Hey nite,

"Diatonic" comes from the Greek, it means "through the tones." The tones referred to are the natural tones produced by the overtone series, for example, the tones you get from a bugle or the "harmonics" you get on a guitar. In western music we mess with the tuning of these natural tones a little bit so one instrument, for example a piano, can play in any key. The tones are: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do...or for us Nashvillians, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. So yes, diatonic is the straight notes of the key in question.

Mike

P.S. gotcha on the Musician Forum smile


You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music