Hacking the CAGED System: Diatonic Harmony

By Graham Tippett

Most guitarists learn the fretboard in pieces and never assemble it.

A pentatonic here. Some barre chords there. A mode picked up off YouTube, an arpeggio from a lesson years ago. All of it real, none of it connected - which is why almost none of it comes out when you're actually playing.

This book takes the opposite approach. One master pattern, laid across the whole neck, containing every note in the key. Everything else gets drawn out of it.

Organised by how many notes you're using

Which turns out to be a more useful question than which scale you're in.

Two notes - intervals, dyads and double stopsThree - every triad in the key, and all their inversionsFour - seventh chords, their arpeggios, and the barre chords hiding inside themFive - pentatonic scales, and why every pentatonic in the key is the same pattern movedSix and seven - hexatonics and the full major scale modesAlso insideSixth chords and their synonyms - C6 and Am7 are the same four notes, and once you see that, your chord vocabulary roughly doubles overnightSus2, sus4, add9 and 6/9 guitar chords for every diatonic rootThe master pattern written out in all twelve keysA worked example taking one chord progression through triads, sevenths, pentatonics, modes and synonyms without ever leaving a single patternA practice plan, and a chapter for when you get stuck

Only one thing in this book needs memorising: the master pattern. Everything else is meant to be discovered inside it, because what you work out for yourself is what actually stays.

New in the 2026 revised edition

Three new chapters: a full worked application, a practice plan, and a troubleshooting guide. Fully updated throughout.

Who this book is for

Guitarists who know their intervals and can find their way around a fretboard, and who want one framework for a key rather than a shelf of disconnected shapes. Complete beginners will drown.

Genuinely stand-alone - it doesn't require Books One or Two. Part of the Hacking the CAGED System series: Book One covers the four hacked patterns and the major scale modes, Book Two covers extended chords and the melodic minor scale.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08BWFVX2F
• ISBN13: 9798657543452
• Release Date: June 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 8.0" x 10.0"