An Am11 arpeggio on the guitar sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well sometimes more complicated lead guitar sounds come in a simple package. And this is one of those cases. You don’t really need to understand all the music theory behind minor 11 guitar arpeggios to make use of them.
Watch the video guitar lesson below and listen to me improvise a little with the arpeggio. You will hear my guitar solo has a modern sound with a little edge to it when playing the notes of the arpeggio. And it complements to some of the minor and minor pentatonic guitar licks I am also playing.
A Minor 11 Arpeggio Guitar Chart
So here is the Am11 Arpeggio shape with the fingering indicated.
You can move this around anywhere on the neck of the guitar. You just have to line up the first note of the arpeggio on the 4th string with whatever note you want the root to be. So if you want to play this as a Bm11 arpeggio, you would move everything up 2 frets so that the first note you play on the 4th string is a B.
Minor 11 Arpeggio Chord Functions
This minor 11 arpeggio has a root(1), a b3, 5, b7, 9 and 11. The 9 and the 11 are what are known as harmonic tensions. You can basically think of tensions in music as spices added to the basic chord. So this is an Am7 chord, but with some garlic and onion powder added to it. And it really is the 9 and the 11 tensions that are the “cool factor” of this lead guitar lick idea.
So here is that Minor 11 arpeggio chart again, but with the chord functions indicated. The chord functions are just how each of the notes relate to the root. If you don’t really understand what this means at the moment, don’t worry about it. You don’t have to understand the math to use it in your own lead guitar solos.
A Minor and A Minor Pentatonic Scales
Here are some other notes that you can fill in around the Am11 arpeggio. Below are the notes of an A minor and A minor pentatonic scale in the same area of the guitar neck.
A Minor Scale |
A Minor Pentatonic Scale |
Jazz Fusion Jam Tracks in A Minor
Here are a couple of jam track to put your new lead guitar trick into practice. They are in the key of A minor. The first one is the one that I used in the video guitar lesson. And the other is just a little slower version.
Jam Track at 90 bpm
Jam Track at 65 bpm
Have fun with your new jazz fusion guitar lick idea.
