Arpeggios #1

Hi, this lesson covers a very nice aspect of my technique and playing.

I think the use of “designed arpeggios” is a priceless tool in order to enrich the vocabulary in your playing and composition.

I decided to share with you some arpeggios I wrote on the past that have been very useful for me. I had a big influence in the desing of arpeggios following the “212” Tim Miller´s construction (Not always is the same patron, sometimes is “121”, sometimes more patrons, but in this particular lesson I follow the 212 construction). 212 refers on playing 2 notes on the 6th string (or lowest string), 1 note on the 5th string, 2 on the 4th string and so on.  By this, on a 6 string guitar you´d have a 9 note arpeggio.

This lead me to explore this type of playing having in mind the quantity of notes per string. Starting from this principle, I tried to design the arpeggios playing at least one time the third of the chord. All the notes of the arpeggios are chordal notes and available tensions (used in a tonal context). In this particular lesson I listed 4 to 5 arpeggios for each of these modes:

Min7
Mixob9b13
Mixolydian
Ionian
Lydian

Maybe you re asking ¿why a Min7?, Min 7 refers to a minor chord in which the tensions I decided to use are the 9th and the 11th. So, this chord functions for a Dorian and Eolian chords (¡also a I-7 chord!).

Important clue, keep in mind that the Lydian mode have all the tensions as available (9,#11 and 13) so these arpeggios could easily work on a modal context superimposing them with the chord.

Tried to follow these steps as a principle for the right hand: When the arpeggio is Ascending, downstroke to all the strings except 4th and 2nd string, those strings attack them with the middle finger (hybrid picking). When the arpeggio is descending, upstroke to all the strings (Sweep). When you have two notes per string: hammer on , pull off or slide in other words: just one attack per string. Articulate them.

On the music sheet I wrote the notes and tab. Each bar represents a string (so there will be 6 bars in total for each arpeggio, sorry the desings are for 6 string guitars, but if you have a 7th string guitar I encourage you to add those notes 🙂 ); The first bar is the 6th string, 2nd bar the 5th string and so on. All the examples are in C. The boxed numbers represent the degree (thinking in degree relationships helped me a lot to interiorize more quickly the arpeggios). There are some arpeggios with variations, these refers to a  ” ´ ” besides the number.

Is really important to notice that these Arpeggios can be played superimposed, be creative!.

Is really important to analyze the arpeggio you are studying and once you know what is happening, transpose it (12 keys please!).

I hope this is useful and that you enjoy it.

Dig it.

Please feel free to comment.

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This is a online friend´s metronome. Is really nice for practicing you can automate different time signatures and tempos. Recommended.