I had a revelation recently I’ve been practicing all the caged shapes with corresponding major,pentatonic scale and arpegios . And i saw somewhere that the 5 position system is referred to as “playing in postion”, this made complete sense to me as I can see how each caged position , with the corresponding chords, scales and arpegios falls nicely below the fingers without having to shift the hand hardly of at all . I can see how this 5 position caged system actually improved the technique and facility of playing the guitar.
I’ve also heard of “ broken position”, I think this was in the context of 7 position scale system .
So my question is , is it really neccacery to learn the 7 position scale system if one already has mastered all scales ,arpegios and chords “playing in position “ in 5 position caged system ???
I seem to recall reading somewhere that the 7 scale position is good for shredding because the scale patterns are 3 notes per string , I’m not a shredder or do I know the 7 scale system.
But seeing the 5 position system the way you can play every chord,scale and arpegio under the fingers and then shift to another position really made me realise the beauty of playing in position , I can even notice it on advanced players when I see them soling over the fretboard I can see how the notes ,scales,chords a and arpegios just fall under their fingers effortlessly .
Personally for me the caged forms are one of the best things about guitar , dividing the fretboard up into 5 chunks, and at each chunk there’s various scales,chords and arpegios and the triads within the forms . It feels as though it brings everything together
I would love to hear any insights on “playing in position vs playing broken position “
Sorry about the long winded question but I really feel like I stumbled onto something Here , like I found some traditional elegant way of playing the guitar using the given positions of the caged system
Thank you for great topic!
Basically you need to know Major scale in 4 position.
1) 6th string root: G form & E form
2) 5th string root C form & A form
Those are on Modern Method Book Volume One.
then you can make a small form within one octave and mix positions.
This choice is more personal choice and personal preference on TONE.
So I can see as
1) In Position (4 shapes)
2) Small positions
3) One String Approach.
And I mix them all.
I can play 3 notes per string. i have learned those but I try to forget those shapes!
Hope these ideas are helping you.
Thanks for your great question!
Tomo