessing game is what a lot of us do. I am guilty of it as well, for years and years, until much later in my journey.
