OK,
Recently, started looking into arpeggios more closely...
Trying to get few basic chords (A7, D7, E7 etc.) in different positions on the fret board, but...
1) why should I ever consider to use them in i.e. blues soloing ??
2) What is the benefit knowing these shapes (again in relation to blues soling/playing and also to guitar playing in general) ?
3) If the answer to the above questions is positive - what is the best way to practice/memorize arpeggios ?
Many thanks,
Chris
PS.
So far, I found it very, very interesting working arpeggios/breaking down guitar chords and try to find them on the piano keyboard and vice versa (all these minor & major chords) - very enjoyable.
Comments
Learning: same as anything I guess. Ascending and descending slowly with a metronome until you can do it without looking at a diagram or the fingerboard. Play games - invent riffs or licks that use the device you're learning. Move it around the fingerboard so that you can do a I IV V in the 5th position, and in the same key in the 7th or 12th position, for example.
HTH
edit don't confuse guitar chord shapes with arpeggios. the latter are closely voiced chords strung out in single notes ie the notes are in strict ascending or descending sequence eg R 3 5 b7 ... whereas chords can be voiced R 5 b7 3 or some other variation
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
What - Can link with chord shapes on the fretboard, I'm a big fan of the CAGED system and it helps me learn my notes and interval relationships on the fretboard
How - Think of the chord it replicates, e.g a Dom 7th arpeggio will contain the notes from an E shaped barre chord (that's one of 5 shapes you could it on the fretboard). Use a metronome with all subdivisions e.g quarter notes/eighths/sixteenths/triplets.
1. You should consider using them because arpeggios accurately outline the underlying harmony of a tune. They help tie improv together and give a sense of harmonic purpose and direction to solo. If you take away the accompaniment, you should still be able to hear what the chord changes are in a solo. It's not the greatest example (or playing and please excuse the singing!) but hopefully this will demonstrate a little what I'm talking about. It's a Jazz Blues in F just using arpeggios.
Arpeggios are good for creating extensions in improv to create different sounds. playing an Em arp over a C bass note/chord creates a CMaj7 sound. Playing a G arp or Em7 arp over C gives a Maj9 sound etc.
2. The benefit of knowing these shapes is just like anything, another tool to have at your disposal and to have a better chance of realising the sounds you have in your head in a musical context and to combine them with things you already know.
3. It's a LOT of work but the best way to learn arpeggios is to get them all down between frets 1-5. This will give a really thorough basis for transferring them around the neck and to different keys.
Next is to do the continuous arpeggio exercise. Take a chord progression, say a blues in A and stay in one area of the neck, perhaps between the 5th and 9th frets. Start on the lowest available note of the first arp (A7 the note A on the 5th fret of low E string). You will play a straight 8th note rhythm, so 8 notes of an arpeggio per bar. Once you have reached the 8th note of the A7 arp of the first bar (G on 8th fret of B string), you will change to the next note available in the next arpeggio D7 (which will be the note A on the high E string 5th fret).
Now this A note is the starting point for your 8 notes of D7. Start there, go up to C (8th fret) and decent the D7 arpeggio where you'll reach the note F# (fret 4 D string). From there you'll carry on descending through the next arpeggio which is A7 and so on. I'll try and knock up a vid to better demonstrate if this doesn't quite make sense...
@Phil_aka_Pip are you talking from a learning perspective? Because I'd slightly disagree that arpeggios are in strict ascending or descending sequence. Arpeggios are chords just played melodically and can be played as R 5 b7 3. There are inversions of arpeggios, open arpeggios and the like.
You are quite right arpeggios can be though of as having inversions, eg 3 5 R, but I tend to think of those as inversions of a triad - which naturally you can arpeggiate.
For the best definition, see Eric Taylor's AB Guide to Music Theory.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Regarding an E-shape maj/min chord, if I were to hold that chord down and pick the notes individually I wouldn't say I was playing an arpeggio as such, more that I am 'arpeggiating' the chord if you like. But if I was to isolate those same notes individually and play them melodically then I would see that as fair game for being seen as an arpeggio.
Personally speaking, I don't see an A7 chord and arpeggio as different things. Taking an E-shape 7th chord, I'd see R 5 b7 3 as coming from that place but i've just jumbled the intervals up as I see fit from a melodic and rhythmic perspective.
@ArchtopDave has articulately got to the heart of what I'm trying to say
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Arps are good for learning the notes and of course sweep-picking uses them, and a lot of piano music uses them. But of course not sticking rigidly to the up-and-down approach is good for melodic writing.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I never even remember which ones are in the minor pentatonic, and the only scales I know are that plus major pent (as a side effect of being able to use the same shapes in different places) plus the blues scale (add another note...true to form I always forget what it is called).
So arpeggios, and modes too, they are just more and more stuff I won't remember. Possibly by seeing things as shapes would help, but I hold little hope!
CAGED I can get, that's using the shapes I already know and linking them together.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself