Originally Posted by: magicninjaWhile the diatonic scales are great things to have knowledge of I have to say that the kind of importance you are putting on them is blown way out of proportion. I mean if you wanna stick to classic rock or something ok sure that's great but I think you need to stray away from diatonic scales in order to get somewhere in other styles of music. jazz requires a bit more than diatonic scale theory. Blues favors chromatics. Classical music has never stuck to a diatonic pattern. Even metal doesn't stick entirely to the church modes. Sometimes you gotta get away from the diatonic scales and take a risk. I passed that about a year into playing. I couldn't imagine how bland music would be if everyone stuck to your formula.

The facted that you had this scale learned by your first year of play was good foresight by you, or your teacher. This gave you the tools needed to branch out, and explore new music with proper technique, and a better musical ear. You would be surprised to know how many players dont know the importance of knowing this scale throughout the neck in at least one key. At least before moving on into the more complex areas of music theroy.
And as you may have seen there were a few readers of my post that thought looking into this subject might help them expand into new areas.
Im just trying to help so that others dont make the same mistakes I did.
And there are still some kick ass tunes being churned out every day that stay within the diatonic scale, and even no further than pentatonic five notes.
I do see what your saying, and agree. Once a milestone has been reached its time to move on to bigger, and better things. Rock on!