How Under The Bridge can help us understand CAGED

One of the most common questions I get from intermediate players who are just starting down their CAGED journey is "why do I need to learn the CAGED system, what's so special about it?". It's a great question, and one that has to be asked as an intermediate student. When we're dealing with the major and minor chords in CAGED, you could argue that a barre chord or two is enough to play any song.

Well, yes, that's kind of true. A barre chord is enough to play the basic framework of any tune, but the beauty of the system is what it gives you on top of that core chord shape.

So, let's use the verse from Under The Bridge as a study guide to help us understand what the CAGED system is all about. So, when you're ready, let's dive into the world of John Frusciante and his CAGED genius!

Let's talk chord shapes

In the CAGED system we have 5 different shapes (or positions) that you can use. These are defined by the C shape, A shape, G shape, E shape and D shape. That's a lot of shapes, especially when you start thinking about major AND minor. That's a total of 10 chord shapes to learn, and learn in great detail!

So, for that reason, I do suggest thinking of this as a process of learning one shape at a time, but learning it really well! Under The Bridge is a great example of this, as Frusciante clearly favours the E and A shape chords here. So, the chord shapes we need are: E major, B major, C# minor, A major. They will look like this:

Now, let's get to the good stuff! Within these 4 chords, we have three different chord shapes (CAGED chord shapes, if you will…), an A shape (E major) an E shape (B major and A major) and an Em shape (C#m), and for the purpose of this post, we'll be working exclusively with the E and Em shapes.

Let's talk pentatonics…

With both of these CAGED shapes, we can align a pentatonic box. You may be asking, by why? Why can I align a pentatonic box? Whhhhyyy?! Good question, if not a bit dramatic…

The answer is easier to explain when you look at these diagrams:

As you can see, the actual notes of the chords are also in the pentatonic box notes, thus they work beautifully together. On a deeper level, if you just took each chord as it's own tonal centre, we can simply say that the B major chord should be paired with scale tones built from the B major scale. Simple, right? By using this technique, as you move the chord shape, you move the scale shape with it and that guarantees you'll always match the chord tones with the scale tones!

So, as you play through the specific licks that John Frusciante plays in the verse of Under The Bridge (which I walk through in the video above) I want you to play close attention to the chord and pentatonic shape he is using. Notice how when he hits the E shape chords he'll use a flick from the pentatonic box 2, or when he hits the Em shape chord he'll use a lick based around the notes of the pentatonic box 1.

These licks and ideas are completely transposable in the same chord shapes. So the licks you play on B major (E shape) chord, can be identical to the A major (E shape) chord.

A word on Suspended chords…

Another point that would be foolish to not bring up is the usage of suspended chords in this style of playing too. A suspended chord is the chord that removes the 3rd from the chord, and replaces it with either the 2nd degree or the 4th degree of the scale. Let's use the B major chord in this track as an example of this. Here is the chord and the sus4 that is often used with it:

The 4th degree is not in the pentatonic boxes as we spoke about earlier, but it is a perfectly valid note to use as it's in the major scale instead. These sus chords are tried and tested, and are also completely transposable, just as the licks are!

In conclusion

If you're in the CAGED part of your guitar journey, this is a brilliant song to use as a practice piece. Hopefully my little breakdown has helped shine a little bit of a light on the CAGED quest, but the most important thing to remember is to take one CAGED shape at a time, and really work with that until you have a good base of licks and ideas that you can use and have practice over various songs, jams and backing tracks. Under The Bridge gives us a selection of very cool licks, based around those E and Em shapes, so it would be a great idea to get those licks used over other tracks, before moving onto anything else! Good luck, and speak soon.