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Guitar Lab: Diminished Moves Vol. 1

An Intensive Examination of Musical Applications of the Diminished 7th Chord

Marty FriedmanTommy EmmanuelSteve VaiEric GalesEric Johnson

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Guitar Lab: Diminished Moves Vol. 1
Brad Carlton

Brad Carlton

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multi genre

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About this course

Welcome to Guitar Lab: Diminished Moves Vol. 1. This course will guide you through the various applications of the diminished 7th chord. This will be accomplished by viewing the resolving tendencies of this equal interval harmony. You'll learn chord voicings that allow for efficient voice leading as well as logical fretting hand fingerings. Grab your guitar, and let's get to it!

What you'll learn

  • Master the theory and diagrams for diminished seventh chord application
  • Apply diminished 7th voicings in chord melody contexts
  • Apply diminished seventh chords in bluesy contexts
  • Execute cross-finger techniques for voice leading flexibility
  • Visualize diminished 7th structures across the entire fretboard using diagram patterns
Release date: 05/02/2018 • 1h 30m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateguitarelectric guitartechniqueapplied theoryreference
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Sample lessons
The Diminished 7th Chord Pt. 1
The Diminished 7th Chord Pt. 1
Analysis
The Diminished 7th Chord Pt. 2
The Diminished 7th Chord Pt. 2
Voicings

What's included

12 lessons • 11 charts

Guitar Lab: Diminished Moves Vol. 1
Hi, I'm Brad Carlton and welcome to Guitar Lab: Diminished Moves Vol. 1. This course will guide you through the various applications of the diminished 7th chord. This will be accomplished by viewing the resolving tendancies of this equal interval harmony. You'll learn chord voicings that allow for efficient voice leading as well as logical fretting hand fingerings. Grab your guitar, and let's get to it!
The Diminished 7th Chord Pt. 1
The diminished 7th chord is an equal interval structure consisting of four notes spaced evenly in the chromatic scale by minor third intervals. A minor third is three half-steps (frets). One octave consists of 12 half-steps, so 12 divided by 3 equals 4. This equal interval construction gives the diminished 7th chord it's lack of harmonic stability. This course examines the various resolving tendancies for the dim 7 chord.
The Diminished 7th Chord Pt. 2
An effective way to visualize chord voicings on the fingerboard is to see the arpeggios in terms of letter names and their associated scale degree numbers. It then becomes quite simple to construct chord voicings based on the number of voices required for the desired musical effect.
Dim 7 to (Dom) 7 Moves Pt. 1
Our first examination of the resolving tendancies of the dim 7 chord is it's link to a (dom) 7 chord. This is readily apparent as three of the four voices simply move up one half-step. The root is the common tone. This lesson uses the 3rd inversion (dom) 7 chord as the harmonic target. This allows for the 1st voice to be the root.
Dim 7 to (Dom) 7 Moves Pt. 2
Our next dim 7 to (dom) 7 link uses the root position (dom) 7 chord as the harmonic target. This allows for the root to be the 4th voice.
Dim 7 to (Dom) 7 Moves Pt. 3
Our next dim 7 to (dom) 7 link uses the first inversion (dom) 7 chord as the harmonic target. This allows for the root to be the 2nd voice.
Dim 7 to (Dom) 7 Moves Pt. 4
Our final dim 7 to (dom) 7 link uses the second inversion (dom) 7 chord as the harmonic target. This allows for the root to be the 3rd voice.

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Reviews

5 results

pvickers

Verified buyer

04/20/25

Outstanding course on applying diminished concepts

The two volumes of this course are truly outstanding. It is one thing to know how to play a diminished 7 chord, but Brad will show you over the two volumes of this course how to really integrate it into your playing and understand it thoroughly. As usual for Brad, he will demonstrate the concept, share his knowledge by explaining the theory so will understand it and then give you the skills to apply it.

ethereal7

Verified buyer

11/02/24

Good!

gear1152

08/29/20

Take a dip into some exotic sounds

Another Brad Carlton course with a direct and organized layout. In this course, Brad lays out the structure of the diminished chords all over the neck highlighting their symmetrical nature. He gives useful exercises and moves that you can apply to your playing and improve. Sometimes the chart he refers to seems to be mis-numbered, but it’s easy to find your place nonetheless. If you stuck in a rut with basic chords and want to add some exotic flavor to your songs, this is a good place start.

ledhed

Verified buyer

10/30/19

Guitar Lab: Diminished Moves Vol. 1

This course is pretty awesome, as are all of Mr. Carlton's courses. Brad unravels and demystifies the diminished chord and scale. He has a way of making learning fun, interesting and very informative

nigge99

Verified buyer

06/02/19

I like it more ...

than Vol 2 - good basic knowledge of diminished chord / harmony and some interesting applications ... for me - not much infos on diminished scales

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