Acoustic Guitar Level 3
Acoustic guitar Level 3: the CAGED system, chord-melody arranging, alternate tunings and playing confidently across the whole neck.
- Subject
- Guitar
- Level
- Level 3
- Format
- 1-on-1, online
- Ages
- 8 and up
About the course
Level 3 takes a player who can hold down a song and turns them into someone who can arrange one. The centre of the course is the CAGED system — five movable shapes that let you find any chord, arpeggio or scale anywhere on the neck instead of living in the first four frets. Around it we build fingerstyle technique, alternate tunings, and the arranging skill of playing melody, bass and harmony at the same time.
By the end you will have at least one solo chord-melody arrangement you can perform unaccompanied, and the ability to take a song you have never played and build a part for it yourself. That independence is the point of the level: you should be able to learn from a recording, a lead sheet or your own ear, rather than waiting for someone to write it out for you.
What you’ll be able to do
- Locate any major, minor or seventh chord in all five CAGED shapes.
- Play the major scale and the minor pentatonic in five positions across the neck at 100bpm in eighth notes.
- Arrange a song for solo guitar with melody, bass and harmony sounding together.
- Fingerpick a Travis pattern with an independent alternating bass under a melody.
- Retune to drop D and DADGAD and play a piece in each without relying on tab.
- Harmonise a melody in thirds and in sixths.
- Transcribe the chord progression of a recorded song by ear.
- Perform a complete arrangement from memory without stopping to recover.
Curriculum
What’s covered
The full syllabus for Acoustic Guitar Level 3, in the order we teach it. Your teacher adjusts the pace to you, but nothing on this list gets skipped.
Rhythm & Reading
- Reading in position up the neck: fifth, seventh and ninth positions
- Chord-melody notation, with melody stems up and bass stems down
- Triplets, swung eighths and shuffle feel
- Cut time, and how it changes the feel of a strum
- Working from a lead sheet and building your own part from it
- Writing your arrangements out in notation software so they survive
Music Theory
- The CAGED system for major, minor and seventh chords
- Intervals on the fretboard, and why every shape repeats
- Chord construction: sixths, sevenths, ninths and add chords
- Slash chords and inversions in a bass line
- Modal interchange: borrowing the flat-seven and the minor four
- Secondary dominants, and where they appear in songs you already know
- Choosing a guitar-friendly key, and how alternate tunings change the shapes
Playing & Technique
- Travis picking with an alternating bass
- Chord melody: keeping the melody note on top and audible
- Percussive technique: bass thumps, body taps and string snaps
- Natural and artificial harmonics
- Extended and inverted barre voicings
- Drop D and DADGAD tunings, and playing a piece in each
- Left-hand stretches, pivots and economy of movement
- Dynamic control: thumb weight against finger weight
Ear Training
- Transcribing chord progressions from recordings
- Hearing inversions and slash chords in a bass line
- Recognising extended chord qualities: maj7, m7, dominant 7, m7 flat 5
- Melodic transcription across two octaves
- Working out the tuning and capo position used on a recording
Prerequisites
Before you start
Two things to check: where you are as a player, and what you need in the room.
Experience
Acoustic Guitar Level 2, or equivalent. Equivalent means you can play E-shape and A-shape barre chords cleanly anywhere on the neck, keep a sixteenth-note strumming pattern going through a chord change, fingerpick a steady thumb-and-fingers pattern, name the diatonic chords of a major key, and read both staff notation and tab. Play us anything in a demo class and we will tell you honestly whether Level 2 or Level 3 is the right entry point.
Equipment
An acoustic guitar in playable condition, a capo, picks and, if you prefer them, fingerpicks, a tuner, a stable internet connection and a webcam positioned to show both hands. If your guitar's action is high, a proper setup before the course begins will save you a great deal of effort in the fingerstyle and stretch work.
Pricing
What it costs
You buy class credits, not a subscription. Pick the bundle that suits you, book classes with your teacher, and use the credits within the validity period.
Starter
24 Classes
3-month plan · valid for 4 months
$33
per class
Total
$792
for all 24 classes, in USD
Popular
48 Classes
6-month plan · valid for 8 months
$32.50
per class
You save $0.50 on every class
Total
$1,560
for all 48 classes, in USD
Best Value
96 Classes
12-month plan · valid for 15 months
$32
per class
You save $1 on every class
Total
$3,072
for all 96 classes, in USD
Prices are shown in USD for United States. Ask on the demo call if you need them in another currency.
Pricing depends on the number of credits you purchase. Higher bundles = lower per-class rate.
Every class is 1-on-1 with your teacher, and you schedule them together at times that suit you. Credits are used one per class and stay valid for the period shown on the plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the CAGED system, and why is a whole level built around it?
Will this level prepare me for a graded exam?
Do I need long fingernails or fingerpicks for the fingerstyle work?
How long before I can play a full solo arrangement?
More guitar courses
- Level 1
Guitar Level 1
Where every guitarist starts: technique, chords and reading music. No experience needed.
- Level 2
Acoustic Guitar Level 2
Barre chords, fingerstyle patterns and playing cleanly through full songs.
- Customized
Guitar Customized
Bring your own songs and goals; we build the route to them.
🎁 Free · 30 minutes · 1-on-1
Try Acoustic Guitar Level 3 free for one class.
Meet the teacher, play something on day one, and get an honest recommendation on where to start. If it isn't a fit, you've lost nothing but half an hour.