The CAGED System of Guitar – C Shape – Part 4

With two shapes already taken care of, its time to move on to the next shape.

Recognizing the Shape

Once again, we will focus on a new set of notations:

Can you see where these notations have been picked up from the image on the left?

Many of the notes have been marked red. As I told previously, it is not necessary to play each note of a chord as long as you are playing each note once.

Adding the Barre

After adding the barre on the first fret in the image above, and ignoring the red marked notes, the shape of the symbol becomes prominent:

As you must have noticed, the remaining notes are forming a shape which we all know as the C shape! This is the third shape of the CAGED System. Notice that the root note is present on the fifth string (the F note).

This chord can be played by barring the fret with the index finger and using the other fingers in the normal way to play the C chord.

The Importance of the Red Notes

If you have observed, another way to play open C chord is to use your 3rd finger to play the note on the sixth string and your 4th finger on the root note. Now you know why it was played that way. It was to include the relevant note (marked RED) which makes the chord sound fuller.

So now we have three shapes in the bag. It is time to move on to the next shape, the A shape.

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