Hacking the CAGED System: Book 2

By Graham Tippett

This is where the CAGED system stops working, and this book says so on page one.

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

So Book Two keeps the four hacked patterns from Book One and drops the rest of the method. Same tools, harder material.

What you'll learnWhere the CAGED system runs out, and exactly why it doesNinth chords, sixth chords and 6add9 across all four patternsSus2, sus4 and 7sus4 guitar chords, and how to move between them rather than park on themOpen position for the major scaleThe melodic minor scale on guitar - patterns, arpeggios and all seven modesThe altered scale, Lydian dominant, Aeolian b5, Lydian augmented, Mixolydian b6 and Dorian b2When to actually use each mode. Altered over a dominant chord that's resolving. Lydian dominant over one that's staying put. Aeolian b5 over m7b5. This is the chapter most melodic minor resources leave out, and it's the difference between knowing the scales and using themA melodic minor jam progression to play overA 30-day practice plan for material that takes longer than 30 daysNew in the 2026 revised edition

Three new chapters: the honest account of where the CAGED system breaks down, a full guide to which chord situation calls for each melodic minor mode, and a 30-day practice plan. Fully updated throughout.

Who this book is for

Guitarists moving past the major scale into extended chords and jazz harmony - altered dominants, half-diminished chords, minor-major sevenths - who want the fretboard organised rather than memorised.

You'll want Book One first, or its equivalent: the four patterns, diatonic chords, and intervals. This book is technically stand-alone, but you'll be working uphill without them.

Book Two of the Hacking the CAGED System series. Book One covers the four hacked patterns, diatonic chords and the major scale modes. Diatonic Harmony maps an entire key from a single master pattern.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1519022069
• ISBN13: 9781519022066
• Release Date: October 2016
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 58 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.0" x 10.0"