« Arpeggios… | Home | All The Things You Are »
Arpeggios continued…
By Ernesto | April 16, 2008
Ok, so you’ve learned all the fingerings for every inversion of the basic arpeggios in C, right? Or at the very least you should be somewhat familiar with them. If not, this next step may prove pretty frustrating.
What we’ll do now is apply these fingerings to a tune. It can be any tune…choose one you already know relatively well. Now pick a position on the fingerboard. I generally recommend somewhere around the 5th fret, but it’s up to you.
Now learn the arpeggio for each chord of the tune in that one position. If you’ve never done this type of stuff, it may seem daunting, but it really gets you learning the fingerboard. It was a huge breakthrough for me when I started doing it. Once you get through the first tune, it gets easier.
Once you’ve learned the arpeggios for all the chords, you can start doing it in time. Start with a metronome reaaaally slowly (or Band in a Box if you have it). Make it slow enough so that you can play the whole arpeggio over each chord. As it becomes easier, increase the tempo until your doing it at a moderate pace (100-120bpm).
Easy enough? Well we’re still not done! Now bring the tempo back down and start playing in quarter notes. Start from the sixth string up to the first and back, always in the same position. The thing us, you have to switch arpeggios in the middle of the way!
So let’s you’re playing the first 4 bars of All The Things You Are in the 5th position. You’d start with the lowest note available for Fm, which would be Ab. Then for that bar you’d play Ab, C, Eb and F. Over Bbm you’d lay Ab, Bb, Db and F. For Eb7: G, Bb, Db, and back down to Bb (we’ve reached the first string, so we have to go back down. Finally, for Abmaj7: Ab, G, Eb, C.
Here it is in notation:
This is really more of a mental exercise. Not only are you learning the fingerboard on a deeper level; you’re also learning to play smoothly through changes. Like I said, it was a huge step forward for me and I recommend it to all my students who are interested in improvising.
Have fun.
Topics: Guitar, Improvisation, Jazz, Lessons, Practicing |
