Arpeggios! What are they?
Using chromatic leading notes in arpeggios [Intermediate Lesson].
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I am constantly scouring the internet for new ideas on how to help my students (and you, my subscribers) learn better improvisation skills. Many of my students like the comfort zone of playing the minor pentatonic scales in blues music. That's because the blues is arguably the most forgiving of all music genres. You can kinda get away with murder when you attempt blues improvisation - however, everyone I have ever known, eventually hits that brick wall of getting stuck in the pentatonic box, and not knowing how to break out of it. When my advanced beginner and intermediate students ask me about how to break out of the same old patterns they've been playing forever, I tell them to reconsider learning diatonic scales/modes, and building their chord vocabulary to include jazz chords. This lesson is part of my ongoing series on learning and applying arpeggios to your improvisation.
Intermediate lesson.
One of the best things I have come across this year have been the arpeggio exercises that force you to think in terms of outlining chord structures in your improvisation.
What this does is helps you break out of the pentatonic boxes and linear thinking by expanding your note "reach" in your phrasing. So, instead of constantly playing boring scale notes, you can learn to play arpeggiated chordal structures.
I recently came across a guitar teacher on YouTube who gave me an idea on how to use arpeggios, but altering the way they are played by adding "chromatic leading notes" to the exercise, and by playing "triplets" as a way of making the phrasing a little more interesting.
In the exercise below, you can see that I have chosen the key of "A major".
I think the absolute most important part about this exercise is “logistical finger placement” for each note. I recommend that you try each chord separately a few dozen times until you can figure out the best approach for this. Each shape for each chord cluster is going to be quite different.
Also, remember to play the triplet notes as sets of "3". In other words, when you play the three notes together, you should read out loud, "Tri-ple-et". Go for the three-note cluster feel. It just sounds really cool.
This is not an easy lesson for beginners,
but it is possible for any level of guitar player to practice. With some honest effort and lots of practice, trial and error, anyone can get this. Once you have a pretty good grasp of how these arpeggios sound, you can use them in your improvisation techniques, and you should see an almost immediate, noticeable improvement in the way you play.