Hello Everyone! This lesson, I'm going to give you some fun arpeggio licks that I use in my playing. The lesson is adapted from my first instructional video Virtuoso Rock Fusion Concepts. I hope that you will learn from them and make up your own arpeggio licks. Be sure you follow the fingerings above the notation. Lets get started...
| Example 1 We have four arpeggios from the key of C major on the first three strings. The first arpeggio is a C major (C, E, G) the second one is B diminished (B, D, F) the third one is Am (A, C, E) and the last one is G Major (G, B, D). These are some of my favorite arpeggio shapes, you can really get these flying up and down the neck. I don't use sweep picking for these, I alternate pick the notes and use a pull off on the first string. Make sure you move these shapes around the neck to different keys. | |
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| Example 2 Now we are going to do string skipping arpeggios. This is a really cool way to play arpeggios. They are played on the first four strings, but we don't even play the B string. The first arp is a Em arp (E, G, B), the second is G major (G, B, D) the third is a F#m (F#, A, C#) and the last one is D# dim (D#, F#, A). I use hammer-ons and pull-offs to make them more fluent sounding. The progression is based off an E dorian scale, except the D#dim which is from the E harmonic minor scale. | |
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| Example 3 This is the main theme from my song "Touch the Sky" from my Full Circle cd. The arpeggios are based off the E major Scale (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#) in 6/8 time. The first arp is a E maj9 (E, G#, B, D#, F#). The second is a C#m7#5 arpeggio, (C#, E, A, B) and the last one is a B add9 arpeggio (B, D#, F#, C#). I don't use any sweep picking for this one either, I use alternate picking. | |
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| Example 4 Our last lick starts off with some extended arpeggios. In the first bar we have a F#-11 arpeggio (F#, A, C#, E, G#, B). I rearranged the notes so it drapes across the neck. The next arp is G add9 #11 ( G, A, B, C#, D), which is based off the G lydian scale. For this one, I also spread the notes across the neck—pretty cool huh? The second measure uses smaller triad arps: A Maj (A, C#, E) and G maj (G, B, D). The last two arps are Bm7 (B, D, F#, A) and F#m7 (F#, A, C#, E).The last measure of this lick sounds great over an A Dom11 chord because the notes in the triads A and G make up that chord. Again, no sweeping is used, but feel free to experiment. | |
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That wraps up this month's lesson! Feel free to email me any questions you might have, and visit mikecampese.com for more info.