Master Diatonic Movement on Guitar: Unlock Chord Changes & Improvise Musically

Introduction and Personal Journey

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

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: Learning from a Pianist

the thing that shifted everything for me was when I started working with a Pianist at my band because whatever I played for him he started moving that idea right so let’s say I played an idea for him that goes like

so he just moved it diatonically to

and I asked him he know 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

so he just moved it right because it’s very visual on on the keyboard just to move stuff around

The Problem with Traditional Guitar Teaching

but for some reason we are not taught that when we are just first starting out playing guitar right but he gave me the idea that from now on whatever I learn an idea I can move it like you know I didn’t know it’s called diatonically but I can move it through different degrees of that scale

and then of course I heard Paul gerbert you know Powell was talking about how he moves

these kind of stuff and then I I started to get it right

Practical Example: Moving Ideas Diatonically

let’s say you’re pick you’re gonna pick up your guitar today right and you are gonna play an idea I’m just gonna play the first thing that comes to mind I’m gonna play this

okay so what is happening here is I have a this kind of shape which I’m gonna think about just like in C major for this example

and I 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 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

right so if we just take that and we start moving diatonically we get this foreign

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 be diminished

Simplifying the Concept

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 let’s say I’m gonna play just this idea

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 right foreign

Advanced Applications: Modes and Inversions

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 alter that 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

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 like idea around D Minor

well that’s kind of representing this second inversion right but if I want to do the same thing

over eight 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 right

Real-World Application: Playing Over Changes

because 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

foreign

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 dead

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 free

Building Diatonic Awareness

so this kind of diatonic awareness is what I’m trying to gonna get across on my channel you know and also in my Galactic modern guitar chords 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

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 you know the factors and the fundamentals of developing ideas for changes voice leading which is a huge one that I’m gonna do a few um you know a few videos about and I go really deep into that as well in my Galactic modern guitar series and that I think that that was the thing that changed everything for me and I wanted to share this with you

Starting Simple: Two-Chord Progressions

now if you want to kind of 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 and 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