Arpeggios- how to construct them and how to use them?

[cord]

Hey, after a break from bass im trying to get back into it and have decided to look into arpeggios as im pretty sure they are a great tool to begin soloing and the like. Id really like to progress to a kind of classical guitar type sound and from watching a few artists i reckon they are probably doing a few arpeggios up and down the neck.

Any advice or good sources about constructing arpeggios and using them would be greatly appreciated!
thanks!

[DudeistMonk]

Arpeggios are nothing but chords broken out and played one note at a time So a C7 chord would make a C7 arpeggio which would look like this...C-E-G-Bb

For soloing on guitar (someone correct me if I'm wrong) guitarists are more concerned with scales, which are related to arpeggios....for example the C major triad is formed by stacking 3rds on top of one another C-E-G. If we continue to stack thirds we get C-E-G-B-D-F-A which is a C13 cord, re-arrange it and you have the C major scale C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. All scales are related to a chord/visa versa and most are related to a few different scales/chords. I now know that a C chord and the C Major scale are related, so I can use the C Major scale to form a line over C chord.

As for how to use an arpeggio on bass...

Any given song has a chord progression, whether its one chord over and over or something more complex. We will use the 12 bar blue for an example. Every bar in the 12 bar blues is represented as a chord, in G it would look something like G7-G7-G7-G7-C7-C7-G7-G7-D7-D7-G7-G7 (there are other variations but this one is simple). We could also write it as a mathematical relationship (I-I-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-V-I-I) because the chord progression is formed from the 1,4 and 5 tones in the G major scale.

In the blues every first beat of the measure would be the root note of the chord, but you still have 3 beats to fill before the next root note, most bassists would play a pattern formed out of an arpeggio (sometimes with a few scale tones or "blue" tones from outside the scale thrown in).

So for this blues song I could play a line like this in 8th notes. | G-G-B-B-D-D-F-D | G-G-B-B-D-D-F-D | G-G-B-B-D-D-F-D | G-G-B-B-D-D-F-D | C-C-E-E-G-G-Bb-G | C-C-E-E-G-G-Bb-G | G-G-B-B-D-D-F-D | G-G-B-B-D-D-F-D | Ext...

This whole line uses nothing but chord tones (arpeggios) to form a bass line. A more advanced blues player might start using scale tones to spice up the line, and would also start creating variations and mixing it up, but would still place his emphasis on those chord tones, the root, third, 5th and flat7.

In summery:

Arpeggios are just chords played 1 note at a time
Arpeggios/chords and scales are related and you can form a scale from an arpeggio.
Arpeggios are the key to understanding song structure and give you the strongest set of tones to form your line from.

If you need some more basic info (Ie: I confused the hell out of you) go here http://studybass.com.

If you need some more advanced information and want to learn more about scale formation ext. then go here http://teoria.com

[EADG mx]

Arpeggios can be used musically (as in composition or improvising), but they're also great for:

- learning the neck
- learning what notes fit into a particular key
- developing your ears
- learning how chords are structured

They're not that different from scales in a lot of ways, especially since as mentioned, the two are related. Think of a chord as every other note of a scale, and think of a scale as a chord with passing notes.

If you want to develop some workouts I'd recommend doing the diatonic triads of every key (take each scale degree and build the arpeggio of that degree up and down the neck). Then work up to 7th chords and higher if you're that ambitious. Do these all over the neck in conjunction with your usual scales. Also look into chord/scale relationships (that is, what chord fits with what scale(s) and vice versa). You'll undoubtedly notice some of your own just by doing these exercises.

[nathanmcnathan]

Learn theory, learn to read music, take music seriously. I think that Guitarists and bassists are usually some of the only layers who can't read music or nkow what notes they're playing. Learn everything you can. It helps with everything you do to have that theory background.

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by EADG mx

Arpeggios can be used musically (as in composition or improvising), but they're also great for:

- learning the neck
- learning what notes fit into a particular key
- developing your ears
- learning how chords are structured

They're not that different from scales in a lot of ways, especially since as mentioned, the two are related. Think of a chord as every other note of a scale, and think of a scale as a chord with passing notes.

If you want to develop some workouts I'd recommend doing the diatonic triads of every key (take each scale degree and build the arpeggio of that degree up and down the neck). Then work up to 7th chords and higher if you're that ambitious. Do these all over the neck in conjunction with your usual scales. Also look into chord/scale relationships (that is, what chord fits with what scale(s) and vice versa). You'll undoubtedly notice some of your own just by doing these exercises.

+1 Also when I'm learning a new scale fingering I look the chord tones/arpeggios that lie within the scale. That helps me see the target tones. Also see where my cool half-steps are for moving in and out of one chord/scale to another.

A good practice is to take and play one thru something like a Real Book tune in straight eighth-note arpeggios. Use one or two octave arpeggios patterns and connect to the nearest chord tone when chords change. This requires good knowledges of arpeggios and helps you hear the changes of the tune in notes which your solos should also do.

[bassplayertom77]

Hal Leonard's Bass Arpeggio Finder is a great book. As far as how to use them, DocBop said it best.

[JTE]

In addition to all the great and practical advice above, I suggest singing the arpeggios as you play them. That helps fix the SOUND of the chord and intervals in your ear as well as contributing to the connetion between what your fingers do and the sound of a dominant 7 arpeggio. Also, as you expand beyond the 7th chords, you'll start to see the way chord substitution works. If you arpeggiate a G11 chord, you'll clearly see the Bminor, the Dmin, the Fmaj, and extrapolate the A minor.

Take the opening of "The Star Spangled Banner" and you'll see how it's all built on the major chord. And the opening riff of "Badge" by Clapton/Harrison (Cream)- it's simply an Amin arpeggio.

jte

[mambo4]

You can alos look at constructing arpeggios as playing a scale using every other note.
for example, to build a Cmaj7 chord arpeggio you just take the Cmaj scale C D E F G A B and play alternating notes: C E G B.

Then do this going up the scale:
CEGB Cmaj7 I
DFAC Dmin7 ii
EGBD Emin7 iii
FACE Fmaj7 IV
GBDF G7 V
ACEG Amin7 vi
BDFA Bm7b5 vii

Also instructive is to play each arpeggio in two 'directions' on the fingerboard: for example, if you start an arpeggio with your index or middle finger on the root note , also try sliding your position back 4 frets and beginning with your pinky on the root, and finding the same intervals on different strings.

For example you could play Amaj7 like this:
--------------
---------6----
----4-7-------
--5-----------

and also like this
----------1---
-------2------
----4---------
--5-----------

[DocBop]

I like MI Series book Arpeggios for Bass by David Keif. It teaches arpeggios using inversion to cover the neck.