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using CAGED system to change key

3,405 views · Published 26 August 2016 · 10:27 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher · 2016 · Music

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The CAGED system can help you change keys. How to change key of a song using the CAGED system. Key changing using the CAGED system.

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Video Script:
Ever since first learning the CAGED system I have found that it has helped me speed up the process of learning new songs. But a great bonus to using the CAGED system in this way, is that it also enables you to instantly transpose everything you learn into other keys when needed. I think the best way to show you this is to give you five quick real-life examples - one from each part of the CAGED system. 

One of the things the 'C' shape is great for is playing blues riffs where you need to come up, to the root note of the chord, from a lower note. Here's an acoustic version of Mustang Sally for example. Like most blues we only need to find three chords for this tune and depending on what key I may be asked to play this in, I would use a combination of this C shape with E shapes for the other chords.

The A shape is where I normally play these licks from James Brown's I Feel Good. So last time I played this, I played it in C and although the chord work is mostly done using the E and A shapes higher up the neck  I know I can drop down to the A shape for the key chord (C) to hit these two riffs. 

And if you asked me to play the tune in say Eb I'd be able to instantly relocate these riffs here.

So I treat the CAGED system a bit like a 5 drawer filing cabinet. Almost everything I learn, I see as belonging in one of these 5 drawers.

The G shape is perhaps a less often used part of the CAGED system but it is the perfect place to file certain old Beatles riffs.
   
Day Tripper is normally first learnt in E and this is fine playing it from the open E string. But it doesn't travel so well when filed in this draw of the CAGED system. Suppose I want to play it in C for example, perhaps to suit a female vocalist's best singing range. Much easier to move it to the G shaped part of the CAGED system and then use the C shape for the change up to the 4 chord. 

The E shape is almost certainly the part of the CAGED system we use the most. Many of our most familiar constructs live here. Blues clichés  and old Rock n Roll riffs  - standard pentatonic ideas  basic barre chords  and easy Jazz chord fingerings - there are many good reasons why this is such a versatile area of the CAGED system to operate in.
 
Whilst some ideas belong exclusively to the D shape, it is very often used as a link to or from the E shape. Here's another Beatles song that nstrates this really well - the Ballad of John and Yoko. 

If I want to embellish the chords the way John Lennon did on the original recording I locate these two notes from the D shape and work back down the fret board to these two notes from the E shape.

Again, thinking in these terms makes it very easy for me to transpose to other keys if asked to.

In this lesson I have run over a few ways I use the CAGED system to help me quickly jump from key to key.

In the next lesson we'll look at how a similar process can be applied to moving musical ideas from one set of strings to another in the same key.

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