Guitar Arpeggios for Beginners

This lesson will introduce you to the concept of using arpeggios on guitar and get you trying some of your own over backing tracks. Now, there is some theory to learn (yes, the dreaded "th" word), but most of the theory behind arpeggios becomes clear when you naturally start to learn your lead guitar scales.

First though, we need a solid definition...

What are arpeggios?

When you play a chord on your guitar, the idea is to make all the notes ring out together. With an arpeggio, the idea is to play the notes of the chord separately, in sequence.

Take a listen - same notes in different formats...

>> Click to hear CHORD

>> Click to hear ARPEGGIO

That's what makes arpeggios a lead guitar technique - only one note at any one time is being played, but in a sequence it builds up the picture of a chord.

So how is an arpeggio different from a regular scale?

When playing an arpeggio, you only play the notes that build up the chord you want. Scales tend to include "passing" tensions that wouldn't necessarily appear in a chord. This will become clear in a bit...

Think of building an arpeggio as taking only the notes of a chord from a scale and playing them in a sequence as part of a solo. It doesn't have to be played in any particular order.

OK, so now we know the basic concept behind arpeggios - let's see how they work on your guitar!

Guitar arpeggios - getting started

-------Important side note---------

It might be useful, at the very least, to look over the first chord theory lesson over in the theory section. This will show you how we select tones from a scale to build chords and, ultimately, arpeggios.

-------------------------------------

Let's first look at a simple scale we can work from. Below is a diagram of the major scale in its "boxed" position on the E string...

It's these tones that build up our chord/arpeggio.

Example: from the diagram above, let's select the tones that make up a major triad - that's the Root (1), 3rd (3) and 5th (5)...

Quite simply, the above is a basic major arpeggio mapped out!

Let's hear it being played in sequence from low-high...

>> Click to hear major arpeggio

To make the fingering less awkward though, I prefer to play the scale using a more extended shape across the fretboard - gives the fingers a bit more room to negotiate the sequence and include slides and other embellishments more freely...

Fingering is up to you - find what's most comfortable for you. At first your fingers will get tangled up, but there is an element of physical exercise with this and eventually the "muscle memory" will set in.

You should use a metronome to start slow and gradually build up speed, although speed isn't the most important thing!

What you need to work on mentally is mapping arpeggios out like this in your mind and see the note positions on the guitar fretboard.

The easiest way to visualise an arpeggio is to first find the place on the fretboard the related chord would sit, then use an associated scale to build the arpeggio.

Let's work through a practical example...

Highly Recommended - The Guitar Scale Mastery Course has fast become the most popular resource on the web for learning, and more importantly, mastering guitar scales.

> Click Here to See What All the Fuss is About!

Building a simple arpeggio

It might be useful to try and follow this pattern of thought when building arpeggios...

Chord/key being played in this example = A minor

Associated scale for the A minor chord = A natural minor (also known as "A Aeolian", the 6th mode)...

TIP: When choosing the scale, pick a scale shape that will allow your fingers to flow smoothly through the arpeggio, making sure each note can be cleanly separated from the next in sequence.

Now build the arpeggio from that scale

If you've been through the chord theory section you'll know that a minor chord includes the root (1), flat 3rd (b3) and 5th (5) - therefore, we can build a minor arpeggio using those same tones from the scale...

Click the diagram to hear the arpeggio being played

If any of these steps are confusing to you, you need to take a breather and learn more about how scales and chords are essentially part of the same thing.

The scale is the pot from which we select the tones that make up a chord... or arpeggio!

It's all related, you see!

When you're ready, try the above arpeggio over the backing track below. Experiment with the sequence - jump around the arpeggio and mix it with notes from the fuller minor scale (or a minor scale, e.g. minor pentatonic). In a proper solo, an arpeggio would usually only appear briefly, as a short phrase, so as not to dry up the novelty too quickly.

You should use alternate picking to help with speed.

OK, let's try building another arpeggio and see if we can get the basics nailed...

Major Dominant 7th arpeggio example

Adding a dominant 7th to a regular major chord can give it a very bluesy, funky, jazzy feel. What makes this sound even more effective is to arpeggio these tones over the chord/progression. Any tones you add to a basic 3-note (triad) major or minor arpeggio will simply add to the depth of the chord picture being painted by both the lead guitarist and rhythm guitarist.

Because we're building around a dominant 7th chord, the altered major scale becomes Mixolydian - the 5th mode (not so important right now, but covered in the theory section!). Here's how the standard "boxed" Mixolydian pattern looks on the fretboard...

Click diagram to hear the dominant 7th arpeggio

Now, it can get much more complex than all this, but we have to start somewhere - we can delve into the spicy stuff another time.

So, when you're ready, use the backing track below to experiment with the dominant 7th arpeggio above, mixing it with phrases from the fuller Mixolydian scale and trying different note sequences. You need to put your personality into your music, so if you find a particular sequence you like... you'll know about it!

I feel like there's so much we still need to cover with arpeggios, but if you've become confident with the exercises in this lesson, you're half way there.

As I keep saying, once you know your scales and how chords are built from them, you'll know how to pull arpeggios out of the scales in the same way. It just takes time, patience, and a lot of experimenting to find your style with this.

More arpeggio lessons to come in the future... until then, why not see what else you can learn using the links below.

Thanks for your time!