Hacking the CAGED System - Diatonic Harmony

Learn one key inside out on the neck — every chord, scale and arpeggio it contains — and you stop guessing. You'll know what fits, where to go next, and how to solo over any of it.

Who it's for: intermediate players who can find their scales and chord shapes but can't yet join the dots — and want to play any key with confidence, follow the changes instead of one box, and write their own progressions.

You know the feeling: you land on a riff or a progression, then stall. Which chords work with it? Where does it go? How do I solo over it? This book puts every option under your fingers.

What you'll be able to do:

• Improvise freely in any key — moving between triads, arpeggios, pentatonics, modes and chord tones at will.
• Write your own progressions — simple to complex, modal included — using every chord in the key, plus chord synonyms for colour.
• See the whole neck in context — instead of collecting shapes you can never quite put to use.

It works by mapping key signatures onto the fretboard — one of the most powerful and most underused ways to genuinely learn the neck. Everything stays in context, your scattered theory finally ties together, and you start playing like you know exactly what you're doing. Because you will.

Everything you need is right here — you can start today. No other book required.

PDF (10 MB). Yours to keep, readable on anything.

New here? There's a companion, Hacking the CAGED System – Book 1, that comes at the neck from a different angle — optional, never a prerequisite.