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Arpeggios
Basic Major Arpeggios For Guitar

What the heck do I need to know them arpeggios for?

Well, arpeggios are the notes of a chord played one note at a time. One important reason for learning them, is to use in improvisation where a strong chord sound is desired. This lesson will cover basic major arpeggio shapes. Be sure to also learn the basic minor arpeggio shapes.

Arpeggio Basics

The root is the letter name of the chord or arpeggio (A is the root of Am, A7, A5, etc.) All of the fingering charts in this lesson are written in the same format as chord charts. You will play each note one at a time, usually from the lowest sounding note to the highest, and back down. You will see the same diagram with two different sets of numbers in the dots. One is the fingering, and one is the function of the notes in relationship to the root.

The numbering system for the functions is based on how the notes compare to the major scale. If you see 1, 3, 5, the notes of the arpeggio are the same as the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes in the major scale. If you see 1, b3, 5 then the b3 is a half step (1 fret) lower than the 3rd note in the major scale. Note that a small (b) is used to represent a flat (). This is a very common text version of the flat symbol, especially on the Internet. This is going to be an important concept for applying music theory to the fretboard. Even if you do not fully understand the theory behind this, you can still get started with learning arpeggios.

A major scale has 7 different notes, and therefore the functions assigned to the notes of the scale are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 then it will start over with 1.

Major scale
functions

Major scale guitar chart

Major arpeggio functions

Guitar chart of major arpeggio

Major arpeggio fingering

Guitar chart of major arpeggio

 

Page 2, major arpeggios with the root on the 6th string

Major Arpeggios For Guitar
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Arpeggio Basics
Major - root on the 6th string
Major - root on the 5th string
Major - root on the 4th string






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