westcoast1
Verified buyer
12/15/25
Good add to my collection and studies
I am really enjoying this course.
Solo Revolution: Diminished Lines
Masterclass for Diminished Scale Soloing Approaches on Guitar
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About this course
You hear a whole lot of minor and major pentatonic lines in the blues. You’ll hear those pentatonic lines spiced up with a flatted fifth or a little chromaticism and it sounds great, and that’s how we all learn to play the blues. Then all of a sudden a player comes along and cranks up the spice with lines crafted from altered or diminished scales and your ears perk immediately to attention. What was that?! How do you do that?!
That was likely Robben Ford playing the blues, or one of his fellow blues masters similarly inspired by harmonic approaches, chord voicings, and scale applications usually associated with jazz.
How Robben incorporates diminished lines in his solos is the topic of discussion in countless articles and workshops. Yet, as much as it's discussed and analyzed by others, the answer remains somewhat elusive. That’s why Robben wanted to focus on this one topic here in the Diminished Lines edition of his Solo Revolution series.
”The diminished scale, for me, has always had a direct correlation to the blues. it's both major and minor, which is very characteristic of the blues. The use of the flatted fifth and the emotional intensity of the diminished scale sounds like the blues to me. I’ve prepared 17 concept lessons and 8 soloing performance studies to illustrate how I use diminished lines in the blues.”
Robben starts the course by examining how the diminished scale is constructed and the importance of learning how to hear it. He’ll show you how to use the diminished chord to move from the I chord to the IV chord, as well as from the V chord to the I chord. You’ll learn why and how Robben begins his phrases on the upbeat of one. Robben shows you a few of his melodic patterns and a few of his diminished licks and an interesting way to use open strings with the diminished scale.
The concept lessons include: The Diminished Scale, Altered Scales, Minor Third Devices, Wrap Your Ear Around It, A Statement In Itself, Four V to I Chord Lines, The Altered Five & Home, I to IV Diminished Lines, Finding Wilder Voicings, Incorporating Open Strings, Melodic Minor Magic Licks & Lines, Sahara Moon Chords, and Mixing Scales & Sounds
Robben also guides you through 8 soloing performance studies, which draw on the diminished lines concepts, techniques, and creative approaches that he uses in his own improvisations: Blues Shufflin' in A, Straight Up Blues in A, Slow G Shuffle: 1, Slow G Shuffle: 2, Uptempo C Swingin' Shuffle, Latin E Groove, Minor Blues in A, and Sahara Moon Changes.
All of the performance studies are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, Robben includes all of the backing tracks for you to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and let’s sprinkle some of that diminished spice on our blues lines with Robben Ford!
That was likely Robben Ford playing the blues, or one of his fellow blues masters similarly inspired by harmonic approaches, chord voicings, and scale applications usually associated with jazz.
How Robben incorporates diminished lines in his solos is the topic of discussion in countless articles and workshops. Yet, as much as it's discussed and analyzed by others, the answer remains somewhat elusive. That’s why Robben wanted to focus on this one topic here in the Diminished Lines edition of his Solo Revolution series.
”The diminished scale, for me, has always had a direct correlation to the blues. it's both major and minor, which is very characteristic of the blues. The use of the flatted fifth and the emotional intensity of the diminished scale sounds like the blues to me. I’ve prepared 17 concept lessons and 8 soloing performance studies to illustrate how I use diminished lines in the blues.”
Robben starts the course by examining how the diminished scale is constructed and the importance of learning how to hear it. He’ll show you how to use the diminished chord to move from the I chord to the IV chord, as well as from the V chord to the I chord. You’ll learn why and how Robben begins his phrases on the upbeat of one. Robben shows you a few of his melodic patterns and a few of his diminished licks and an interesting way to use open strings with the diminished scale.
The concept lessons include: The Diminished Scale, Altered Scales, Minor Third Devices, Wrap Your Ear Around It, A Statement In Itself, Four V to I Chord Lines, The Altered Five & Home, I to IV Diminished Lines, Finding Wilder Voicings, Incorporating Open Strings, Melodic Minor Magic Licks & Lines, Sahara Moon Chords, and Mixing Scales & Sounds
Robben also guides you through 8 soloing performance studies, which draw on the diminished lines concepts, techniques, and creative approaches that he uses in his own improvisations: Blues Shufflin' in A, Straight Up Blues in A, Slow G Shuffle: 1, Slow G Shuffle: 2, Uptempo C Swingin' Shuffle, Latin E Groove, Minor Blues in A, and Sahara Moon Changes.
All of the performance studies are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, Robben includes all of the backing tracks for you to work with on your own.
Grab your guitar and let’s sprinkle some of that diminished spice on our blues lines with Robben Ford!
What you'll learn
- Use diminished scales to navigate I-IV chord changes
- Integrate melodic minor scales into solos
- Perform eight solo performance studies demonstrating these concepts
- Apply rhythmic displacement by starting phrases on the upbeat of one
- Develop ear training for diminished scale sounds
Release date: 10/17/2017 • 2h 07m runtime
Sample lessons
Blues Shufflin' in A
Solo Studies: Performance
The Diminished Scale
Essentials: Demo
V to I Chord Lines: 1
Licks & Lines: Demo
The Altered Five & Home
Applications: Demo
What's included
26 lessons • 21 charts • 8 Jam Tracks
Solo Revolution: Diminished Lines
Hi, I'm Robben Ford, and welcome to this Diminished Lines edition of Solo Revolution. The diminished scale, for me, has always had a direct correlation to the blues. It's both major and minor, which is very characteristic of the blues. The use of the flatted fifth and the emotional intensity of the diminished scale sounds like the blues to me.
I've prepared 8 soloing performance studies to illustrate how I use diminished lines in the blues. In this course, we'll also discuss the techniques and creative approaches that I use in my improvisations. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you'll get the rhythm tracks to work with on your own. Grab your guitar and let's dig in!
I've prepared 8 soloing performance studies to illustrate how I use diminished lines in the blues. In this course, we'll also discuss the techniques and creative approaches that I use in my improvisations. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you'll get the rhythm tracks to work with on your own. Grab your guitar and let's dig in!
Altered Scales
I've always been a great lover of jazz and also a great lover of blues music. The blues was the first place that I got inspired to be a guitar player, and as I've said many times throughout the years, Mike Bloomfield was my initial inspiration. I think he was a particularly good one in that he was literally the first blues guitar virtuoso. Not to say that someone like B.B. King wasn't a virtuoso in his own way, which he was, but Bloomfield played a lot of notes and fast, taking the guitar into a much broader improvisational realm. So, that's where he started merging into what you could call "jazz", but really, it's just improvisation. He was doing things that hadn't been done on the guitar before, and even conceptually it hadn't really tried coming out of a blues guitar player format.
Jazz and blues had always had their own niches, and though people talk about the two being related (which they are), it's not exactly a straight evolution - the two always had their own worlds and then came together. Bloomfield was a bridge for people like me, who then discovered guitar players like B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, and others.
So, it was a great place to begin on my journey, and it made me want to know more about music. I wanted to go out from the pop music that I'd grown up on and learn about jazz. I started buying and listening to records and there were all these harmonies that I had no idea what they were doing - even in some of the simplest jazz pieces. I learned that these were scales, and that you could alter them to add dissonance. You could use the altered scale to get from the I to the IV chord in a blues, or from a V chord back to a 1 chord.
Jazz and blues had always had their own niches, and though people talk about the two being related (which they are), it's not exactly a straight evolution - the two always had their own worlds and then came together. Bloomfield was a bridge for people like me, who then discovered guitar players like B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, and others.
So, it was a great place to begin on my journey, and it made me want to know more about music. I wanted to go out from the pop music that I'd grown up on and learn about jazz. I started buying and listening to records and there were all these harmonies that I had no idea what they were doing - even in some of the simplest jazz pieces. I learned that these were scales, and that you could alter them to add dissonance. You could use the altered scale to get from the I to the IV chord in a blues, or from a V chord back to a 1 chord.
Blues Shufflin' in A
Let's begin our series of solo studies with a blues shuffle in A. Listen for the diminished scale ideas we've talked about, and take note of how ideas taken from jazz can be used in a blues.
The Diminished Scale
The diminished scale is made up of a series of half steps and whole steps. So, just so you understand, the first move you make is a half step. So, here we establish it here in the key of A and we play a series of half steps and whole steps. It's kind of cool how it falls on the guitar, because you're playing one finger after another, using all four fingers. It's a great exercise, especially for people who are slow to use their ring finger or pinky finger. Make sure to practice it going up and down, and in every key!
Straight Up Blues in A
For our second solo study, we're going to look at a straight up blues, still in A. Listen for the diminished scale ideas we've talked about, and take note of how ideas taken from jazz can be used in a blues.
Minor Third Device
This is another beautiful thing in the diminished scale and how it works in the blues: Anything you can play in one place in the diminished scale, you can play all over the guitar in minor third intervals. It's a handy little device!
Wrap Your Ear Around It
I learned to play the diminished scale the same way that I learned to play the pentatonic scale, and thinking of it that way will be very helpful. Don't think you have to learn it some other way - it doesn't require a certain set of skills.
What's challenging about learning it beyond just learning it as you would the pentatonic scale is that the notes can sound odd. It's an altered scale, so you're altering very common tones to the human ear. First, you need to wrap your ear around those sounds in order to work it into your blues playing.
What's challenging about learning it beyond just learning it as you would the pentatonic scale is that the notes can sound odd. It's an altered scale, so you're altering very common tones to the human ear. First, you need to wrap your ear around those sounds in order to work it into your blues playing.
+ 19 more lessons
Reviews
27 results
marc75
Verified buyer
12/09/25
Love this course
Great course
Crhinah
Verified buyer
11/09/25
Robben Ford presents his Solo Revolution: Diminished Lines in such a way that you can start practicing the Diminished sound in a song right away.
evilsocket
Verified buyer
07/30/25
Amazing material, my playing evolved in just 2-3 weeks.
Mr Ford is a genius, and this course material is priceless. It really helps you getting out of the usual penta-blues patterns, alternating major and minor with wonderful taste and most importantly learning to rely on alterations to add "spice" to your playing. With that being said, I would have liked a bit more explanation about certain measures where Robben does not play what you'd expect given how he explains the diminished scale, leaving you to wonder why that specific measure contradicts the rest of the solo. Still, loving the course!
hueyjohnson
Verified buyer
04/09/25
Excellent Robben Ford teachings.
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