Diatonically speaking – The Magical Lesson That Changed My Life

Introduction
Hi everyone, how’s it going? I’m gonna show you a lesson that I learned more than two decades ago that totally changed my playing forever. It has put me on the road to become more musical with my playing.

Power Chords and Adding Notes
When I just first started out, the main thing I enjoyed playing on the guitar was power chords. They were ever ever and when I also got into Dream Theater, I started to see how you can start adding notes to those like nines. I didn’t know what the names were back then but I really enjoyed the sound of them.

The Turning Point
The thing that shifted everything for me was when I started working with a pianist in my band. Because whatever I played for him, he started moving that idea. So let’s say I played an idea for him that goes like:

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So he just moved it diatonically to:

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Understanding Diatonic Movement
I asked him how he knew which notes to choose because on the guitar I was just beginning. I couldn’t see the whole diatonic systems of C major and I couldn’t know how to move everything. I didn’t practice scales, Triads, all that thing back then. And he said, “Well, it’s easy. You see these are the keyboard and whatever idea I have” and I just played him something like:

[Music]

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.

Applying Diatonic Movement
And then, of course, I heard Paul Gerbert, you know Powell was talking about how he moves these kind of stuff and then I started to get it right. Let’s say you’re going to pick up your guitar today and you are gonna play an idea. I’m just gonna play the first thing that comes to mind. I’m gonna play this:

[Music]

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.

Moving Diatonically
Then I have two notes over here. Okay, so how can I go about moving that diatonically? Okay, so next thing I’m gonna do is I’m gonna move to my next degree, D minor, and I’m going to create the same exact DNA around that. So I played the Triad, I kind of circled the suspended fourth. So over here that would be:

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

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

[Music]

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:

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Developing Diatonic Awareness
So you see that’s how you can start taking an idea through a diatonic ride. Right, let’s take something even simpler. Let’s say I’m gonna play just this idea:

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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:

[Music]

Impact on Playing
So why has this affected me so much? The reason is because later on, when I was getting into, you know, sophisticated kind of modes like the altered and diminished, I could start moving patterns within those scales because they had that kind of ideal of whatever I learned I can start moving diatonically.

Triad Inversions
Another thing that really changed everything for me is understanding later on through learning the Triads that whatever I learn I can invert. For example, if I learn an idea in C major, you know what I feel like D Minor. If I learn this kind of idea around D Minor:

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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:

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

[Music]

What about this first inversion:

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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.

Practical Application
Think about it like when you’re playing over changes. Let’s say you’re, let’s take a perfect, you know, classic example would be “All the Things You Are.” If I’m taking like the progression of “All the Things You Are”:

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

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

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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:

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Conclusion
So this kind of diatonic awareness is what I’m trying to get across on my channel. And also in my Galactic Modern Guitar Series, because that’s a perfect example of how you can go week by week and start moving from one module to the next module and start building that diatonic awareness so you can improvise over changes. So you can see all the arpeggios connect on the entire fretboard and so you can take your playing to a place where it’s so much more musical than if you only know a few shapes and you don’t know how to develop them.

Final Thoughts
It doesn’t matter if you’re playing jazz or if you’re playing neo soul or pop. Almost any style right now is using the factors and the fundamentals of developing ideas for changes. Voice leading, which is a huge one, is something I’m gonna do a few videos about and I go really deep into that as well in my Galactic Modern Guitar Series. I think that was the thing that changed everything for me and I wanted to share this with you. Now if you want to learn more ideas about how to develop an idea through two chords only, two chords, so we’re not even talking about like a bunch of four changes, that’s a great place to start. When you’re trying to learn how to deal with developing ideas, you know how to keep an idea going. You can check that out over here, right here, and this is going to help you develop some cool ideas over chord changes, specifically over two chords