All About Arpeggios

[Blitz]

I read the .pdf lessons that Guni, and I just wanna say one word 'WOW.'

Everything was very helpful to me except...arpeggios.

I understood that an arpeggio is just the triad or seventh played out instead of together. What I didn't understand was the voicings.

Mostly I was confused because I play the keyboard and not the guitar. I didn't get what which voicings to play and in what order.

Perhaps someone could help me out on the matter? Thanks.

[Guni]

Hey Blitz,

Glad ya find the articles to be that helpful.

I'm not 100% sure what your question is about. voicings? mmmm....
Ah, do you mean the chords, like on page 4?

voicing = chord; I am just showing the position of the basic chord and where the arpeggio is located in relation to this chord. This makes it easier to memorize and locate the arpeggio patterns on the guitar.

On piano you could practice arpeggios going up an octave and down, starting from the root, third, etc .... play them through the cycle of 5th ....

Does this help?

Guni

[szulc]

You play the voicings in the same order you play them on the piano. You could start with root position then move up to first inversion then second inversion. I suggest you do this on adjacent three string groupings first, because you can use the chords as guides (and you actually will be playing the same shapes as the chords). Later, when you are more comfortable with this, you can use two string groupings (where only two of the three notes will be common to the appropriate chord shape)

this link shows some of what I am describing

http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=131

[Blitz]

What I'm confused on, is sort of how does an arpeggio apply to a song?

Like let's say I have Am, to apreggiate it, I just play all the voicings?

A C E

A E C

E A C

E C A

C E A

C A E

Is that it?

[szulc]

This is entirely up to you and your creativity.
There are literally millions of ways to construct arpeggios.
The song you are trying to play has a great deal to do with what choices you will make as well. The style of the song also has a great deal to do with what you will do.

Are you playing a Jazz piece?

Why not try and use arpeggios to outline all the chords in the piece? You can play them in all the inversions and move them around in the octaves, you can even make more inversion by opening the voices up further than the open voicings you are suggesting.
There are then ways to subtitute more complex chords (sevenths, ninths etc...) . Or even substitute related chords.

[Blitz]

Ok. I've been toying with them and they sound great.

But what of this 'avoid note' in certain chord voicings. I'm afraid I don't understand it entirely

Do you leave the avoid note out in the chord, and the arpeggio?

For example Guni's article says to leave out a 'minor ninth' tension, or something similar? In regards to C7, that would mean not using WHICH voicing? Thanks.

[Guni]

Do you leave the avoid note out in the chord, and the arpeggio?In general yes.
For example Guni's article says to leave out a 'minor ninth' tension, or something similar? In regards to C7, that would mean not using WHICH voicing?Do you mean a Cmaj7 chord 1st inversion? The drop2 chords I am talking about? Yep, you should not play this as a chord but this doesn't effect arpeggios when soloing.

Guni

[szulc]

What is the link to this file you guys are talking about?

[Guni]

I think Blitz is talking about 'Seventh Chords' which is available here: http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11

G.

[Bongo Boy]

I haven't got a good definition of an arpeggio or or appegiation (the act of arpeggiating). I'm struggling with this, and it seems many of the questions here are too specific to help me.

Let me try it the only way I know how, with several questions.

At the least-specific level of definition, an arpeggio is what? Any sequence of two or more notes, taken from a particular chord (OR, taken from a particular chord VOICING?), played in any sequence?

Earlier, Guni equated chord = voicing and I'm not sure what he meant by that. If I were to say "an Em arpeggio" does this mean playing any of the tones that make up a SELECTED Em on the fretboard? If I'm all over the fretboard, arpeggiating many different Em's, then how would that be commonly described?

Another perspective: if I ditz around for 2 hours playing the SAME C, E and G notes (but in dozens of different patterns), making a fine tune out them, have I done a Cmaj arp or have I done multiple Cmaj arps?

[szulc]

When ever you play all the tones of a given chord you have completed an arpeggio. So if you play CEG or CECG or EGC or ECEG or GEC each one of these is a complete C major arpeggio.
Arpeggios can be more than complete CEG(up octave)CEG this is a 2 octave ascending C major Arpeggio.
Arpeggios can start on any chord tone and move through as many chord tones as you want (as long as you voice eac chord tione at least once), generally once the form repeats(or changes direction) the new repitition is a considered new arpeggio.
If you just play CG or CE these are just P5 and M3 intervals, respectively. The triad is consider the base chord form. It consists of three notes (root third and fifth) so the minimum notes for a given triad arpeggio is 3.
You could have CEG ascending arpeggio then CGE descending arpeggio I would consider this 2 arpeggios. At some point the lines of distinction get blurry though.

[Bongo Boy]

It was perfectly clear till I thought about it longer.

I need to gain a little understanding about the difference between saying "Cmaj" and meaning C-E-G, vs saying "Cmaj" and meaning "X-3-2-0-1-0" (C-E-G-C-E). What I mean is, if you say an arp has to have each of the notes of the chord sounded at least once, it's still ambiguous which is meant--textbook chord OR a selected chord voicing.

This also relates: if I write a chord that uses the notes C-E-G-C-E as above, then technically I need more than just "Cmaj" to specify it. Put another way--I want to give you a chord name with no notes--just the name--and I want you to know the chord includes EXACTLY the notes C-E-G-C-E, how would I do that?