Putting it all together.
If you’ve been following the lessons so far then you would have gained some valuable insight on the basics of the CAGED guitar system but might still be left wondering how you can go about using it to your advantage and really spice up your guitar solos. Well it’s not quite so simple as just saying right, here you go, get on with it. This is probably the hardest part of guitar playing because some things just don’t make sense until, well … they just make sense!
What I have given you so far is pretty much all you need to know to make the most of the CAGED guitar system. The reality is however that many of you won’t do with it what you’re supposed to. Not because you’re lazy or don’t get it but if you’re like most of us then you jusy won’t see how this can make so much difference to your guitar playing and won’t give it the required effort.
So what is the required effort, what is the goal? The goal is to learn the chord forms, learn the note locations within those chord forms and practice it everyday for as long as it takes until you can view, think and find all this information in all it’s permutations anywhere on the neck almost instantaneously. By the time you have done that you would have reached the point where you suddenly realise everything about the way you play guitar has changed drastically.
Everything I print here from now on will be in the form of simple exercises and jamming ideas with some hints for what you should be watching out for. Follow this and add to it whatever you can, use your imagination and just keep at it until it clicks. Trust me, it will!