Diatonically speaking – The Magical Lesson That Changed My Life

So he just moved it diatonically to:

So he just moved it right because it’s very visual on the keyboard just to move stuff around. But for some reason we are not taught that when we are just first starting out playing guitar. But he gave me the idea that from now on, whatever I learn, an idea, I can move it. I didn’t know it’s called diatonically, but I can move it through different degrees of that scale.

Okay, so what is happening here is I have this kind of shape which I’m gonna think about just like in C major for this example. And I kind of played, well this is a second inversion Triad. Now I know that. Back then I didn’t know what I was doing. This is an enclosure into F right which in relevance to that chord is the fourth degree.

Right, so if we just take that and we start moving diatonically, we get this:

On the B flat, so over here I need to kind of, you know, be extra aware and create something like this:

Because I want to go into B in relation to the other notes. You know together. Then over here in G, A minor, B diminished:

Right, well now if I want to move it and I have it over here, and then through diatonic awareness, I know that my next note is going to be F:

Well that’s kind of representing this second inversion, right? But if I want to do the same thing over a first inversion that can be:

Right, that same kind of idea, same vibe, can be manifested into another state of that same Triad:

What about this first inversion:

You see because it’s all just movement around chord tones. Now that completely shifted everything I play and the way I perceive music. And it also really helped me as a composer and also as someone who is trying to get ideas across when he’s improvising.

Like one idea over it. Let’s take something really, really obvious and simple, something like:

So that’s like in one idea over two chords. So obviously the next response is gonna be:

So how did I know like what is going on? I had the idea in my head but I could also see diatonically what are the next options I’m gonna go to to develop that kind of like stream of thought, right? First goes to the third, two root, third goes to the third, two root, third goes to the third, two root, and then I ended with four, five, four:

01 Diatonically speaking – The Magical Lesson That Changed My Life

My playing has been forever changed by a lesson I learned more than two decades ago, 

The lesson that has helped me become a way more musical player. 

When I started playing the guitar, power chords were my favorite thing in the world,

Few months down the line, when I got into Dream Theater, I began noticing how they added notes to power chords, like the ‘add9’. Back then, I wasn’t familiar with the terms,

but I loved the sound of them and was (subconsciously) hungry to learn more about harmony.

Having a pianist join my band was what changed everything for me 

It seemed that whatever I played to him he started moving it around and developing it in a way that made so much musical sense, I had to know how!

 The beginner in me asked good questions: 

How did he do that? 
How does he know which notes to choose? 
What can he see on his piano that I can’t see on my guitar?

You see, I didn’t know the entire diatonic systems of C major, I couldn’t move everything around ‘Diatonically’.

Back then, I hadn’t practiced scales, triads, sequences, or motifs.

I was immediately taken aback when the pianist could develop any idea,
I had to find a way of doing that on the guitar! 

It was my gateway to becoming a composer and improviser  because the piano is such a visual instrument, the pianist could really help me.. 

Somehow, when we are just starting out playing guitar, we are not taught that. 

At that moment, something changed in me. The answers started coming in, bit by bit.

I heard Paul Gilbert talking about how he moves sequences up and down the major scale ‘diatonically’.
I started to get it! 

As I got into more complicated modes, such as altered and diminished, I could start moving patterns within them too, I had a rule: whatever idea I learned I made myself start moving it diatonically. 

Another thing that really changed everything for me is understanding (through learning triads) that whatever melody I learn I can invert it. For example if I learn an idea in D Minor 2nd inversion I can now invert that melody to root position or 1st inversion.. 

And this of course also applies when you are improvising over chord changes! 

That was the biggest lesson I learned back then that completely changed how I perceive music, and it helped me both as a composer and as someone improvising to get his ideas across

As you can see, the sky’s the limit when it comes to these things. To really start seeing how harmony and melody connect on the whole fretboard, so you can truly say you have a solid understanding of what’s going on. The best way to get from A to Z is to have some guidance and an organized system. Trying to figure all of this stuff on my own was one of my biggest setbacks. It’s for this reason that I created the Galactic Modern Guitar Series!

By doing this, you can have a very organized system to work on all of these things. And you can check  it out over here.