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Elevate Your Guitar Solos Beyond Scales with the CAGED System · The Steve Stine Podcast

• 0:36
  Steve: Hey, steve here, thank you so much for joining me.
• 0:37
  Steve: Today we're going to be talking about why learning your scales is Not enough.
• 0:43
  Steve: All right, learning your scales.
• 0:44
  Steve: I'll let me preface by saying this learning your scales is very, very, very important, and we need to do that, no doubt about it.
• 0:51
  Steve: But there's a lot of players out there that play more from listening and visualizing and connecting to chord shapes and Chord knowledge of their fretboard, depending on how you're looking at this.
• 1:04
  Steve: And we'll talk about all of this sort of thing as opposed to just playing more what we'll call linear and just playing through a scale.
• 1:12
  Steve: And again, I'm going to show you some examples of what I'm talking about.
• 1:14
  Steve: So if, for some reason, you're listening to this and you're not actually seeing me, I'm going to explain everything and you'll be able to understand it, even though you can't see me.
• 1:24
  Steve: All right, so the first thing I'm going to do is let's just take a chord.
• 1:26
  Steve: Let's just take an e chord.
• 1:28
  Steve: So I'm just going to play an e major chord, for instance.
• 1:30
  Steve: Okay, so, just an e major chord.
• 1:35
  Steve: Now, if we had that e major chord and we were going to do something on our guitar with it, I Can call it soloing, you know I can call it creating a melody.
• 1:46
  Steve: I mean, who knows what we're going to be doing here?
• 1:47
  Steve: But let's just think about what we know about the e major chord.
• 1:51
  Steve: Now we would probably choose an e major scale and as guitar players, we either know how to play the e major Pentatonic, which would look like this at the 12th fret, I'm playing 12, 9, 11, 9, 11, 9, 11, 9, 12, 9, 12, okay.
• 2:12
  Steve: Or maybe you know the e major scale, the diatonic scale don't really fossil at the dough which in this case would be 12 on the 6th string, and then 9, 11, 12, the 9, 11, and then 8, 9, 11, and then 9, 10, 12, and then 9, 11, 12.
• 2:34
  Steve: So I have In the next octave, okay.
• 2:43
  Steve: So those are the two scale options that I might start with.
• 2:46
  Steve: Okay, now there are other.
• 2:48
  Steve: You know scales or modes or something that you could look at, and that's a bit further down the line, but it doesn't change what we're gonna talk about today.
• 2:56
  Steve: All right, so if I was given this e chord and I'm gonna play over this, okay, so I go up here into you know e major pentatonic, and maybe I know some licks and whatever.
• 3:15
  Steve: It might be right.
• 3:16
  Steve: So I'm playing now.
• 3:17
  Steve: I'm just gonna pluck this 6 string here Right now.
• 3:33
  Steve: Again, what I'm really just doing is me and or I'm just moving around playing a bunch of notes, which is perfectly fine if I was doing diatonic, again same thing.
• 3:40
  Steve: Okay.
• 3:52
  Steve: Okay, now, all of that is valid, all right, but what I want to do is I want to start trying to learn to visualize the chords that are being played, or At least I mean, there's two ways you can think about this.
• 4:09
  Steve: If I was given, for instance, an e major chord and I was going to solo on my fretboard using that e major chord so I'm using a scale of some sort in this case again, e major, pentatonic, or, you know, e major I Still want to be able to visualize the triad, the notes that make up the chord itself.
• 4:27
  Steve: So if I've got an e chord all the way down here in the open position, my cowboy e chord, so to speak Okay, that's perfectly fine.
• 4:38
  Steve: But what I want to do is I want to try and merge the scale, or at least the position of the scale that I'm visualizing on my guitar, with some sort of chordal connection.
• 4:49
  Steve: Now I have two options with that.
• 4:50
  Steve: Number one is I'm gonna visualize a chord shape Somewhere on the guitar, just like this is, if I go to the open position e chord here, the cowboy e chord.
• 5:00
  Steve: That's an e chord, but if we think about it realistically, it's a shape that we've learned how to play where someone told us hey, you know, put your first finger on the third string on the first fret, and put your middle finger on the fifth fret of the second string and so on, to make that that chord.
• 5:15
  Steve: And of course I can visualize the E chord in other places.
• 5:18
  Steve: I can visualize it as a fifth string bar chord at the seventh fret, I could visualize it as a sixth string bar chord on the 12th fret and if I know my caged chording system, I could visualize it all over the fretboard.
• 5:31
  Steve: For instance, I could use this is the open chord and then I could go to the D shape and the C shape and then the A shape, which is the fifth string bar chord, and then the G shape and then the E shape, which is my sixth string bar chord.
• 5:44
  Steve: So if I can visualize that, I can see the E chord sitting across the entire fretboard, you see.
• 5:50
  Steve: So now what I wanna do is I wanna take whatever scale it is I'm trying to visualize and whatever positions I know of that scale and I'm comfortable with that I would use in my soloing.
• 6:00
  Steve: I wanna try and visualize that E chord in the same position or at least somewhere close to that.
• 6:05
  Steve: So let me show you again what I mean.
• 6:07
  Steve: So if I was visualizing, for instance, an E chord sitting here, the fifth string bar chord at the seventh fret, okay, and I can visualize the E major pentatonic sitting at the 12, nine 11, nine, 11, nine, 11, nine, 12, nine, 12.
• 6:24
  Steve: I can see that there's a connection between those two, and the connection that I'm visually seeing are the nines on the second, third and fourth strings.
• 6:33
  Steve: Okay, because when I play this pentatonic scale I'm playing that nine, that nine, that nine.
• 6:41
  Steve: So there's a visual connection between the two.
• 6:44
  Steve: So then what happens is when I go to start doing my soloing, I wanna start trying to target those notes a little bit, to try and make them a little more important, as opposed to just playing all the notes all the time.
• 6:58
  Steve: I start trying to kind of move and target into those notes ["Target"] ["Target"].
• 7:11
  Steve: Now this will keep expanding as I go, because the more I can see, the more I can connect to some of these notes.
• 7:19
  Steve: So, for instance, if I was to visualize the E six string bar chord up here at the 12th fret ["Target"], okay, that also gives me this 12, this 12, and this 12.
• 7:36
  Steve: Now I've got all those notes that I could connect to.
• 7:40
  Steve: You see, and as if I could visualize, for instance, the G shape of my E, which you might not know, but that would be at the 12th fret here, moving to the left, okay, then I could visualize that right over the top of the scale position that I'm playing in this pentatonic, okay, so now it's giving my soloing somewhere to go.
• 8:15
  Steve: Now, it's still not necessarily overly exciting, but it does give you the ability to create a melody, right, because it's leading somewhere, as opposed to just playing all the notes.
• 8:27
  Steve: And what's really nice about this is, the more you explore this, you can start moving all over the place.
• 8:32
  Steve: So, for instance, if I now again, this would be harder if you're not visualizing or if you're not able to see me on screen right now, but like if I just started off in that pentatonic, in this position, or even diatonic.
• 8:45
  Steve: Okay, what I'm going to start doing here is visualizing the E chord in other places on the guitar.
• 8:57
  Steve: Now, when I say visualize, please understand that you're either seeing some sort of chord shape on your guitar or, if you learn how to play, visualizing all the notes on your fret board.
• 9:09
  Steve: Okay, you might be seeing the notes right.
• 9:11
  Steve: You might be visualizing, for instance, if I go to the seventh fret of the fifth string, that would be E, and then if I go to the sixth fret of the fourth string, that'd be G sharp, and then if I go to the fourth fret of the third string, that would be the B.
• 9:24
  Steve: That'd be your triad.
• 9:26
  Steve: And you might know those notes because you memorized all the notes on your guitar and you know your theory, or you might be visualizing it as something that you've memorized.
• 9:36
  Steve: Again, the cage system and arpeggio.
• 9:39
  Steve: You know something, whatever makes sense in your head, and there's lots of different ways to study this.
• 9:45
  Steve: Obviously, here at Guitar Zoom I have all kinds of videos and different ways of visualizing this stuff.
• 9:50
  Steve: But think about that.
• 9:51
  Steve: So if I came down here to the seventh fret and I played what we'll call the C shape sitting right there, Okay, and then I also have my pentatonic sitting there or my diatonic sitting there Right, I can play any of those things at any time.
• 10:18
  Steve: So now, if I take that position, think about that E chord being played I could play the scale, I could play the diatonic, but I could also start trying to separate a bit of that triad.
• 10:44
  Steve: So now what I'm doing is I'm visualizing that E major.
• 11:07
  Steve: Whichever scale I'm looking at, For me it's always a combination of both pentatonic and diatonic, but I'm visualizing that E chord now all across the fretboard.
• 11:39
  Steve: Okay.
• 12:11
  Steve: Now this is a great way to practice is you just pluck, for instance, the sixth string and then you just explore your way around trying to again, you could do a million things with this.
• 12:22
  Steve: I mean, you could just practice your scales doing this.
• 12:23
  Steve: But what our conversation is right now is I'm trying to elevate the notes that connect the scale to the chord that's being played, in this case the E major, and I'm trying to find a way of being able to direct myself a little bit more toward those notes.
• 12:40
  Steve: Okay, now, when you play like this, it doesn't mean that the only thing that you can play is the triad, right.
• 12:46
  Steve: It doesn't mean all you're playing is E, g, sharp and B the entire time.
• 12:50
  Steve: Of course, you can play other notes of the scale in any capacity that you want.
• 12:54
  Steve: That's the beauty of this is there's lots of really unique things that you can do that are still coming from the other notes of the scale.
• 13:01
  Steve: So, for instance, I could use the other notes of the scale to kind of push me around, right, or see I can go to something else, and then it pushes me back to a note that connects to, or a series of notes that connects to that chord and those other notes are obviously going to create some really beautiful sounds, as opposed to just playing the notes of the chord itself.
• 13:51
  Steve: Oftentimes, what happens is we can actually add notes into this visualization or this arpeggio that we're playing to change the tonality of the chord itself.
• 14:02
  Steve: So, for instance, if I was playing an E major chord, if I went here, I'm now playing the notes of what we would call an E major 7 chord.
• 14:17
  Steve: So, you see, I could really intentionally try and emphasize that note to give it more of this kind of sound, you see, and that might be really neat, see.
• 14:59
  Steve: So there's lots of things like that that I can do as well.
• 15:02
  Steve: Whether or not you're always aware of the theory isn't necessarily true.
• 15:10
  Steve: Sometimes you're using the sound of color and that can be very beneficial and it can work really great for you.
• 15:16
  Steve: The problem is is that, if you don't have an idea, again, I think what happens in understanding of what it is, I think what happens sometimes is that it all just starts blending together, and what we want to try and avoid is just that everything is everything.
• 15:31
  Steve: We just play everything all the time and everything is everything, and we play all the notes equal amounts, and the problem with that is is that oftentimes when we do that, nothing sounds like it stands out.
• 15:41
  Steve: So if we're emphasizing I always tell people, if we're emphasizing everything, we're really emphasizing nothing.
• 15:47
  Steve: If we're playing everything all the time and we're never really trying to find a way to create a system that emphasizes something, then nothing is being emphasized.
• 15:59
  Steve: So and let me take this a step further now for you, because now I'm going to start adding in some other chords so let's say we had a chord progression where we were moving from E to C sharp minor to B major to A major.
• 16:15
  Steve: So I'm just playing the notes within the the, the key of E major here.
• 16:20
  Steve: Okay, and it doesn't matter again, where, where on the fretboard you go to play these things.
• 16:30
  Steve: Because again, what I want to do is, I want to make these connections.
• 16:33
  Steve: If, if the C sharp minor is coming, where can I visualize that C sharp minor chord that still fits within the context of what I'm trying to visualize on my fretboard for a scale or a position?
• 16:45
  Steve: I know I just came off the E.
• 16:47
  Steve: So is the C sharp going to be in kind of the same position as the E?
• 16:51
  Steve: What?
• 16:52
  Steve: What do I know?
• 16:53
  Steve: And hopefully these questions are going to give you more insight in some things that you should study.
• 16:58
  Steve: Do I need to know more about the notes on my fret board?
• 17:01
  Steve: Do I need to know more about the scale positions pentatonic or diatonic?
• 17:05
  Steve: Do I need to study one or the other more?
• 17:07
  Steve: Do I need to visualize my uh cage system?
• 17:11
  Steve: Do I not visualize these chords on the guitar?
• 17:13
  Steve: And I need some help with that.
• 17:14
  Steve: So let me show you what I mean.
• 17:15
  Steve: So if I was taking a look, let's say I was playing an E chord.
• 17:19
  Steve: So again I'm going to go up to the uh G shape at the 12 fret, which means again I'm playing on the 6th string, 12 and then 11, then 9, 9, and then 9, and then, on that same string, I usually play a 12 and then a 12 on the 1st.
• 17:33
  Steve: So that's what I'm visualizing right there.
• 17:38
  Steve: So when I go to play, now Okay so there's my E.
• 17:53
  Steve: Now the C sharp minor is coming.
• 17:55
  Steve: Now I could visualize that C sharp minor up here right at the uh, the 9th fret of the 6th string.
• 18:04
  Steve: This is 6th string, bar chord.
• 18:05
  Steve: So now, as I move from the E, here comes that C sharp minor.
• 18:16
  Steve: I could do maybe a bend on the 2nd string, 12 fret there.
• 18:23
  Steve: Okay.
• 18:27
  Steve: But what I like to do is I'll visualize, for instance, a C sharp minor on the 5th string, at the 4th fret there, and I'll move down there.
• 18:34
  Steve: So if I was here doing E at the 12th fret I might drop down and then B comes up Again.
• 18:58
  Steve: I gotta be there too.
• 18:58
  Steve: See how I could move up in this direction, up higher on the fretboard as opposed to lower.
• 19:04
  Steve: None of us right or wrong.
• 19:07
  Steve: Then here comes A.
• 19:08
  Steve: So now I'm on the open position A.
• 19:10
  Steve: So I could move down there.
• 19:12
  Steve: But I could also visualize the A at the 6th string bar chord at the 5th fret.
• 19:22
  Steve: So what happens is you hope that in studying this sort of thing that the listener could kind of hear those chord changes happening Without you playing the chords, watch what happens.
• 19:42
  Steve: So if I played an E, see how all the chords are in there.
• 20:09
  Steve: Here's my E.
• 20:09
  Steve: Here comes C sharp minor back to the E, and I could do that all over the fretboard.
• 20:35
  Steve: Okay, there I was just kind of between the fourth and seventh frets, but I could do that anywhere.
• 20:39
  Steve: Here comes A and E.
• 21:32
  Steve: Now you could still fill around that with all the stuff that you'd like to normally do, and you don't have to do that much.
• 21:38
  Steve: I'm just trying to show you kind of how to outline these ideas, which is kind of an interesting thing to learn how to do.
• 21:44
  Steve: You might just take a couple of chords and just practice over and over and over, like, let's say, I took something different here, let's say I took F-sharp minor in E major, so I was just doing Now let's think about this, so we've got our F-sharp minor sitting there from our E major, so I had to think about something that connects to that F-sharp minor, you see, so you're just trying to visualize those a little bit differently, thinking about that.
• 23:19
  Steve: F-sharp minor being played.
• 23:20
  Steve: Now up here I'm in F-sharp minor, pentatonic, so that works really great.
• 23:29
  Steve: Or F-sharp natural minor, but again trying to target something of the F-sharp, so that makes sense, and then E, just back and forth like that.
• 24:11
  Steve: So there's lots of different ways that you can approach trying to work with something like this.
• 24:15
  Steve: So hopefully that helps you.
• 24:16
  Steve: I would highly suggest that you think about these things a little bit, try and figure out what works best for you and hopefully it gives you some insight into some other things that you should be working on as well to develop your playing.
• 24:28
  Steve: So take care, stay positive and I'll talk to you soon.