From bluegrass to swing and everything in between, True Fire’s “CAGED Dominant” is a boon for budding guitarists and consummate amateurs.

Legendary guitarist and teacher instructor Brad Carlton guides students through CAGED’s five movable guitar positions, continually relating them to the dominant seventh chord, the main harmonic base of blues, jazz, and rock music. For those readers allergic to music theory: the dominant seventh chord is built from the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the major scale.

Does your head still hurt? Yes, mine as well. Fortunately, that’s all the boring music theory needed to master the two hours of instructional material featured on “CAGED Dominant.”

The lessons are simple and easy to digest. After matching the five moving chord shapes with their corresponding arpeggio patterns, Carlton demonstrates a wide range of melodic patterns for solos and some basic chromatic movements like b3 to 3 and b7 to 1, both classics of the sound of jazz and blues music. .

This is where the course really heats up.

Carlton then blows some killer solos over the more common chord progressions found in popular music and jazz, such as C7 – F7 (I – IV), C7 – B7 (I – bVII), and C7 – Eb 7 (substitution I -bIII).

Finally, Carlton opens the curtains and reveals the true inspirational power of the CAGED moving chord system, which unites block chords and arpeggios with major and minor pentatonics and also with the mixolydian mode.

But don’t let all those geek-scale names scare you off. Actually, these concepts are pretty easy to understand. After the first few minutes of studying, I was playing bebop solos so hot my fingers were dripping chicken fat.

Unfortunately, the best asset of “CAGED Dominant” is also its biggest drawback: it focuses on the dominant chord to the exclusion of everything else, so those students hoping to improve their improvisational skills on major, minor, or diminished chords will look better. elsewhere.

In the end, “CAGED Dominant” is the perfect learning tool for both accomplished musicians and aspiring musicians. Additionally, the software package includes guitar tablature, slow motion, looping, and hours of improv tracks to apply your new skills.

Available at 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.