Guitar Lesson #8 - Arpeggios
An Arpeggio is just playing the notes of a chord one note at a time rather than all at once. This can be combined with the digital techniques discussed on pages 1 & 2 to create some interesting patterns. Arpeggios can also be done using two-handed techniques where one or more notes of the chord are tapped-on using the right hand as exemplified by guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
Like the other techniques (Digital Picking and Pedal-Point), Arpeggios relate back numerically to the Church Modes Number Pattern in a specific way. The simplest Arpeggios are the three-note chord (Cord Triad) Arpeggios. To do these, you play 3 notes but skip every other note; so starting with tone number 1 you play: 1,3,5; at tone number 2 you play: 2,4,6; at tone number 3 you play 3,5,7; etc. In all of these, you would normally play more than one octave, so for tone number 1 you would play:
1(first octave), 3, 5 - 1(second octave), 3, 5 - 1(third octave), 3, 5, - etc.
Any note of any Church Mode Scale can be the starting point of an Arpeggio. The type of Arpeggio depends upon what tone number (ie, scale degree) you are starting with as follows:
1=Major, 2=minor, 3=minor, 4=Major, 5=Major, 6-minor, 7=diminished
The Augmented Arpeggio does not occur in the Church Mode patterns, but it does occur at the 3rd scale degree of the Harmonic Minor Scale discussed further down. In the Arpeggio graphic below, the colored dots are the starting points and the octave notes of the Arpeggio:
