Q: Is SeeDEGA just a handful of guitar tricks?

A: SeeDEGA was designed as a comprehensive method of using basic chord forms to fully conceptualize the fret board.

Q: Aren't the SeeDEGA sequences just chords from various scales in the guitar "open" position taken up the neck using your index finger to bar the chords?

A: No. Most of the SeeDEGA sequences can't be played in the open position to produce a major scale, using common chord form fingerings.  To give just one example, consider the "A-Root" SeeDEGA sequence. The first two chord forms in the sequence are A-C. In the open position, an A-form can be fingered (at the second fret on the 4th, 3rd and 2nd strings) to play the I tone of the A tonal scale.  But there is no practical C-form fingering that can produce the II tone of this scale, a B minor tone, in an "open" position on the fret board.  Guitarists therefore commonly use an A-form bar chord beginning at the second fret to sound the B tone.
     To sum up: taken together, the SeeDEGA modulations are definitely not just open position chord fingerings of various scales "taken up the neck".

Q: How can SeeDEGA be new?

A: The SeeDEGA Method, published in 2003, is the first to present and explain the SeeDEGA modulating sequence, as well as other concepts.  If anyone believes they know of an earlier work that does so, we'd be happy to acknowledge it.  Send the name of the work, author and publisher to info@seedega.com.
   But we can report that no one has taken up our challenge in the three years since The SeeDEGA Method was first published.  And we've had thousands of visitors to this site, with SeeDEGA information right there for everyone to see.
     And while we're at it, Joe's newest work, Leading SeeDEGA, published in 2004, introduces "CAGGED", another innovative memory tool found for the first time in his book. 

Q: Why are you saying SeeDEGA is new?  I knew about SeeDEGA all along!

A: The effort to develop and write The SeeDEGA Method was undertaken, because it contributes something new to guitar learning. 
     There are hundreds of CAGED sites on the web, and plenty of books on that subject. 
     But The SeeDEGA Method is the first work that identifies the SeeDEGA modulating sequence. It represents a truly comprehensive “chord form” approach to the fret board. 
     Some people claim the SeeDEGA modulations are “obvious” and unoriginal. “I knew it all along!” Of course you did.  You just forgot to write the book or tell anyone else... 
     Such "claims" aside, if the SeeDEGA sequences were common knowledge, they would have been outlined in many books and primers before now, in the same way as other “obvious” guitar information. But the fact is, the SeeDEGA modulating sequence hasn’t been identified in any prior work. 
     It’s certainly true that SeeDEGA will seem obvious and simple, once learned. As Galileo observed—“all truths are easy to understand once they are discovered, the point is to discover them…” The irony of the astronomer's statement will be lost on those who confuse the simplicity of SeeDEGA with their own powers of originality...

Q: Why doesn't your book use standard chord diagrams?

A: In The SeeDEGA Method book, chord diagrams depict the fret board as horizontal, rather than vertical. Vertical chord diagrams are certainly more common. But some books (eg. the popular Interactive Guitar book by PlayPro) do choose to show horizontally oriented chord diagrams.
   The SeeDEGA Method contains quite a few full fret board illustrations as well as chord diagrams, and we felt fret board illustrations were better laid out in a horizontal rather than vertical style. So we used horizontal chord diagrams to maintain a visual consistency.

Q: You show a diminished chord as the VII chord form of a key.  Shouldn't it be a min7 flat 5?

A: The purpose of the chord diagrams are not to show four-tone harmonized key chords.  Note that basic major and minor forms are shown in the other degree positions—not major and minor 7ths (or a dom7 V chord), as a four-tone harmonized scale would dictate.
     The diagrams show basic triadic sounding chord form versions—and the triad at the VII degree sounds a diminished chord.  But, by all means, play min7 flat 5's if you want.  

Q: Why so proprietary about your ideas?

A: The SeeDEGA Method is copyrighted, like other original works.  A provisional patent was submitted for the method, to explore the possibility of other companies licensing it.  But that has little to do with guitarists, who are free to buy our products and use them to their hearts content.

Q: Can I teach SeeDEGA to others?

A: Of course.  We appreciate instructors and teaching institutions who want to purchase copies of SeeDEGA for students.  We even offer discounts.

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