Pentatonic vs. Diatonic: Breaking Down the Barriers

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Struggling with the divide between pentatonic and diatonic scales? You're not alone. In this eye-opening episode, Steve Stein demolishes the harmful myth that pentatonic scales are somehow inferior to modes or diatonic scales. Drawing from decades of teaching experience, Steve shares how he once fell into the same trap of thinking modes were for "experienced players" while pentatonic scales were just for beginners or punk rockers.

The reality? These scale systems aren't competing hierarchies but complementary tools in your musical arsenal. Steve introduces a powerful mental model: think of pentatonic scales as the skeleton and diatonic scales as the meat on the bones. This approach lets you move fluidly between both worlds depending on what the music demands. Sometimes those additional diatonic notes enhance your playing; other times, they might clutter what you're trying to express.

What makes this episode particularly valuable is Steve's concept of "pentatonic expansions" – a methodology he's refined since beginning his teaching career at age 17. Rather than treating diatonic scales as a completely separate system, he demonstrates how to organically expand from familiar pentatonic frameworks by strategically adding notes. This creates a seamless transition between scale worlds that feels natural and intuitive. Steve also introduces his "transparency thinking" approach to visualizing how various musical elements (scales, modes, triads, CAGED system) overlay and interact on the fretboard. Ready to break through your scale barriers? Check out the Guitar Zoom Academy, where Steve and his team create personalized plans to help guitarists achieve their specific musical goals.

Links:

Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/

• Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
• GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
• Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .

Episode Transcript

Steve (00:00):
Hey Steve Stine from Guitar Zoom here.
One thing I want you to thinkabout if you're a person who's
learning how to play scales andyou're learning how to solo and
all of that kind of stuff andyou're kind of caught between
this pentatonic and diatonicworld, I'm learning how to play
pentatonics, but my buddy or myteacher says I should be

(00:22):
learning how to play modes,because they're all these things
that we tell ourselves, andwhat I want to talk to you about
today is that they're bothimportant, if they're important
to you.
Okay, I don't want to negatethe importance of something.
When I was younger I don't knowhow I got it in my brain, but I
got it in my brain that likemodes for were for, like

(00:44):
experienced people, modes werebig boy people, right, modes
were adulting, if you will, andpentatonic was for the little
kids and you know punk playersand whatever.
And I couldn't have been morewrong about the way I thought
about that.
Okay, one isn't better or worsethan the other.

(01:05):
It just depends on what you'reusing them for and how
comfortable you are with beingable to make that work.
Just because you're adding morenotes to a scale, which is what
diatonic is, doesn'tnecessarily make it better.
It's just that relies on yourskill and what you're doing

(01:26):
better.
It's just that relies on yourskill and what you're doing.
And sometimes when you'replaying adding those notes, it
actually kind of clutters thingsup.
And there are times when maybeyou're playing more licks or
you've got some sort of you knowframework on your fretboard
that you can move through verycomfortably in a pentatonic
sense, and then when you addthese other notes in that
framework doesn't work as well.
So my point is is you don'thave to live in one world or the

(01:48):
other.
You can learn a little bit ofboth of those.
Because the truth is is thatpentatonic and diatonic do
coexist in the same realm.
I always think of it aspentatonic is kind of like the
skeleton and then diatonic Again, if you know what I mean by
pentatonic pentam meaning five.
Diatonic we have sevendifferent notes.
Pentatonic, we have fivedifferent notes.
So pentatonic is like theskeleton and then diatonic.

(02:10):
You're just throwing more meaton top of the bones of that
skeleton.
And when you learn to thinkabout it that way, the beauty is
is that you can always pullthis back off and you're left
with the bones again, so you canmove back and forth between
those as needed, depending onthe song, the musical situation,
whatever it is that you findyourself in, whether you need a
little bit more of the bones oryou need a little bit more of

(02:33):
that meat.
And the reason I'm telling youthis is because when we learn
these things, sometimes what wedo is we make this complete
separation like.
This is the pentatonic worldand we're learning these.
And now I want to startlearning the major scale.
The major scale, do,re, me, fa,sol, la, ti do, or the natural
minor scale or modes or whateverthat is.
We think of that as acompletely different

(02:53):
conversation, and the reality isis that you can actually learn
how to move into the diatonicrealm from the pentatonic realm
using what I refer to aspentatonic expansions.
Now, there's probably a host ofdifferent ways you could think
about this, but I've alwaystaught it ever since I was a kid
, as pentatonic expansions.

(03:14):
I started teaching when I was17, and it always seemed like it
made more sense in the mind ofthe student moving from the
pentatonic realm and simplyadding notes into the structure
that they already see, asopposed to a completely separate
system and then not recognizingthe relationship between the

(03:36):
two.
Because when I think aboutpentatonics and diatonics, you
know, modes, all that kind ofstuff, and then triads, the cage
system, all of those sorts ofthings.
In my mind it's almost like notthat everybody knows this if
you're not old enough but it'salmost like a transparency in my
brain, like when I used to bein math class or science class

(03:57):
or whatever, and they wouldbring out the machine and they
use those transparencies on topof each other so you could see,
oh, here's this, and then you dothis on top of it and you could
see all of those at once.
That's how I think about things.
It's not a complete shift fromhere over to here.
It's simply expansions on topof each other and how they're

(04:17):
all interacting together.
That's what I want you to thinkabout a little bit.
So again, if this is somethingthat you've never thought about
before, I'd like you to give itsome consideration, see if that
makes sense in your brain.
And if you want to learn moreabout this kind of thing, do me
a favor.
Reach out to Guitar Zoom.
You could do a search forGuitar Zoom Academy.
Right, and in the Academy, thisis what we teach you, and work

(04:41):
with you over the course of timeis how to do these sorts of
things.
We find where your flaws are,where your struggles are, we
figure out what your goals areand we put all of that together
and create a plan for you andwork with you and get you to
where you want to go.
So, anyway, take care, staypositive and I'll talk to you
soon, okay,