If you know the layout of the CAGED sequence and your basic major arpeggio shapes then this will be an exciting lesson for you. If you don’t know the CAGED sequence you can check it out in the lesson The CAGED Guitar Sequence. The basic idea of this lesson is to take the CAGED chord sequence and apply some basic major arpeggios to it. We have given you the diagrams of the arpeggios if you need them along with the TAB for each arpeggio so that you can see what picking patterns are being used. We will be in the key of G major for this lesson so all of the arpeggio shapes that we will be using will be G major arpeggios.
We will be starting on the E of the CAGED sequence so make a G bar chord with your bar on the 3rd fret using the E shape. Now look at E shaped G major arpeggio that goes along with this chord shape. Check out the TAB and try to play through the arpeggio. Keep an eye out for the sweep picking going on through these arpeggios. If you are not familiar with sweep picking check out the lesson Sweep Picking Basic Arpeggios.
The next arpeggio in the CAGED sequence is a D. This arpeggio is based off of the D shaped G major chord. Take a look at the D shaped arpeggio and try to play through the TAB for it.
The third arpeggio in the CAGED sequence is C. Look at the shape for this C shaped G major arpeggio and try to play through it by looking at the TAB. The lowest root note for this G major arpeggio is on the 10th fret of the 5th string.
Now try to play through the next arpeggio in the sequence. This is the G major arpeggio that is based off of the A shape. The lowest root note of this arpeggio is on the 10th fret of the 5th string again.
The last shape in the CAGED sequence is a G. Check out the G shaped G major arpeggio. Be sure to pay close attention to the picking indicators on the TAB. The lowest root note of this shape is on the 15th fret of the 6th string.
If you already know your how to use your CAGED sequence with chords then learning the material in this lesson will simply be a matter of applying that same knowledge to five different major arpeggio shapes. Take your time learning each shape and work through the picking for each one slowly.
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