Arpeggios Revisited

In the last post, Arpeggios Explained, I showed you what an Arpeggio was and how to use it, but I didn't go into exactly how a guitarist may want to use it. If you remember, I had explained that an arpeggio is the same as picking out the individual notes of a chord. The example that we worked with was out of the B minor chord, but I didn't take it any further than that, because I didn't want to cram too much down your throat, or as Chris Farley said in Almost Heroes, "do you want my head to explode?!".

So this time we're going to take a look at that B minor chord again, but we're going to modify it a bit and make it sound like a much more interesting arpeggio.

As I stress every time, this lesson is not about speed, it is about making aesthetic choices in music. If you attempt to just play the arpeggio really fast, then you are missing the point, because its all about the construction. Arpeggios sound good played slow, too.

I'm going to do something a little crazy in this post and jump ahead. Yes, I'm going to nail two birds with one stone. I'll show you the B minor arpeggio, modified as I originally had intended but I am going to go ahead and connect 3 mores chords with it, so that you can see how arpeggios are meant to flow together, at least in the stipulations of Neo-Classical music.

Something that is key about arpeggios is that they help you see patterns for future solos, especially during the early years of playing. Not only that, but they help you to see how you can improvise straight out of any chord.

So memorize these 4 arpeggios and work on them at a slow pace so that you have the opportunity to chain them together.

I'll catch up with you tomorrow.