Let me take a shot at CAGED.

[anthonyg]

First up, CAGED makes the most obvious sense for baritone ukuleles or guitars.
On a GCEA tuned ukulele it would be, FDCAG, which doesn't make such a nice mnemonic, yet if you look closely you can see that is a displacement of CAGED.
OK, Baritone ukulele C Maj, open position is 2,0,1,0.
The next C Maj up the neck is 5,5,5,3, which happens to be a A Maj shape, if it was in the open position.
The next C maj up the neck is 5,5,5,8, which happens to be a G Maj shape, if it was in the open position.
The next C maj up the neck is 10,9,8,8, which happens to be an E Maj shape, if it was in the open position.
The next C Maj up the neck is 10,12,13,12, which happens to be a D Maj shape if it was played in the open position.
And that brings us back to 14,12,13,12, which happens to be the C Maj shape played one octave higher than the open position.

So CAGED is a mnemonic, which you can use to find the next major chord inversion up the neck, yet in standard ukulele tuning its FDCAG.
Couple of points to note. C and D maj are VERY similar chord shapes. G and A Maj, are VERY similar chord shapes.
C Maj to A maj, there is a small one fret jump. A maj to G maj is basically the same chord with the high string moving from the 3rd fret to the 8th fret.
G to E maj, is 5,5,5,8 to 10,9,8,8, with the 8th fret remaining an anchor.
E to D maj, is 10,9,8,8 to 10,12,13,12, with the 10th fret remaining an anchor.
D back to C Maj, the 12,13,12 triad remains an anchor with the bass note moving from the 10th fret, to the 14th fret.

OK, why am I even going here?
We were discussing in another thread playing above the 12th fret on ukuleles and the implications of intonation.
Personally, I just don't see a need for playing 14,12,13,12 or anything above. It's just not musical anymore in my book.
10,9,8,8 is a plenty high enough chord inversion that is still musical. Even 5,5,5,8 will work in most cases/situations.

Anyway, that's my take on CAGED.

 

[pmorey]

Might be of interest:

 

[don_b]

I’ll probably have to watch a video on CAGED.

I posted a thread about jamming and somebody was like “yeah but you can get trapped in CAGED!” and I ignored it bc I didn’t really know what it meant.

Now we have this thread, more dangers of CAGED.

anyhow just wondering if I’m alone here.

 

[Rllink]

I heard people talking about the CAGED system all the time I played ukulele. I sort of gave it a quick look over but never got into it because people made it sound so convoluted. So then when I started playing guitar it came up and I asked my guitar teacher what it was all about and if I should learn it and he told me we had been doing it all along from the beginning, we just didn't call it CAGED. I went back on the internet and looked at it again. He was right. It looks like you can make it Into a lot more than it really is if you want to.

 

[clear]

I'm currently learning the CAGED system for the guitar. It's a system that's based on the open chords C,A,G,E,D. When these chords are changed to moveable chords, they allow you to play any chord up and down the neck quickly ("quickly" is the key word); all you have to remember is the root note string and change chords by changing the root string rather than moving your hand into another position on the fretboard. Playing chords is just one of the benefits; IMHO the biggest benefit is that you get the scale notes up/down the neck based on those chord shapes/patterns.

I don't think the CAGED system will work well for the ukulele because too many of the chords have their roots on the 3rd string (there's just not enough strings, I guess). Remember, the CAGED system depends on having different root strings to offer minimal movement and a large amount of scale patterns. This wouldn't work if all the chords have their root on the same string.

Let's see if I can make a ukulele "CAGED" system. I'll take the open C chord (0003) and I want another chord whose root isn't on the 3rd string. I'm coming up blank. Let's assume I have the G chord (0x70). The "CAGED" system for ukulele would look something like this: When I'm playing the E chord (4447), I can also get the B chord (4 x 11 4). There's a catch here that's not in the CAGED system for guitar: namely, playing the "X" is going to be very hard and any system is supposed to make things easier. However, I hope this at least illustrates finding chords with the CAGED system.

The other thing about CAGED system is finding the scale notes quickly without moving the hand up/down the fretboard (the CAGED system gives you all the scales, e.g. major, minor, major/minor blues/pentatonic, etc.) Again, this is based on the knowledge of root strings (which is based on the CAGED chords); and, again, if there's only 1 root string, then there's only 1 pattern, which defeats the CAGED purpose.

I'm not an expert in the CAGED system, but I've learned enough to think it wouldn't be that beneficial to the ukulele.

 

[clear]

I’ll probably have to watch a video on CAGED.

I posted a thread about jamming and somebody was like “yeah but you can get trapped in CAGED!” and I ignored it bc I didn’t really know what it meant.

Now we have this thread, more dangers of CAGED.

anyhow just wondering if I’m alone here.

If you play the guitar or have access to a guitar, this book:

Amazon.com

will teach you the CAGED concepts within a week. In chapter 1, it introduces the CAGED system immediately, here's a picture:

I've circled the root string notes. Notice that they are spread out on strings 6, 5, 4. For the ukulele, this isn't as easy to do. This picture shows the chord shapes (in barre form, notice the dots outside the nut) and a scale (major) based on the chord form (later, you'll realize that all the scales can be derived). At this point, which takes you just a day, you'll beginning to see the CAGED system.

The next 6 days, you'll go over chapters 2 and 3, which the book picks 2 of the easier chords/shapes to work with as illustration of the CAGED system in action. It'll make the CAGED system totally understandable to anyone. Whether it is a good system or not (i.e. whether it's a system that fits you is another thing), but you'll know exactly what CAGED can be used for.

I tried to learn the CAGED system online a few times, but never succeeded; somehow, I just feel either the presenter doesn't really know it or doesn't want to teach it for free (which is fine, but I didn't have a subscription or I'm stuck on their "easy/intro" stuff and they don't go into it). Finally, I just said, "hey, I know how to read, I'll just get a book". The End. It only took a day to learn more than all the videos combined and a week to pretty much understand fully the concept (just need to work on my playing skills to utilize the concepts. hahaha.)

 

[pmorey]

I'm not an expert in the CAGED system, but I've learned enough to think it wouldn't be that beneficial to the ukulele.

Let me start with... I'm certainly no CAGED expert either! In fact, I'm risking making a fool of myself in this post! But, I know nothing of the CAGED system on guitar, only trying to apply it to the ukulele.

You already referenced the C shape, so how about the F shape and the A shape for two other root strings?

Please feel free to point out my ignorance, I am very interested in this topic and always looking to learn!

 

[anthonyg]

Yes, I've read about CAGED, being based on the root string of the chords, and then duly noted that ukuleles don't have the same root strings as guitars.
Then I noticed that CAGED was literally spelled out, right there in front of my eyes as I played different inversions of baritone ukulele chords up the neck. You can make CAGED more complicated if you want to, and as you start with different open position chords the pattern will be offset. Yet, it can be used as a fairly simple tool to find your next inversions of the same chord as you play up the neck.

 

[boisedave]

>>> NOT CAGED <<< but, there's thread over in Ukulele Tips Tricks and Techniques.
Jim Yates demonstrates that the shapes for CMaj, 432x, and EMin , x432, can be sllid up and down the neck to play any major or minor chord. Sometimes you don't even have to mute the x'ed string.
Anyway, check it out if you're interested:
Jim Yates shows portable chord shapes on the uke

 

[anthonyg]

>>> NOT CAGED <<< but, there's thread over in Ukulele Tips Tricks and Techniques.
Jim Yates demonstrates that the shapes for CMaj, 432x, and EMin , x432, can be sllid up and down the neck to play any major or minor chord. Sometimes you don't even have to mute the x'ed string.
Anyway, check it out if you're interested:
Jim Yates shows portable chord shapes on the uke

Yes, and you can make it simpler still.
222x works as the major triad and x222 works as the minor triad. D Maj and B Min with standard uke tuning.
You can play every major and minor triad on the neck with a simple barre.

Anyway, a point I want to make with this CAGED discussion is that if we are transposing guitar music or music from anywhere else in fact, we can and should consider the implications of fitting this music into where it best suits the ukuleles "voice".

Just because a guitar piece goes from an open position chord to a chord 12 frets higher, maybe we should consider if this works out musically on a ukulele. Maybe we just go from the open position to a chord around the 8th to 10th frets instead. Maybe this is more musical on a ukulele.

EDIT: So to bring this back to CAGED, instead of playing C to C, maybe on a ukulele we should consider just going from C to E.

I play a classic Australian song called Eagle Rock. There is a little lead lick, played on the 12th and 14th frets on a guitar, yet I find that this lick works even better on a ukulele, simply playing it in the open position. Sure, on a guitar they voice it up there for impact, yet a ukulele just sounds too high in pitch up there. This lick cuts through nicely played in the open position on a uke.

 

[clear]

Let me start with... I'm certainly no CAGED expert either! In fact, I'm risking making a fool of myself in this post! But, I know nothing of the CAGED system on guitar, only trying to apply it to the ukulele.

You already referenced the C shape, so how about the F shape and the A shape for two other root strings?

Please feel free to point out my ignorance, I am very interested in this topic and always looking to learn!

The thing about the CAGED system for guitar is that it makes chord changes fast and gives you the patterns for scales.

The F chord certainly can be used in a CAGED system. Here, you'll have the C chord with root on the 3rd string; and F chord with root on the 2nd string. You can then switch between (for example) D (2225) and F#/Gb (4232) easily (just barre on the 2nd fret and use pinky on the 5th for D and middle/ring fingers for F#/Gb. Using these 2 fingerings, we can move the barre up and down the neck and always have fast/easy access to 2 chords. Find a few more, and you can have many chords at your finger tips with either no change in hand position or just 1 or 2 fret position changes. It is essemtially CAGED for the uke. However, there's a catch, the F chord's root note isn't the lowest note. So, the chords derived from it will all have non-lowest-note roots.

The other good thing CAGED system gives is the scales based on chord shapes. I'm not sure how that'd work with a chord like F where its root note is in the middle of the range covered by the fingers when the hand is in position I (for F chord, i.e. index finger covering 1st fret). There may not be enough range to has a complete scale.

 

[anthonyg]

Yes I should have made this point clearer. The mnemonic applies directly to one root only, the C maj chord, yet if you use a different root chord the pattern will be the same, just offset a little.
So, literally using the same chord shapes as guitar on the uke, you get, FDCAG. Starting from a D maj chord you get DCAGF on a uke. Starting from A maj you get AGFDC, and so on.

In practice you think of the shapes and how they relate, and you catch on pretty quickly.

 

[anthonyg]

Thanks ubulele for taking the time to explain that, and it goes to show that there are many different takes on music structure.
I guess that I have a different use for CAGED and for the record I'm mostly picking chord melody, Piedmont style over the 4th and 3rd string.
Anyway, I'm using CAGED to deliberately expand my range of playing, yet I'm also suggesting that ukulele players don't need to expand their playing to octave jumps ( I mean that every note in the chord is up an octave) up and down the neck the way guitar players do, and that we can also use CAGED to resize the movements.

I still do a LOT of playing in the open position, yet what I also do on some songs is to also play 2nd and third position inversions of the same open position chords and move up and down as needed/desired to give range and impact.
Example for baritone chords or I'll do my head in. I often play C maj as 2,0,1,0, (F maj ukulele) and then also as 3,5,5,5 (D form ukulele) in the same piece. I will play G maj as 0,0,0,3, (C maj uke) and as 5,4,3,3, ( A form uke) and even sometimes as 7,9,10,9(G form uke) . D maj is 0,2,3,2 (G maj uke) and also 7,7,7,5 (D form uke) or 7,7,7,10 (C form uke).
So I'm deliberately expanding over what I could acheive simply in the open position for musical effect.
Now what I'm also saying is that if you're covering a piece that a guitarist is moving from the open position to above the 12th fret, lets say from C to C from the point of view of CAGED, maybe a ukulele player could resize this movement to C to E.

I just found that the CAGED system was useful for exploring vertical movements up and down the fretboard, yet not everything works. Just experiment. I find that it can be fun to at least know your 2nd and 3rd position inversions, play around and see what happens.