to me they just seem like they 'exsist' and i dont understand what they are used for. anybody?

Take a look at the bassline for a song like Brown Eyed Girl...

It's almost all appreggios.

Root, 3rd, 5th. They're important for creating chords, and important for playing walking basslines.

Take a look at the bassline for a song like Brown Eyed Girl...

It's almost all appreggios.

Root, 3rd, 5th. They're important for creating chords, and important for playing walking basslines.

Very succinctly put.:D :D

to me they just seem like they 'exsist' and i dont understand what they are used for. anybody?

They are use for everything!
You create chords with them,
you create melody,
You create solos,
And most important you create bass parts in a bunch of styles like: old swing(swing era),walking bass, Blues,Rock&Roll, most latin bass parts are build around the arpegios(cha-cha,merengue,salsa etc..) , pop music, ska, etc.

The thing with arpegios is to use a varieties of rythms with them and then you create bass part related to a specific style of music.

So they are important,and especially for us bass players!:bassist:

SB

They are one of the best tools in a bass players pocket. First a great safety net, your brain goes numb, you're on the bandstand and song you never heard is called, have to solo on a tune you never seen the changes to before. All things arpeggios will get you thru till you can come up with something better.

They are to basis of chords hense theory, so knowing not only the fingerings, but how to spell the chords/apreggios you have basics that can carry you for a long time.

Get way to "see" the fretboard. You learn not only root position arpeggios, but the inversions and you are see the whole in tones that work for the chord being played.

Walking bass is usually chord tones and approach notes to chord tones. Know your arpeggios then just approach the arpeggios notes from a half-step from above or below and you're starting to sound Hip.

Learning to solo and hear about target tones. In the beginning you learn to target the 3rd and 7th. Well arpeggios to the rescue know your arp's you know where to find those chord tones. In fact when I learn a scale fingering I try to learn the arpeggio that goes with it so I can see where my chord tones are.

Get advanced and play two octave arps you are now covering a lot of the neck in all the right notes. What to sound cool in the second octave only play the color tones. Example Root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, continue next octave with 9th, 11th, 13th, and root.

Arpeggios are great ear training to hear chords. IMO learning arp's in two octaves can teach you more about the neck than running scale do and great technique exercise for both hands with all the string skips.

Arp's are gud.

It helped me a lot when I started playing Classical music. That's all I can say from personal experience. Anything else I said would be my hypothesis.

What are the real advantages with learning words?

What are the real advantages with learning words?

easier than having to have a keypad embedded in our foreheads. :eek:

easier than having to have a keypad embedded in our foreheads. :eek:

or having to buy one of those space-looking scrolling LED belt buckles. :)

You know, this music theory stuff has been time tested for centuries to where music instruction is down to a fine art, yet there's always some beginner who thinks they know more than the great musicians who came long before us. And they question everything that's thrown at them and proclaim its uselessness under the guise that it's not music. Don't become one of them, Richard. You may not be able to see it now, but you will when it all starts coming together for you.

Richard,
Have a look at activebass.com and check out
some of the transcribed Bach there , you will find some amazing pieces composed entirley of arpeggio's.
And again I find myself in complete agreement with docbop regarding there use in learning the fingerboard.

No arpeggios=no bass
Know arpeggios=know bass
Maybe not quite this simple but I can hardly think of any tune I know that isn't based/bassed with arpeggios at least in part & most, completely


PS. One of the best things about knowing arpeggios is recognizing them in lines you're learning. It can really simplify learning some stuff.

Chord tones are your most important notes, thus arpeggios are your most important tool.

It's as simple as that.

to me they just seem like they 'exsist' and i dont understand what they are used for. anybody?

well... I keep finding myself chanting this little mantra, but the traditional role of the bass is to help outline the basic harmony and rhythm of a piece

so, putting aside rhythm, your job as a bass player is to show everyone where the harmony is going...

and since arpeggios are the notes of a chord played separately, they're important to know about because your job is to outline the harmony of the piece... unless you intend to spend your entire bass playing career playing root notes you can't 'outline the harmonic movement' without knowing what the notes of the chords (ie the arpeggios) actually are... that's why they're important


some styles of music require you to do this more than others... if you want to play walking jazz bass to a decent standard you absolutely have to have eat sleep & breath arpeggios because you're expected to 'outline the basic harmony' in an intelligent, sophisticated, engaged & responsive way...

You know, this music theory stuff has been time tested for centuries to where music instruction is down to a fine art, yet there's always some beginner who thinks they know more than the great musicians who came long before us. And they question everything that's thrown at them and proclaim its uselessness under the guise that it's not music. Don't become one of them, Richard. You may not be able to see it now, but you will when it all starts coming together for you.

hehe i know that arpeggios are musically technical and i see now their uses, i simply didnt have an understanding of them and what they are useful for. and i respect the fact that comparably so i am still a begginner on bass and that there are others who are more knowledgable, who i seek advice and knowledge from. :) :bassist:

the music im playing in the band atm isnt too musically technical, were an indie rock band and due down to this arpeggios are not used much in songs that i have looked up the tabs for. and i dont know how far you can go with arpeggios to turn into a different type of band other than indie rock :p ive tried a few arpeggios out and they make sense, but im going to find it hard to fit it into the purposes of the band.

id like to play the instrument well both individually and part of a band. i know that it can be a different experience playing by yourself because only you are making the music and can fill the gaps where a guitar would be, and for a band depending on the type it seems less is more.

so what would i be able to use these arpeggios for in contribution to the band?

Richard,

I wouldn't worry about trying to fit them in with your band at this point if what you're currently doing is working fine. A great deal of what you're trying to accomplish by learning them is to get the *sound* of them in to your ears. If you're not hearing an arpeggio but just throw it in somewhere with the band, chances are, it's not really going to sound that good, even if it's technically correct (e.g., fits with the chord being played by the guitarist and/or keyboardist). Once you get the sound in your ears you will start to recognize them when you hear them in other songs (hopefully, you're doing a lot of listening to different types of music). Knowing when to apply them in a musical situation has everything to do with how well you hear them and how much listening you've been doing. Some styles of music will not lend themselves as well to having the bass play arpeggios but others will quite a bit, as already mentioned. Even with the styles where it is appropriate you still need to know when to use them, which you can only know by listening to a lot of music in that particular style.

You've already received a lot of good advice in this thread. I would try to record some chords or have a guitar or keyboard player friend play some chords while you play the related arpeggios.

Since the role of the bass is to, for the most part, play one note at a time in a linear fashion, playing arpeggios is our way to let the listeners and other band members know what the chord is - it's sort of our way of playing chords. Hope that makes sense.

Listen to some 50's rock music if you want a lesson in working arpeggios into simple rock music. And check out a dude like Matt Freeman of Rancid. He did a lot of walking bass lines in punk rock that relied heavily on arpeggios.

as everyone else has said they are very useful. It takes a bit of time to understand them and 'unlock the secrets' if you will, because at first playing them just sounds like an exercise. Try doing inversions and such, for example the memorable bass line to 'Come Together' by the Beatles is an inverted arpeggio. It goes Root-Fifth-Octave-Third but it's played with such style that it sounds great, not like a practice routine.

a lot of it seems to be just learning the different patterns. i could do with learning all the notes on the bass fretboard so i dont get lost in all the frenzy! :hyper:

I have a book on bass that dedicates one whole page to arpeggio's. I have also been given some other materials I am yet to sink my teeth into.

How do you "learn an arpeggio"? Let's take the major scale in C as an example:

C D E F G A B C

...how many possible arpeggio's are in that? Or am I already on the wrong track?

I have a book on bass that dedicates one whole page to arpeggio's. I have also been given some other materials I am yet to sink my teeth into.

How do you "learn an arpeggio"? Let's take the major scale in C as an example:

C D E F G A B C

...how many possible arpeggio's are in that? Or am I already on the wrong track?


Like everything thing there are multiple ways and reasons to approach learning arpeggios. You have a book with a page on arpeggios I have a book that only covers arpeggios. As you your question the simple answer is you have an arpeggio for each mode in the scale. All the info relates.

Scale, harmonized scale, modes, arpeggios.

You take a scale and harmonize it to learn harmony and how chords relate in songs.

The harmonized scale is chords, chords could be played as arpeggios.

Scale can be viewed in modes. Harmonized the mode and get the chord mode relates to. Another chord, another chord that can be played as an arpeggio.

Play your scale.
Play the harmonized scale in chords.
Play the harmonized scale in arpeggios.
Play the Dorian mode.
Play the chord for the Dorian mode.
Play the chord as an arpeggio.
continue with all the modes.

See all the interrelationships, music is all math.

So if the song in on a chord the arpeggio gives you the chord tones to base your bassline on. The mode give you notes to use to expand the bassline with. Soloing with the mode and know the arpeggios that relates to the fingering you know where the chord tones are within the mode. There's your target tones.
Walking bassline or soloing know where the chord tones are you know where do chromatic approaches to sound cooler. See knowing one thing helps you use another. What are the Blue notes b3 and b5. Know your arpeggio know where the 3rd and 5th, know where they are easy to drop down a half-step to grab the Blue note and resolve up.

All I'm getting at is when you learn something don't stop at saying I know five arpeggio fingering now. Take the info and see if and how it relates to other things you know. That way learn one little thing can expand in to many things. Also build fret-board knowledge.

arpeggios make sense to me now :) after fishing out an old teach yourself bass book i found a page with many different arpeggios on it. ive been learning the major and minor arpeggios, i think theres 2 of each. these i imagine are the main ones that lay down the basics since theyre the ones it focuses on first. wayhay! :D

I have a book on bass that dedicates one whole page to arpeggio's. I have also been given some other materials I am yet to sink my teeth into.

How do you "learn an arpeggio"? Let's take the major scale in C as an example:

C D E F G A B C

...how many possible arpeggio's are in that? Or am I already on the wrong track?

The could quite possibly be over 100 arpeggios in there.

I joined a music class and was pretty well out of my depth. We had to set a poem to music and create a song. I set Ted Hughes' Lineage to the simplest GCD progression all in an arpeggio bass or as I called it an Alberti bass. Not a complete success but it got me to the punch line in one piece.

The could quite possibly be over 100 arpeggios in there.

I don't think so.... If you used a chromatic scale.

When studying Jazz there are about 100 chords that you need to learn to solo over and that is with all twelve keys. I'm not counting chords from symmetric scales or clusters.

again arepggios work on Root - 3rd - 5th as primary notes. That is the chord of the scale. for the C scale it would be C E G.

For major scales, arpeggios generally will be the same fingering position (except when using open strings for the root of the scale.)

example:

E--------------
A--3-----------
D----2---5-----
G--------------
is a basic C scale arpeggio. you'd use the same fingering for a E scale arpeggio on the A string:
E--------------
A--5-----------
D----4---7-----
G--------------

now add in the 7th position:
E--------------
A--5-----------
D----4---7-----
G-----------6--

I also see a lot of 8th (octave arpeggios)
E--------------
A--5-----------
D----4---7-----
G-----------7--

does this help?

I don't think so.... If you used a chromatic scale.

When studying Jazz there are about 100 chords that you need to learn to solo over and that is with all twelve keys. I'm not counting chords from symmetric scales or clusters.

Possible chord arpeggios from the major scale...

7 different triads x 3 possible inversions
7 different 7th chords x 4 possible inversions
7 different 9th chords x 5 possible inversions
7 different 11th chords x 6 posiible inversions
7 different 13th chords x 7 possible inversions

Possible chord arpeggios from the major scale...

7 different triads x 3 possible inversions
7 different 7th chords x 4 possible inversions
7 different 9th chords x 5 possible inversions
7 different 11th chords x 6 posiible inversions
7 different 13th chords x 7 possible inversions

I wouldn't break out inversions and color tones as separte arpeggios. To me they are just different fingering patterns of the original arpeggio. Actually if looking at fingerings then only 3 types of triads. Only 4 four types 7th, 9th, and 13th chords. Four 11th chords. Then add in your inversions of those.

You see books like Million and One Guitar chords. I was taught you shouldn't ever have to buy those. Once you know the basics you can create your own because you know how to create chords. Same with arpeggios in beginning you need to get started seeing the basics arpeggios, after that you should know enough to create any arpeggio you need. For example you should need to learn a dominant 7 b9 arpeggio, but know how to add the b9. Same with any altered chord. The key is really knowing this stuff so you can built these as you need them not learn a fingering pattern for each one.

My point being the sooner people get weaned off pages of little dots on graphs and being able to create thier own solutions. Many things start to happen. That is when a bass teacher goes from teaching fingerings and checking reading, to giving new ideas and critiquing playing. When the shift from player to musician begins. When they start freeing themselves to focus on being creative.

Yeah guys that was pretty helpful in an information overload kind of way :)

One thing I noticed was this arpeggio here:

E--------------
A--5-----------
D----4---7-----
G--------------

Seems very similar to a line from Crazy Little Thing Called Love, that I play like this, twice:

G-------2-2--4-
D----4---------
A--5-----------
E--------------

Is that also an argeggio? Except the double A's where I'm guessing one A forms part of the arpeggio, then the B, not 2 A's then B LOL.

to me they just seem like they 'exsist' and i dont understand what they are used for. anybody?


Well, coming from a noobs perspective, they allow you to play songs without moving all over the fretboard and playing with one finger constantly.

I know my major and minor scales. And usually the covers I learn from tabs fall within the arpeggios within them.

Yeah guys that was pretty helpful in an information overload kind of way :)

One thing I noticed was this arpeggio here:

E--------------
A--5-----------
D----4---7-----
G--------------

Seems very similar to a line from Crazy Little Thing Called Love, that I play like this, twice:

G-------2-2--4-
D----4---------
A--5-----------
E--------------

Is that also an arpeggio? Except the double A's where I'm guessing one A forms part of the arpeggio, then the B, not 2 A's then B LOL.

Basslines use arpeggos a lot. Bassically you have tabbed a couple major triad and the Crazy Thing' is a major 6 triad. In fact add a b7 after the 6th and you have the classic Oldies Rock and Roll pattern. The major triads are all over just as themselve like Beatles Lady Modonna, Grateful Dead Turn On You Love Lights. Los Lobas La Bomba, Van Halen Pretty Woman, and on and on. Most Blues basslines are variations on dominant 7th arpeggio.

When I started playing bass way back when, the first thing I learned was major and minor arpeggios then the related 7th chord arpeggios. That carried me a long time before even learning a major scale.

When I started playing bass way back when, the first thing I learned was major and minor arpeggios then the related 7th chord arpeggios.
Richard, this is really the best advice at this early stage of your playing. Stick to getting comfortable with the basic major and minor arpeggios first, and as Doc says, start popping the 7th in as you get more comfortable.

It's easy to get confused when working towards 9th's, 11th's 13th's etc unless you have the basic triads down. Good luck, and stick with the simple things first ... :cool:

BTW, some excellent advice here in this thread for those who are looking to get a handle on entry level theory ..... :cool: