Confused: Which arpeggio with which chord?

[MichelD]

What about suspended, diminished, and other types of chords?

Play the root and ignore the other notes.

Just kidding.

But seriously, that works, but you can look up how to arpeggiate chords on the 'net.

Example:

The A diminished chord (A dim or A °) contains the notes A, C and Eb. It is produced by taking the 1st, flat 3rd and flat 5th notes of the A Major scale. A diminished often appears as A dim or A °. The diminished chord played by itself has a dissonant sound.

 

[Ekulati]

It's pretty straightforward.
Maj7 arpeggio over Maj7 chord.
Min7 arpeggio over Min7 chord.
Dominant arpeggio over Dominant chord.
etc.

For plain "major" and "minor" chords just leave off the 7th.

Pretty much covers it although adding the 6th to plain major chords is quite common. Makes it major pentatonic which is what you want very often. (I also occasionally add it to minor chords, but depending on the style, very judiciously, as the 6th is lowered/flatted and if you're not careful it'll be messy!)

 

[Scott Bland]

What becomes fun is thinking in different tonal centers over the root to give it a different place to go from. Like playing a cminor arpeggio over Eb major or even soloing thinking c minor pentatonic over eb major. Its actually the same notes it just feels different to me and is fun to explore.
Cminor is just the natural minor of Eb btw. (6th) aeolian. And thus ends my Sunday post that most people know anyway

 

[LeFunk Machine]

Is there a "cheat-sheet" that tells which arpeggio to play over which chord? I'm trying to figure-out where to spend my practice-time, but I'm struggling a bit.

It's all about your sense of musical harmony and what best fits the song according to you. In the chord of C major, the appergio is C E G - you can play this in any random order if you want. You can play them like C G E or C C G or C E E or even C E G E G C. How you play it is entirely up to you and what you feel best fits the song or the harmony of the song. Of course you have to keep in mind the rhythm and beats per measure.

You can choose 50 bass players for 1 song and they are all going to play it differently and that's because of the available note choices and technique. You can choose James Jamerson, Paul McCartney, Jaco Pastorius, John Paul Jones, Stanley Clarke - or whoever you name ---> they are all going to play the song differently. Yes, some are going to play it in the style and technique you prefer, but there is no correct way to play that particular song.

It helps a lot if you practice your ear because then that will make you choose the notes that will fit better in the harmony of the song. Some song E, which is the third of C major chord, will work, but for other songs, it would not work.

So, the only cheat-sheet is your ear.

"I've also heard stories of James Jamerson picking the pitch of the floorboards of the studio's squeaking, and was never wrong."

 

[Basvarken]

An arpeggio is a chord. Same notes, just played individually instead of all at once.

 

[Malcolm35]

Yes ^^^^. It's that simple.

 

[KenD]

Is there a "cheat-sheet" that tells which arpeggio to play over which chord? I'm trying to figure-out where to spend my practice-time, but I'm struggling a bit.

I (sort-of) know about modes, but want to focus on the (most important?) arpeggios at this time. Later, I'll worry more about the scales/modes and pentatonics.

You can think of the arpeggio in terms of intervals if that helps. An arpeggio is the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th of a scale. If you know your scales, you already know the corresponding arpeggio because it is contained in the scale.

 

[Koshchei]

Is there a "cheat-sheet" that tells which arpeggio to play over which chord? I'm trying to figure-out where to spend my practice-time, but I'm struggling a bit.

I (sort-of) know about modes, but want to focus on the (most important?) arpeggios at this time. Later, I'll worry more about the scales/modes and pentatonics.

There are a few types of arpeggio to know:
1) Major (major 3/major 7)
2) Dominant (major 3/minor 7)(played over the fifth of a scale or over pretty much anything blues)
3) Minor (minor 3/minor 7)
4) Diminished (minor3/diminished 5/minor 7) (played over the Locrian, or subbed in on a dominant)

Under normal circumstances:
I - Major
ii - Minor
iii - Minor
IV - Major
V - Dominant
vi - Minor
vii - Diminished/half-diminished

 

[BAG]

This below is what I used back when I moved from guitar to bass many moons ago. These arpeggios will get you through the vast majority of songs.

What about suspended, diminished, and other types of chords?

For most other chords the root and 5 will usually get you through initially however, if you know your major scale then you can add in the relevant notes. For example, if it is a sus4 chord replace the major 3rd with the 4.

 

[mambo4]

@OldSchoolFlats are you perhaps confused by deducing spelling form the various shorthand chord symbols? Like C vs C7 vs Cmaj7 vs C7b9#11?

The symbols are usually straight forward but contain some assumptions that are not obvious.

 

[Malcolm35]

What the heck ....
C = R-3-5
Cm = R-b3-5
Cmaj7 = R-3-5-7
C7 = R-3-5-b7
Cm7 = R-b3-5-b7

Yes there are more, but, that will get you started. You Will have to learn the "spelling" on the ones you will run up on.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

What about suspended, diminished, and other types of chords?

Its the same thing. If you can play in one key you can play it in all of the them. A suspended chord usually uses a 4th (1/2 step higher than the 3rd) and is usually notated as Sus⁴ or just Sus. You'll also sometimes see a Sus² chord, which uses the 2nd of the chord instead of the 3rd. Augmented chords raise both the 3rd and the 5th unless it says aug⁵ or +⁵, #⁵ in which case the chord uses the standard 3rd and just raises 5th.

If you see a chord with a big 5 after it, that designates a power chord where the guitarist is just playing the root and the 5th, for instance C5, D5, etc.. Just treat that like a major chord. Those are most commonly used when playing with distortion because a full barre chord can sound pretty muddy with distortion and the "5" chord is much clearer. There are a number of other strangely noted chords but those are most of the ones you'll see.

 

[SteveCS]

...
...Augmented chords raise both the 3rd and the 5th unless it says aug⁵ or +⁵, #⁵ in which case the chord uses the standard 3rd and just raises 5th.

Augmented in the context of chord names refers only to the 5th. The 3rd remains Major.

 

[Groove Master]

There are many arpeggios within a chord.

As an example let's take a C Maj7 that functions as a IV in a Major key.

The notes are C-E-G-B but the hidden extensions are D-F#-A.

So if we break those notes in triads we can play C-Emi-G-Bmi and D triads over that C Major chord.
The 4-parts arpeggios are: CMaj7-Emin7-GMaj7-Bmin7.

So as you can see a chord and its extensions are a mixture of Major and minor arpeggios and sometimes diminished.

Hope this helps.

 

[dreamadream99]

Later, I'll worry more about the scales

I happen to believe that scales are more important than arpeggios. But even more so, I believe Scales should be learned before arpeggios. Arpeggios are based on the scales — not the other way around. Once you learn a scale, the chords are every other note starting on each note of the scale.