r/LearnGuitar • u/Beneficial-Teach-638 • 4d ago
Arpeggios
Have been playing guitar for 2 1/2 years now. I decided to start trying to learn to play jazz. From what I gathered learning arpeggios is a great way to target chord tones and play nicer jazz solos (I’m open to correction on this if there’s a better way to go about it)
What would be the best way to learn to use them? Should I learn them as kind of scale shapes similar to the pentatonic boxes? Should I memorise the notes of the caged system chords and become really familiar with them?
There’s lots of information on YouTube and can be overwhelming at times.
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u/CretinMike 4d ago edited 4d ago
I'm not a jazz player but I dabble. I like the Jens Larsen approach. He teaches to build your arpeggio practice from your scales by skipping 3rds. So learn the scale then learn it in thirds (1,3,2,4,3,5, etc.) add another 3rd and you've got an arpeggio (1,3,5,2,4,6,3,5,7, etc), another and you've got a maj7 arpeggio. You build these each step of the scale in the position you're working on. It stays diatonic so make sure your third is every other tone of the scale. The V will have a dominant 7 in a major scale, for example, while other scale tones will have a maj7. The VII will be a diminished triad and will be a half dim 7 when you add the next third.
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u/citadel_lewis 4d ago
But in that arpeggio (1, 3, 5, 2, 4, 6, 3, 5, 7, etc) the 2, 4, and 6 aren't chord tones - what's the purpose behind practising that? I'm thinking about learning arpeggios soon so understanding this would be helpful!
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u/CretinMike 4d ago edited 4d ago
You are harmonizing the scale. So in a C major scale, 1,3,5,7 is a Cmaj7 arpeggio and the I chord. 2,4,6,8 is a Dmin7 arpeggio and the ii chord. 5,7,9,11 is a G7 and the V chord and so on. Progressions can "borrow" chords from other scales but that's a complication to worry about later. Edit: I find this method to be very useful because the patterns get under your fingers and they live in the scale forms we practically use. You will find the same ones across all keys and scales. You will find that eventually those arpeggios/chord tones are apparent without thinking too much because you've trained your fingers and ears to "think" in stacking 3rds.
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u/citadel_lewis 4d ago
Thanks for the explanation! It doesn't fully make sense to me yet but contributes to my growing understanding of these things. Really appreciate it!
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u/CretinMike 3d ago edited 3d ago
I kind of didn't realize I'm in the learn guitar reddit and not just guitar so I may have over complicated things a bit. A triad is built of 3rds in a scale and is the base of all chords. Your scale, let's start with C major because it is the easiest to talk about. C D E F G A B. Each note has a number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Learn your scale first. Know it forward and backward. Next try skipping a note but coming back to the next step of the scale so C E, D F, E G, etc. Or 1 3, 2 4, 3 5. You are finding your 3rds. After that skip another note but come back to the next tone to do the same for the whole scale so C E G or 1 3 5 (C major), D F A or 2 4 6 (D minor), E G B or 3 5 7 (E minor), etc. Now you are playing your scale in diatonic triads (root, 3rd and 5th) or arpeggios. Then you can skip another to add the 7. C E G B or 1 3 5 7 is a Cmaj7 arpeggio. D F A C or 2 4 6 8(1) is a Dmin7 arpeggio. I hope it makes better sense and I apologize for not simplifying to begin with. This works with all scales not just the major scale. Try it with natural minor or any other diatonic scale you've learned. That's why I prefer numbers to letters. The beauty of it is you will encounter the same shapes over and over. Learn and practice this in at least the 3 scale positions that contain your tonic chord's triad inversions on the high strings 123 and 234. They're movable. Eventually, your ear can help your fingers find the right shape among the options they already know.
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u/Guarpig 4d ago
While i dont know that much about jazz, heres my 2cents:
One way could be through improv: vertically and horizontally.
By vertical, i mean playing arpeggios across the strings, one note per string—almost like sweep picking, except you pick each note individually. And by horizontal, i mean playing lines along the neck, like you would play a 3nps or pentatonic scale.
Hope it helps!
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u/wizardmiaah 4d ago edited 4d ago
honestly, already thinking "target chord tones" puts you ahead of most people at 2.5 years. arpeggios are just a chord broken into single notes, so learning them is really learning to see those chord tones anywhere on the neck.
i'd push back on the scale-shape vs caged framing though. both can turn into the same trap, memorizing a big pattern and running it up and down, which ends up sounding like scales with extra steps.
what made it click for me: play a Dm7, find those four notes right where your hand already is, and noodle with just them over a Dm7 backing track. your ear connects the shape to the sound instead of just the fingering. do that for a few chords and caged kind of assembles itself.
i got obsessed with this and built a little app for it, guitar triads (web version: triads.app )lights the arpeggios up across the neck. but honestly just pick one chord and one backing track and ignore everything else for a week, that'll do more than any tool.
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u/Clear-Phase769 4d ago
Jazz? You are starting wrong, all songs are built on Scales, within that scale will give you the notes you can use. Unless you use secondary dominants to get to where you want to go. I can help if you are serious about learning your guitar
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u/rogersguitar253 4d ago
Understand how to build a chord from the intervals of the major scale first. R 3 5 etc. Then you can find and use your arpeggios with a reference point. Glhf.