Hacking the CAGED System

This is where the CAGED system stops working, and I say so on page one.

Push it past the major scale and three things break. The chord shapes it generates need a hand you don’t have. The patterns turn irregular enough to wreck any consistent picking. And the shape names stop telling you anything useful about what the chord is doing.

So Book Two keeps the four patterns from Book One and drops the rest of the method. You use the same tools on harder material.

What’s in it:
Where the CAGED system runs out, and exactly why. Ninth chords, sixths and 6add9 across all four patterns. Sus2, sus4 and 7sus4, and how to move between them rather than park on them. Open position for the major scale. The melodic minor scale, with its patterns, arpeggios and all seven modes. Then the chapter most melodic minor resources leave out, on when to actually use each mode: altered over a dominant that’s resolving, Lydian dominant over one that’s staying put, Aeolian b5 over m7b5. A melodic minor jam progression to play over, and a 30-day plan for material that takes longer than 30 days.

Revised 2026 edition: three new chapters and a full update throughout.

Who it’s for: guitarists moving past the major scale into extended chords and jazz harmony. You’ll want Book One first, or its equivalent: the four patterns, diatonic chords and intervals. If altered dominants and mMaj7 chords aren’t anywhere near the music you play yet, start with Book One.

Book Two of the Hacking the CAGED System series.