Heptatonic versus CAGED fingerings

[MR J C GURR]

Having previously learned the five CAGED system fingerings, I have a couple of quick questions about the heptatonic fingerings:

1. What would you say are the main advantages of the seven heptatonic (extended CAGED) fingerings over the five basic CAGED fingerings?

2. Would you recommend learning each scale and arpeggio fingering in relation to a particular chord voicing? If so, do you have a resource which clearly, visually summarises these scale-chord voicing relationships?

[Richie]

The advantage of the heptatonic system is: 1) it adds 2 fingerings that are often left out in the conventional CAGED system, thus covering every fingering possibility available for any 7 note scale throughout the guitar’s fretboard. 2) It organizes the scales for easier visualization and relational categorization into practical cycles when playing horizontally or vertically on the fretboard.

Yes, I do recommend relating to the scales/ arpeggios that they generate. Keep in mind though, that there are many voicings generated from each of the 7 fingerings for each chord type. This is a subject to which we would have to devote a whole course and which I plan to do so in the future. However for now, I briefly touch on the subject in the Chord Studies that are available for voicings on strings 1,2 3, & 4. Furthermore, when looking at the PDF for each fingering pattern from the Scale & Arpeggio Fingerings book, in addition to the tab and notation, there is a fretboard diagram that shows the arpeggio in white circles. You can easily deduce what voicings or shapes are related to the pattern in question.

Here are the initial 3 fingerings that I introduce In relation to the CAGED system :
Pattern 1 generates an open E shape
Pattern 4 generates an open A shape
Pattern 5 generates an open B shape (although this is not part of the conventional CAGED)

Hope this is helpful….

[Author]

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