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Arpeggios
Major
Arpeggios on Guitar
Major arpeggio patterns
and theory
When soloing in a major key, major arpeggios can provide you with a
number of phrasing options, along side standard scale movements. This
lesson is about understanding how major arpeggios are formed on the
guitar fretboard and how they work over major chords.
A lot of this stuff will come naturally and easily if you know the fretboard.
Starting with the basic theory, major arpeggios consist of what is
known as the major triad.
These are 3 tones from the major scale...
Root (1) - 3rd
(3) - 5th (5)
These are the only tones we'll be using in our major arpeggios,
ignoring the other tones found in major scales (for now!).
All major scales use these triad tones, so when learning any major
scale pattern, all you have to do is pick out the root, 3rd and 5th and
you
have your major arpeggio.
For example, take the 1st position boxed pattern of the major scale and
see if you can identify the major triad...
So this would be our first major arpeggio pattern...
Bear in mind the arpeggio doesn't have to be played in that order, from
low to high or high to low, nor do all 6 strings have to be played, but
this is just one pattern we can visualise around a fuller scale pattern
we know.
Major
arpeggio patterns
Now we know what makes up a major arpeggio, we can use the scale
patterns we learned in the major
scale lesson
to build arpeggios right across the fretboard, based on those 3 root
note positions on the E A and D strings. Once you know the root note
of the chord you're playing over, you can find that note in several
positions across the fretboard. These will become the reference points
for our arpeggio patterns...
For example, if our root note was G,
here are all the positions for G
across the fretboard (however, we'll only be focussing on the E A and D
strings):
We can now build our arpeggio patterns around
each of these positions...
E string root major arpeggio patterns
Note:
you'll find there is more than one position to play the same note in,
e.g. the 5th in the above pattern can be played on the G or B string.
Learn both fingerings so you have both options.
For
more interactive learning I highly recommend Guitar
Notes Master
A string root
major arpeggio patterns
D string root
major arpeggio patterns
It's
important to be able to visualise these patterns in any key. They're
movable patterns, so when the root note (key) changes, the interval
relationships remain intact and move with it.
Try breaking them
down into 3 string groupings. A lot of the time that's all you need, as
smaller arpeggios are great for leading in to a larger soloing phrase
as we'll look at in a later lesson.
Back in the key of G again, here's what we've built (R
3
5)...
Remember, you don't have to start
on the root note when playing an arpeggio phrase, but just knowing
where it is gives you that reference point to help you find your
bearings.
Spend some time studying the positions and then how
they all string together. A good tip for helping you with this is to
break it down in different ways.
- Try memorising the R 3 5 interval sequence
across each individual string.
- Pick out just the R and 3, or just the 3 and 5
to test your knowledge.
- Concentrate on 2 strings at a time, then 3,
then 4 etc.
Even with just 10 minutes study time every day you'll soon see progress!
Major
arpeggio guitar backing tracks
The tracks below are based around one single chord, allowing you to
test your knowledge of the above patterns and get an ear for how the
major triad tones interact with major backing chords.
The first track is in the key of G (which is the example we used
earlier) and the second in the key of C#, just to make things a little
trickier! Find the C# root
notes and make use of the patterns in this lesson.
Right click and "save as" to download these tracks. Enjoy!
Download the G major backing track >
Download the C# major backing track >
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