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Alter Bridge rocking the E-Center, Harker Heights, Texas, April 18, 2008. Image of Alter Bridge rocking the E-Center, Harker Heights, Texas, April 18, 2008.

On this page:
guitar lessons covering Arpeggios - Sweep-PickingFinger-Tapping.

Guitar Lesson #8 - Arpeggios
An Arpeggio is just playing the notes of a chord one note at a time rather than all at once. Sweep-Picking is a technique where your pick rakes across the strings rather than picking each string individually - Ingwie Malmsteen being one of the best at this style of playing.  Arpeggios can also be done using Finger-Tapping 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 (Sequncing 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:
 
Image of Gus G. playing guitar.
Guitar Lesson #8. Major, minor, Augmented, & Diminished Arpeggio Patterns that start with the index finger.
 

Image of Orianthi playing guitar.

 

Image of Orianthi Panagaris playing guitar.

Guitar Lesson #8. Major, minor, Augmented, & Diminished Arpeggio Patterns that start with the pinky finger.
 

Image of Vinnie Moore of UFO playing guitar.

 

Image of Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr Big) playing guitar.

 
Image of Jennifer Batten, guitarist for Michael Jackson, playing guitar.
 
Arpeggios, minor scale audio example #1:
 

 

 
Image of Ingwie Malmsteen playing Arpeggios on the guitar.
 
Arpeggios, minor scale audio example #2:

 

 

 
Van Halen style Finger-Tapped Arpeggios, minor scale audio example:

 

 

 

Matt Mistretta, a  Rock Guitar Power student, 
demonstrates Sweep-Picking Arpeggios:

 


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