Etudes


Shoebox in a Closet

Etude 3 - II-V-I in all 7 positions (CAGED+2)


Another etude I play every morning of my life. It takes four minutes. So far, I've provided 3 etudes that take up less than 10 minutes of my morning routine. These are arpeggios across all six strings in the following chord pattern:


   IMaj7 (descending) IIm7 V7

   IMaj7 (ascending) IIm7 V7

   I7 (To key: IV)














I ascend on each chord and descend on the next; three chords produce a reversal of direction for the second iteration. I then put a I7 at the end of the sequence to lead to the key of IV. I've played a total of 7 chords.


In repeating the figure, we logically begin by *ascending* to start the next sequence. We alternate the full mechanism in all (CAGED+2) forms; this is also a count of 7. Because this is also an odd number (7), It takes two full passes (14 iterations of the chord sequence) to complete all variations: Each chord (I, II, and V) both ascending and descending in all of 7 chord forms.


Many variations can be done in which the IMaj7 is replaced with a Maj9 or Maj6, the IIm7 is replaced with a m6, m9 or m7b5, and the dominants are replaced with 7b9, 7b9#5, 7b9b5, et al.