Implenting CAGED system for musical intervals on electric guitar

Electric guitar is a multifaceted instrument with varying functions in many contemporary music genres –albeit historically being developed from ancient string instruments. Furthermore, with the help of amplifiers and multiple effects devices, the electric guitar achieved rich timbre options, becoming one of the most popular instruments among young people since its widespread use in the 1950s. Despite these features, a rough survey of available electric guitar education styles show that they provide technical studies in general terms with examples of short musical sentences, aimed at performance. This style of education can create constraints in performing music with an electric guitar –an instrument, on the contrary, often employed in polyphonic, interactive and improvisational musical genres. This thesis suggests a holistic model, more comprehensive from the aspect of performance and having interaction between its stages of education. This model benefits from the concept of musical intervals as a unifying element –owing to the impact of the notion of intervals in music on aural cognition in the perception of the musical quality of sounds, and to its role in the creation of elements of musical theory, such as chords and scales, employed in performance. The goal of this study is to lay bare the details and the benefits of the process that entails, first pitch separation and their identification in the mind, and second, reflecting the identified pitch on the electric guitar keyboard using their respective equivalents in the CAGED system. For this purpose, the theoretical framework of this study first defines the concept of intervals in music and its historical development, and the concepts of consonants and dissonants that have evolved parallel to this development process, Then, this study explains the size and quality of the interval used in the practice stage of the interval, along with the concepts of scale and chord degrees, and presents all of the discussed concepts in a chart for a comparative representation. The chapters on hearing and pitch explains how the intervals between the pitches are differentiated and defined in the mindfrom the aspects of musical hearing process and education. Afterwards, this thesis delves into the role of intervals in the formation of scales and chords, they lay elements of music theory. And following a chapter that briefly examines the features of an electric guitar, this thesis explains the CAGED system. This thesis focuses on the CAGED system –a system based on the major chords C – A – G – E – D (CAGED). The chapter on the CAGED system thoroughly demonstrates how to use the system to divide one octave on an electric guitar fretboard into five different forms. All five forms work the same way and each form consists of chromatic scale chord degrees. This thesis provides examples of how elements of music theory, such as scales, chords and arpeggios, in different forms and consisting of unique chord degrees are placed into the relevant forms on fretboard diagrams, along with explanations on how they benefit electric guitar performance. Finally, this study provides its findings and suggestions for further studies. Keywords: Musical Intervals, Electric Guitar, CAGED System