brumcast
07/15/26
Making CAGED make sense.
I was always pretty scared by CAGED. It seemed a massive mountain to climb. I can't quite believe I now get it. Great course, really demystifies CAGED. Highly recommended.
Guitar Zen: CAGED
Unleash CAGED to Power Your Rhythm, Fills and Improvised Solos
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Eric Haugen
Educator
Genres
About this course
Practicing and playing are two distinct states of mind. When we practice, we’re patient, repetitive and intentional, so that when we play, our creativity can flow freely, mindfully, and tastefully. The key is finding a framework that bridges those two states of mind.
Eric Haugen’s Guitar Zen presents you with an ideal framework to bridge practice and play. The CAGED system clearly maps chord shapes and chord tones, all over the fretboard, to intuitively guide your rhythm playing, fills, and improvised solos, in any key.
Eric Haugen is an accomplished guitarist and highly acclaimed educator who emphasizes composition, subtlety, and tone, and his detailed transcriptions. His published guitar lessons showcase not only classic guitar heroes but also many important players who are often overlooked. We’re thrilled to welcome Eric to the family with his first TrueFire course, the CAGED edition of Guitar Zen.
”In this edition, we’ll explore the 5 CAGED shapes, in both major and minor tonalities, along with the Pentatonic scales that correlate to them. We’ll start In open position, and work our way up the entire fretboard. I’ll demonstrate how to practice them effectively -- I’ll also show you how to play them creatively and tastefully.”
For each of the seven sections in the course, you’ll explore new CAGED approaches, over a series of play-along backing tracks. Eric starts you off with applications that focus on a particular CAGED shape, and then gradually advances to being able to play over simple 2 and 3 chord progressions.
"I’ll share a variety of patterns to use with the CAGED shapes to craft rhythmic grooves, on the fly, in any key, up and down the neck. I’ll also show you how to easily find and play a variety of double-stops inside the pentatonic CAGED framework.
My intention with this course is to keep everything very airy and loose - not difficult to play, so you can rewire your brain to bring musical ideas to life on the fretboard rather than chasing your fingers around hot licks or scales.”
Eric will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson.
You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are also included to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and let’s get zen with Eric Haugen!
Eric Haugen’s Guitar Zen presents you with an ideal framework to bridge practice and play. The CAGED system clearly maps chord shapes and chord tones, all over the fretboard, to intuitively guide your rhythm playing, fills, and improvised solos, in any key.
Eric Haugen is an accomplished guitarist and highly acclaimed educator who emphasizes composition, subtlety, and tone, and his detailed transcriptions. His published guitar lessons showcase not only classic guitar heroes but also many important players who are often overlooked. We’re thrilled to welcome Eric to the family with his first TrueFire course, the CAGED edition of Guitar Zen.
”In this edition, we’ll explore the 5 CAGED shapes, in both major and minor tonalities, along with the Pentatonic scales that correlate to them. We’ll start In open position, and work our way up the entire fretboard. I’ll demonstrate how to practice them effectively -- I’ll also show you how to play them creatively and tastefully.”
For each of the seven sections in the course, you’ll explore new CAGED approaches, over a series of play-along backing tracks. Eric starts you off with applications that focus on a particular CAGED shape, and then gradually advances to being able to play over simple 2 and 3 chord progressions.
"I’ll share a variety of patterns to use with the CAGED shapes to craft rhythmic grooves, on the fly, in any key, up and down the neck. I’ll also show you how to easily find and play a variety of double-stops inside the pentatonic CAGED framework.
My intention with this course is to keep everything very airy and loose - not difficult to play, so you can rewire your brain to bring musical ideas to life on the fretboard rather than chasing your fingers around hot licks or scales.”
Eric will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson.
You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are also included to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and let’s get zen with Eric Haugen!
What you'll learn
- Navigate the fretboard using minor CAGED shapes
- Apply hammered double stops within a 6/8 groove context
- Integrate rhythm, harmony, and melody concepts in practice
- Maintain relaxed hand position while performing complex hammer-on techniques
- Connect minor chord shapes with minor pentatonic scales
Release date: 02/24/2022 • 3h 52m runtime
Sample lessons
C Major Pentatonic: Open Position
Demonstration
A Minor Pentatonic: Open Position
Demonstration
E Minor Pentatonic: Open Position
Demonstration
Section 1 Solo Study
Performance
What's included
50 lessons • 34 charts • 29 Jam Tracks
Guitar Zen: CAGED
Hey, I’m Eric Haugen. Welcome to this CAGED edition of Guitar Zen!
Practicing and playing are two distinct states of mind. When we practice, we’re patient, repetitive and intentional, so that when we play, our creativity can flow freely, mindfully, and tastefully. The key is finding the bridge between those two states.
The CAGED system is the ideal framework for guitarists in particular. Whether you're playing rhythm or improvising solos and fills, CAGED maps chord shapes and chord tones all over the fretboard, in any key.
In this edition, we’ll explore the 5 CAGED shapes, in both major and minor tonalities, along with the Pentatonic scales that correlate to them. We’ll start In open position, and work our way up the entire fretboard. I’ll demonstrate how to practice them effectively. I’ll also show you how to play with them creatively and tastefully.
For each of the seven sections in the course, we’ll explore new CAGED approaches over a series of play-along backing tracks. We’ll start with applications that focus on a particular CAGED shape, and then gradually advance to playing over simple 2 and 3 chord progressions. You’ll also have all of TrueFire’s learning tools at every step of the way, so you can learn at your own pace.
I’ll share a variety of patterns to use with the CAGED shapes to craft rhythmic grooves, on the fly, in any key, up and down the neck. I’ll also show you how to easily find and play a variety of double-stops inside the pentatonic CAGED framework.
You’ll notice my intention here is for everything to be very airy and loose - not difficult to play, so you can rewire your brain to bring musical ideas to life on the fretboard rather than chasing your fingers around hot licks or scales.
Are you ready to get started? Pick up your guitar, take a breath, and let’s begin.
Practicing and playing are two distinct states of mind. When we practice, we’re patient, repetitive and intentional, so that when we play, our creativity can flow freely, mindfully, and tastefully. The key is finding the bridge between those two states.
The CAGED system is the ideal framework for guitarists in particular. Whether you're playing rhythm or improvising solos and fills, CAGED maps chord shapes and chord tones all over the fretboard, in any key.
In this edition, we’ll explore the 5 CAGED shapes, in both major and minor tonalities, along with the Pentatonic scales that correlate to them. We’ll start In open position, and work our way up the entire fretboard. I’ll demonstrate how to practice them effectively. I’ll also show you how to play with them creatively and tastefully.
For each of the seven sections in the course, we’ll explore new CAGED approaches over a series of play-along backing tracks. We’ll start with applications that focus on a particular CAGED shape, and then gradually advance to playing over simple 2 and 3 chord progressions. You’ll also have all of TrueFire’s learning tools at every step of the way, so you can learn at your own pace.
I’ll share a variety of patterns to use with the CAGED shapes to craft rhythmic grooves, on the fly, in any key, up and down the neck. I’ll also show you how to easily find and play a variety of double-stops inside the pentatonic CAGED framework.
You’ll notice my intention here is for everything to be very airy and loose - not difficult to play, so you can rewire your brain to bring musical ideas to life on the fretboard rather than chasing your fingers around hot licks or scales.
Are you ready to get started? Pick up your guitar, take a breath, and let’s begin.
Section 1: CAGED in the Open Position
We sometimes mistakenly associate the open postion with "beginner" playing. However, if we really want to know the fretboard, we should make sure that anything we do up high we can do down low.
C Major Pentatonic: Open Position
How to see the connection between the C major chord and the C major pentatonic in the open position. Also, how to GROOVE on this connection so that it becomes internalized.
A Minor Pentatonic: Open Position
How to see the connection between the A minor chord and the A minor pentatonic in the open position. Also, how to GROOVE on this connection so that it becomes internalized.
G Major Pentatonic: Open Position
How to see the connection between the G major chord and the G major pentatonic in the open position. Also, how to GROOVE on this connection so that it becomes internalized.
E Minor Pentatonic: Open Position
How to see the connection between the E minor chord and the E minor pentatonic in the open position. Also, how to GROOVE on this connection so that it becomes internalized.
D Minor Pentatonic: Open Position
How to see the connection between the D minor chord and the D minor pentatonic in the open position. Also, how to GROOVE on this connection so that it becomes internalized.
+ 43 more lessons
Reviews
159 results
Pretzelogic
Verified buyer
06/24/26
The course is great. And Eric Haugen is a fantastic teatcher.
AlphaBetaTheta
Verified buyer
06/06/26
Excellent Course
Excellent philosophy, delivery, pacing.
SimoneC98
Verified buyer
05/25/26
A Really nice teacher!
He is really good for my style of learning, i'm not a beginner, i would say i'm an intermediate player (self - learned until now), after watching a lot of his videos on youtube i decided to buy one of his courses, and this is really really good quality content!
Spiegelkind
05/19/26
Always something new to learn, even if it's just taking it easy and pull the tempo back, man
This is a simple direct way to think about chord changes and actually learning to map the neck out for improvisation using CAGED. It’s straightforward and not very deep, but it’s a solid starting point. Understanding music really means looking at harmony, rhythm, and melody together, so I appreciate Eric’s method. Great course with something for all playing levels.
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