A Simple Exercise To Learn All The Arpeggios On Your Guitar
Knowing how to play all the arpeggios on your guitar AND being able to recall them at a moment's notice is a basic skill that every guitar player should have.
Note that I'm not talking about 'shredding mindless arpeggios at 300 BPM'. I'm talking about being able to find at a moment's notice (for instance) how to play an F#m arpeggio around the 8th fret of your guitar.
This is not an hypothetical scenario: this is what happens if you are trying to target chord notes in your solo (which is what you should do to sound 'in' the chord progression). If you are not able to do that, either by ear or by knowing where the arpeggios are on the fretboard, then you are simply noodling and hoping to stumble on something good. Not the best plan.
(Incidentally, the best thing is to be able to do that BOTH by ear AND by knowing where the arpeggios are.)
In my experience as a guitar teacher, I noticed how very few guitar players can do this fluidly... and this is simply because most of them have no idea how to train it. Some expect to gain this skills "just by playing" (sadly, this won't happen). Some other think it's just too hard to learn.
So here's what we are going to do. In the video below I show a super-simple exercise that will show you how to find INSTANTLY arpeggios over all the fretboard. If put this exercise into your daily practice, you will be amazed how fast you will get to know your fretboard inside out.
I call this exercise "Intelligent Guitar Hero", because just like the video game Guitar Hero you can have fun by hitting the right note... only with this practice you also learn to play REAL guitar!
Note that this exercise is completely system-agnostic. You can use this even if you use the dreaded - gasp! - CAGED system (though I wouldn't know why you would like to do that to yourself... but to each his own)
Anyway, here's how the exercise works:
Isn't this fun? You can make it as hard or as easy as you want by changing the speed and complexity of the chord progression, and if you are motivated by competition you can also make it a game among guitar playing friends.
And don't forget to check out the free course on chord note soloing that will show you how to use arpeggios to always hit the right note when you improvise a solo.
Did you find this video helpful? Do not miss the next Music Theory videos!
Subscribe to the MusicTheoryForGuitar YouTube channel by clicking the button below.