Arpeggios on Guitar - Arpeggio Patterns & Technique
if you know the basics (i.e. what arpeggios are) and just want to learn the
patterns and techniques,
head down to arpeggios on guitar
Welcome. This series will introduce
you to arpeggios on guitar, their patterns on the fretboard and
techniques you can use
to play them.
can be seen as just another way to navigate the fretboard during your
solo. As you'll see and hear, they can really help you "connect the
as your improvisation skills develop.
Arpeggios only use chord tones, so there's less risk
of tredding "outside" into dissonance.
Before we delve right in, a short introduction to
arpeggios on guitar and their function.
We'll then move on to learning some essential arpeggio patterns and
how to use them in solos.
Video introduction to arpeggios on guitar
are chords played one note at a time. In other words, each note of the
chord is cleanly separated, one after the other, rather than letting
them ring out together. It's therefore often referred to as a broken chord or arpeggiated chord.
The diagrams below show a standard E minor chord
by its arpeggio equivalent in the same position...
This means if you already know some chord forms on the fretboard,
you'll automatically know their arpeggios.
Also, if you know some scale patterns, you'll be able to pull
arpeggios out of those scales. We'll cover this process in a separate
So remember: Where
there's a chord or scale, there's
However, there are more economical fingerings we can use especially for
arpeggios. I'll show you some key patterns throughout the
arpeggios series below.
Just as we have major and minor chords,
we also have major and minor arpeggios.
There are also 7th arpeggios just as there are 7th chords. So,
it makes sense that learning arpeggios goes hand in hand with learning
how chords are constructed (covered in the chord theory section).
function of arpeggios on guitar
used in solos, arpeggios create phrases just like standard scale runs.
The only difference is we're being more selective of the key tones that
make up a particular chord flavour (major, minor, major 7th, minor 7th
Whereas regular scale phrases tend to "noodle" and glance over
non-chord tones (often referred to as passing tones)
in a linear movement, arpeggios move in a more harmonically defined
as you're only touching on those key chord intervals within the scale.
Playing arpeggios is like "connecting the dots" to build up the
picture of a chord.
The arpeggio can lead in to, or out of a fuller
scale phrase and it can connect phrases within the solo. It can span
just one string or all 6 strings. You can sweep pick them, tap them or
pick them in a more traditional fashion.
Arpeggios can also help you negotiate chord
changes. For example, if the chord changes from C major to F minor, you
could play a C major arpeggio followed by an F minor arpeggio.
We'll look at the different ways you can weave arpeggios into
guitar solos in the lessons below.
Guitar arpeggios series contents
through the lessons below in the order they're presented. Take your
time (there is no exam deadline!). There are backing tracks to help you
practice the patterns you learn and encourage you to try out
your own ideas.
It won't be long before you're including arpeggios in the solos you
write almost as second nature. It's simply another soloing tool at