If you've been a member of the site for a while, you might have noticed that we launched a new version of CAGED Learning Pathway.
In December 2023, we relaunched CAGED Learning Pathway to create an even better learning experience with a new lesson approach and additional performance pieces.
We looked through all of our members' comments – both positive and negative – then re-filmed and updated the program to be even better.
What's new:
Updated lesson structure to give "lightbulb" moments sooner
Improved pacing in the final grades
New performance pieces with a live band
Interactive workouts for each grade
We're also releasing a sequel in 2024: CAGED II. This course will prepare you for it.
Who should take the "new" CAGED Learning Pathway?
If you didn't know there was an old or new CAGED pathway, don't worry about this. You can jump right in!
If you've already taken the full original CAGED Learning Pathway, you probably don't need to jump back into the remastered version from the start.
Take this pathway from the start if you meet any of the following criteria:
You're new to the CAGED system
You've never taken CAGED pathway before
You started CAGED pathway in the past but didn't make it past Grade 3
If you've completed up through Grade 4 of CAGED...
There won't be a ton of stuff that's new.
However, you'll certainly benefit from Grades 5 and 6.
Grade 5 is all about making CAGED sound musical.
Grade 6 covers major triads in a way that you might not have seen before.
You're always welcome to browse through the earlier lessons to brush up on stuff you've already learned. There are CAGED workouts at the end of every grade in the performance piece section.
Going deeper:
Mainly, we revamped CAGED Learning Pathway to take a gentler, music-first approach in the early grades. Aside from loads of new backing tracks and performance pieces to jam with. Here's how the new grades stack up:
Grade 1 – We have you focus on visualizing (not fretting) and making music with two CAGED shapes so you can start making music right away.
Grade 2 – You'll build out your CAGED foundation with the remaining three CAGED shapes.
Grade 3 – Before, you focused on the pentatonic scale here. You'll have already done that in the new pathway, so we'll focus on switching keys here.
Grade 4 – Previously, this was a two-part section on the major scale that got into the weeds of soloing across two key centers. We've distilled this into a compact grade on the major scale that's more manageable and fun.
Grade 5 – Previously, we explored minor CAGED shapes here. However, all the CAGED knowledge in the world won't do you much good if you can't make it sing. In this new Grade 5, we put the focus on making music.
Grade 6 – Dive into major triads. This was a highly-requested topic and will cover some info that wasn't in the original CAGED pathway.
What's up with CAGED II?
CAGED II is still on the way! You can expect a deeper exploration of triads and minor sounds plus a ton of other in-depth CAGED lessons.
Finally, don't forget that we have some excellent CAGED Master Classes for further exploration:
If you have any questions about what to work on, just shoot us a message using the chat pop-up in the bottom right corner of your screen.