A lot of guitarists use something called the Cage System to, somewhat ironically, unlock the

fret board and make it easier to get around.

It's named for the five common chord shapes, C-A-G-E-D D and it really is helpful for learning the instrument.

Welcome to Strong Songs, a Podcast About Music. I'm your host Kirk Hamilton and I'm so glad

that you've joined me to talk about music played in the C position, music played in the A position, and music played in the G, the E, and the D positions too.

Strong Songs is an entirely listener supported podcast which means it's free of the cage of corporate ownership, sponsor influence, obligatory ad reads, or anything else

that would get in between me, you, and the music. If you'd like to chip in and help me make this show,

go to Patreon.com. Strong Songs. On this episode, it's time for another edition of Strong Solas, this time focusing

on four guitar solas from four different eras of the guitar, each of which I've transcribed and each of which has taught me a

ton about how the guitar works. So let's tune it up, let's plug it in, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, The electric guitar is perhaps the musical instrument that has most defined the sound of modern American music.

I say perhaps there are other important instruments as well.

The piano, synthesizer, and NPC sampleer come to mind, but the impact of the electric guitar is certainly outsized.

As a saxophonous, I have always found the guitar fascinating, and while I've played for a long time,

I taught myself to play in the early 2000s. I've only been taking

guitar lessons seriously for the last year and a half and the more I improve on the

instrument the more I've come to understand that it is an instrument of

contradictions.

It's one where you can play so many notes in so many different ways,

but also an instrument with a lot of maddening limitations.

Six strings tuned in fourths across 22 frets is a very specific equation.

Navigating the guitar fretboard is a bit like navigating a mirror maze, where each room is reflected

somewhere else on the fretboard, possibly multiple other places each time slightly different.

...