| Guitar Arpeggios are really cool and they're a great | | | | single note lines, whether it's a lick, a riff, a melody or a |
| addition to the Pentatonic Scale. In all it's glory and | | | | full blown solo these notes have to fit the chords |
| power the Pentatonic Scale lacks a few very | | | | you're playing over other wise it just won't sound right. |
| important aspects which are chord tones to cover | | | | So let's look a t a blues in A. We have 3 chords. A7, |
| every chord but I get ahead of myself. | | | | D7 and E7. Now let's examine the individual notes |
| When I was a kid and just started playing guitar I was | | | | these chords consists of. |
| amazed at how well certain players managed to craft | | | | A7 is made up of A, C#, E and G |
| solos to perfectly fit the song. Guys like Slash, Dave | | | | D7 is made up of D, F#, A and C |
| Gilmour, Clapton and the likes. I read that these cats | | | | E7 is made up of E, G#, B and D |
| used the Pentatonic Scale to a great extent but I could | | | | So all the notes would be A, B, C, C#, D, E, F#, G and |
| never get my solos to sound like theirs. Until I did the | | | | G#, a total of 9 notes. The good 'ole |
| unimaginable. Sit down with the records (ok cd's but | | | | A Minor Pentatonic which turns out to be the scale of |
| records sound cooler) and worked out the solos. I | | | | choice clearly only has 5 notes. Which means that |
| soon discovered that they weren't that faithful to the | | | | almost 50 percent of the notes contained in the chords |
| good 'ole pentatonic. The frequented other notes | | | | aren't covered by the good old faithful Pentatonic. |
| outside of the Pentatonic Guitar Scale as well. | | | | Check it out. |
| Now there are many ways to explain what they did | | | | A, C, D, E, G so we're missing B, C#, F# and G#. |
| and it's a combination of superimposing other | | | | Imagine trying to communicate with people but only |
| pentatonic scales and using arpeggios to target chord | | | | knowing 50% of the words we have at our disposal. |
| tones. In this article I'd like to discuss the latter - Guitar | | | | Not quite going to be as effective right? Now that's |
| Arpeggios. | | | | what happened to me when I said "But I'm using the |
| So what the heck is an arpeggio and what's with the | | | | same scale as the big cats but I sound like crap! What |
| fancy name? "I want to rock out and could care less | | | | gives?" I was only using 50% of the notes I needed to |
| about 50 cent words" you might say? Well that | | | | use. |
| particular 50 cent word my friend will allow to rock out | | | | This is where arpeggios step in and save the day. |
| with the best of them. | | | | They will allow you to pinpoint with great accuracy the |
| So pay attention dammit! Here's the deal an arpeggio | | | | notes of the chords as they occur in the music. When |
| is basically a broken chord. Chords consists of 3 or | | | | you highlight the right notes at the right time your |
| more notes and when you play these notes individually | | | | soloing will sound infinitely better than it does without |
| it's called an arpeggio. There are two different ways | | | | this approach. Clearly this is quite a huge concept and |
| of playing an arpeggio as well. The most common | | | | better illustrated with real life examples preferably with |
| way is a very piano like approach where you grab a | | | | a real teacher or the next best thing, online guitar |
| chord and then instead of strumming the notes | | | | lessons that cover this specifically. |
| together you pick them one by one. This can be done | | | | If you'd like to learn more about using guitar arpeggios |
| via fingerpicking or using a pick. The second way is | | | | and chord tone targeting to make your solos come to |
| more of a violin or saxophone approach where you | | | | life then drop by my website where I have a range of |
| play melodies and using single note lines across the | | | | free videos. Rock on! |
| guitar. Here's the big takeaway though... When playing | | | | |