Evans - Chords for Guitar: Transposable Chord Shapes using the CAGED System

ISBN 978-0-9569547-8-7 Written by Gareth Evans Photography, Diagrams and Cover design by Gareth Evans Copyright 2012 by Intuition Publications www.guitar-book.com
International Copyright Secured. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher

This book is designed as a reference to give you various shapes for different types of chord. These shapes are based on the C A G E D system, which comes from the chords that beginners often start with, enabling you to learn how to locate chords yourself. All you have to do is move the chord shape up or down the fret-board. To make sure youre on track each chord type has a question with answers at the back of the book.

You will not find the same shape repeated for any chord type within this book. Rather than give you 1000s of chords, many of which are the same shape, this book gives you more chord types, just over 60, for which there are over 200 unique shapes. Due to the graphical layout of this book it is best viewed scrolling rather than page by page. Many parts of the book refer to and are linked to other parts, to return to your previous location just use the back button on your eReader.
The simpler chords that we often start with (such as major chords) are not always necessarily the easiest to finger on the fret-board. Perhaps ironically an open chord. When playing any chord for the first time it can help to play one string at a time to make sure all the notes are clear.

This can apply to all chords within this book. Although this is primarily a reference for movable chord shapes, relevant music theory has also been included later on in the book.

Fret-board diagrams for chords are usually shown vertically because chords tend to span less frets than scales. The following diagram on the left names the different parts, while the one on the right shows how chords are displayed within the diagram; the dots on the frets show us where to place our fingers. The X symbols above the nut indicate those strings are not played. The numbers added next to each dot advise which fingers to use. The numbers added next to each dot advise which fingers to use.

The fingers are numbered as shown in the picture below left, so the above fret-board diagram indicates that you would use the index (1) and middle (2) finger for the chord as shown in the image below right

When further up the fret-board and away from the nut, a fret number is used. Below we can see the 3rd fret is referred to on the right of the diagram, so we would play the chord from that location.

All chords are based from a root note. This could be any note of the musical alphabet, as shown below. The notes with symbols are sharps ( # ) and flats ( b ). These are different names for the same note known as enharmonic equivalents. For instance C# and Db are the same.

When a chords name is indicated with only the root note, such as G or Eb, this is for the most fundamental chord type; the major chord. So G would mean the chord of G major and Eb would mean the chord of E flat major. Other types of chords are indicated with symbols after the root note. For example a small m tells us its a minor chord, such as Gm for G minor or Ebm for E flat minor. The CAGED system is named after the following major chords of the same names, these are open chords meaning there are open strings played within them. The purpose of the CAGED system is to keep the fretting hand in the same area of the fret-board.

The Root note is indicated with an R in a small square box, for example on the C chord we can see that the Root note of C is on the 5th string 3rd fret. In the case of A, E and D major the root note is on the open string hence why the R in the small square is shown behind the nut (the root note is in other locations, known as other octaves, but this is the one we need to focus on). Note: The figures underneath the fret-board diagrams (such as R 3 5) indicate what intervals the notes within the chords are, which relates to the structure of the chord, beyond and including the root note itself. This is primarily a reference book for transposable chords, but if you understand or want to learn about intervals now or at a later date, then their locations are noted underneath the chords for your future reference. There is a fuller explanation toward the of the book. These 5 chord shapes are the basis behind many other chords, not just the ones shown, because of this we can name them generically as patterns 1 to 5.

C = Pattern 1 (Root on 5th string) A = Pattern 2 (Root on 5th string) G = Pattern 3 (Root on 6th string) E = Pattern 4 (Root on 6th string) D = Pattern 5 (Root on 4th string) These chords arent only played around the bottom of the fret-board; their shapes can be moved up and down it too. This is where the Barre chord can become useful. Lets say we want to make a B major chord, using pattern 4. Here is the original E open chord for pattern 4.
The root note for pattern 4 is on the 6th string, so this is the string on which we need to find the note of B for the root note (you can use the following fret-board diagram for this) and therefore from where we place the chord shape. The note of B can be found on the 7th fret of the 6th string.

Here is our new B major chord. The curved line across the 7th fret represents a 1st finger barre.

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