In the last several installments of Lethal Guitar we’ve covered the basics of sweep picking, from various shapes of arpeggios to linking them together across the fretboard. Now we’re ready to move into more complicated approaches and shapes.
In this lesson, the focus will be on major 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, minor 7th, minor 9th, and augmented shapes. The good news is there’s some duplicity here in that you can take some shapes that we’ve already focused on and, with a bit of theoretical knowledge, transform them into shapes with more harmonic depth. Initially this will challenge your ear, but with repetition and determination, you’ll gain an academic and aural understanding of how to apply these ideas.
I’ve noticed that most shred players stick to major, minor, and diminished, but we can go much deeper and still retain integrity in the rock guitar format. I’ve included the chord shapes associated with each arpeggio.
Here we have an A13th arpeggio built from a former minor shape:
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| Taking the same minor arpeggio form we easily transform it into a major 7th: |
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Now we take the minor shape and apply it to the 9th, minor 9th, and minor 7th:
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| We move to the former major arpeggio shape and convert it into a minor 7th: |
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| Now we turn the former major shape into a major 7th: |
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| Here we use symmetry to increase the ease of execution while introducing a new shape the 11th arpeggio: |
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| Taking the same shape and adding 3 new tones gives us a new shape, and an interesting 13th arpeggio: |
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Moving on into an augmented arpeggio shape. Any tone can be the root:
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| Here’s basically the same shape with a more player friendly fingering and an alternate augmented chord shape: |
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In this study we can see how learning the theory behind the music offers the player great possibilities. When I began to study the basic arpeggios I thought I would have to memorize billions of different shapes. But when I studied the theory behind the music, I saw that wasn’t the case. Understanding the math revealed that I should take the basic knowledge and give depth to it. I also found that my favorite players were doing the same thing, so I knew I was on the right track. Remember to practice these slowly at first, always use a metronome, practice with a clean tone, and of course have fun. See you next time in Lethal Guitar.