From bluegrass to swing and everything in between, True Fire’s “CAGED Dominant” is a godsend for budding guitarists and accomplished aficionados alike.
Legendary guitarist and teacher instructor Brad Carlton guides students through the five movable CAGED positions on the guitar, continually relating them to the dominant seventh chord, the primary harmonic foundation of blues, jazz, and rock music. For those readers allergic to music theory: The dominant seventh chord is built from notes 1, 3, 5, and 7 of the major scale.
Do you have a headache already? Yes, mine as well. Fortunately, that’s all the boring music theory needed to master the two hours of teaching material featured in “CAGED Dominant.”
The lessons are simple and easy to digest. After relating the five movable chord shapes to their corresponding arpeggio patterns, Carlton demonstrates a wide range of melodic patterns for soloing and some basic chromatic movements such as b3 a 3 and b7 a 1, both classic staples of the jazz music sound. and blues.
This is where the course really heats up.
Carlton then plays some impressive solos over the most common chord progressions found in popular music and jazz, such as C7 – F7 (I – IV), C7 – B7 (I – bVII), and C7 – Eb 7 (substitution from I-bIII).
Finally, Carlton pulls back the curtains and reveals the true inspirational power of the CAGED movable chord system, linking block chords and arpeggios to major and minor pentatonics as well as mixolydian mode.
But don’t let all those geeky scale names scare you off. These concepts are actually quite simple to understand. After the first few minutes of study, I was playing bebop solos so hot my fingers were dripping with chicken grease.
Unfortunately, “CAGED Dominant”‘s best asset is also its biggest drawback: It focuses on the dominant chord to the exclusion of everything else, so students hoping to improve their improvisational skills on major, minor, or diminished chords should look elsewhere. part.
In the end, “CAGED Dominant” is the perfect learning tool for both accomplished and aspiring musicians. Plus, the software suite includes guitar tabbing, slow motion, loops, and hours of jam tracks to apply your new skills.
Available on Truefire.com for Mac and PC users and priced at $29 for an instant download or $39 for a DATA-DVD, I give “CAGED Dominant” five out of five perfect guitar picks.