Major Arpeggios In The CAGED System
Arpeggios are a very useful tool for soloing and making new licks, but many guitarists seem to pass by on them. They are only concerned with the minor pentatonic scale (which is great) and 3 note per string scale licks (which is great too) but they dont seem to give proper attention to arpeggios.
An arpeggio features the same exact notes as the corresponding chord does. For example, a C major chord and a C major arpeggio both have the same notes (C, E, G). The only difference between the two is that the notes in a chord are played together, while the notes in an arpeggio or not, they are instead played individually. The idea behind soloing is to play melodic lines or material that sounds good over the given chord. Since arpeggios use the same notes as the chord, you can't get any better then that.
The CAGED System is system where the guitar neck is divided into 5 areas to make guitar playing easier and more logical. Each of those 5 areas have arpeggio patterns and shapes in them. These are they in the key of D.
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Instructions This arpeggio is within a range of 4 frets so use the one finger per fret rule.
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Instructions This arpeggio is within a range of 4 frets so use the one finger per fret rule.
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Instructions This arpeggio is within a range of 4 frets so use the one finger per fret rule.
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Instructions This arpeggio is within a range of 4 frets so use the one finger per fret rule.
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Instructions This arpeggio is over a range of 5 frets. The majority of the notes are in the 14th to 16th fret range, there is no notes on the 13th fret and 2 notes on the 12th fret. Use your 1st finger for the 12th fret and then your 2nd, 3rd and 4th for the 14th, 15th and 16th frets respectively. |
The dots with red outlines on the diagrams refers to the root notes. If you want to play a C major arpeggio, make sure the root note is on the note C. Likewise, if you want to play a G major arpeggio, make sure the root note is on the note G. The above arpeggios are in the key of D, therefore every dot with a red outline above would be the note D.
Part II - How To Practice Arpeggios