Functional Diagonal Approach — how to read the fretboard as a system of melody, harmony, and direction rather than a collection of shapes to memorize.
Most guitarists learn the fretboard through block diagrams — boxes of scales laid out position by position. You memorize the shapes, you practice them up and down, and you wait for the music to happen.
It doesn't. Because the great players weren't using boxes. Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt, Peter Bernstein — they were moving diagonally across the neck, voice-leading from chord to chord, targeting specific notes at specific moments for specific reasons. The fretboard they saw looked nothing like the grid you've been practicing.
The FDA Method is how I translated that into a teachable, learnable system.
Every chord has a function: Tonic or Non-Tonic. Tonic chords want to rest. Non-Tonic chords want to move. Before you play a single note, you need to hear which side of the harmony you're standing on — because it determines what the line is supposed to do. A Tonic line stays. A Non-Tonic line resolves. This is where the Django Line and Wes Line are born.
The guitar neck has a diagonal structure. Open strings, tuning intervals, and the geometry of the fretboard all create natural pathways that move diagonally — not horizontally across a position, not vertically up a string. The FDA uses two core diagonal lines: the Wes Line and the Django Line. These aren't licks. They're structural patterns that work across both Tonic and Non-Tonic functions — it's the combination and sequence of the two lines that determines how harmony is expressed.
Approach means voice leading — the movement from one chord tone to the next with the smallest possible motion. Shell Voicings and Drop 2 Voicings are the structural foundation. The melody sits on top. The line moves underneath. Every choice is motivated: why this note, why here, why now. When you can answer those three questions in real time, you're playing — not running patterns.
The Wes Line is a Major triad-based diagonal line with two directions — ascending and descending. The end note of the ascending Wes Line becomes the start note of the descending Wes Line.
Crucially, the Wes Line is not locked to Non-Tonic function. It can be used on both Tonic and Non-Tonic chords. In a II-V-I, you might use the Wes Line on the II-V, then resolve to the Django Line on I — or you might use the Django Line on the II-V and resolve with the Wes Line on I. The line itself doesn't determine the function; the combination does.
Wes Montgomery used this constantly. It's the clearest example in jazz of a player who saw the fretboard as a series of voice-led targets rather than a scale to run. Once you see it in his playing, you can't unsee it.
The Django Line is a maj7 chord tone arpeggio — a diagonal line that also has two directions. Like the Wes Line, the Django Line is not locked to Tonic function. It can be used on both Tonic and Non-Tonic chords.
The principle is this: in a II-V-I, whichever line you start with on the II-V, you resolve with the other line on the I. Start with Wes → resolve with Django. Start with Django → resolve with Wes. The two lines are interchangeable in terms of harmonic function — it's the contrast between them, and the Voice Leading at the chord change, that creates the music.
Together, the Wes Line and Django Line cover the full harmonic vocabulary of any standard. Django Reinhardt built entire solos on this structural idea.
Shell Voicings (root, 3rd, 7th) and Drop 2 Voicings are the harmonic skeleton. Upper Structure Triads extend the sound without complicating the hand. These aren't just chord shapes — they're the same vocabulary the Wes Line and Django Line move through. Chord melody and soloing share the same structural foundation. That's by design.
When you understand how Shell Voicings convert to Drop 2, and how Drop 2 creates Upper Structure, the fretboard becomes a single readable system instead of a collection of unrelated fingerings.
Every course in the VLJG system is built on FDA logic. The method isn't a separate track — it's the foundation underneath everything.
The courses below are each a window into the FDA system — specific concepts, specific repertoire, accessible as standalone studies. Fundamental 1/2/3 is where all of it comes together as the complete private lesson curriculum.
Start with Building Blocks — Free → Explore Fundamental 1/2/3 →
