Modifying
Arpeggios to Add Melody
By
Forum-Member Adam Ironside
After
you’ve learnt to sweep pick basic shapes and can play them pretty
fast your probably thinking; ‘well they are pretty cool but not
really musical.’ If you dont think like this then your well on
your way to being an
uber-shredder, haha, but most of us get bored of playing the same
shapes up and down the neck, this is where this lesson comes into
play:
**MODIFYING
ARPEGGIOS – TO MAKE THEM MORE MELODIC**
[[NOTE
– On the video i show you each example, first slow, then fast…]]
By
adding subtle notes to the standard shapes of the arpeggios you
can totally change the feel and sound of it. This can be anything
from adding a single note to adding several different notes and
techniques which totally reshape the sound of your arpeggio and
make it more musical and interesting to listen to. I am going
to show you examples of this with the GMajor arpeggio.
Excersise I
This is a
standard G Major sweep arpeggio across five strings.
e|————10h15p10————–|
B|———-12——–12————|
G|——–12————12———-|
D|——12—————-12——–|
A|–10h14——————–14p10–|
E|———————————-|
The
G Major arpeggio is a standard three note arpeggio (G,B,D) and
is pretty melodic in itself. However this can be made more melodic
and interesting by adding the seventh note of the scale to it,
an F#.
Excersise II
Add
the F# to the G Major Arpeggio and you get a GMajor Seventh (GMaj7).
This particular shape requires a tap on the 15th fret on the e
string, be careful to make this accurate and fluid first before
fast. Here it is…
e|—————10h14-[15]-14p10—————|
B|————-12—————-12————-|
G|——–11h12——————–12p11——–|
D|——12——————————12——|
A|-10h14———————————-14p10-|
E|———————————————-|
So,
the GMaj7 arpeggio has four notes to it (G,B,D,F#). This arpeggio
gives a unique and interesting sound to your playing and sounds
just as interesting slow as it does fast. Here are some more modifications
to the G Major Arpeggio…
Excersise III
Now
then, excersise three shows us how to play a Gsus2 Arpeggio (GMajor
with Suspended second note) which I personally often use in place
of a standard major arpeggio as it has quite a unique sound.
e|————10h15p10————|
B|———-10——–10———-|
G|——–12————12——–|
D|——12—————-12——|
A|-10h12——————–12p10-|
E|——————————–|
This
shape is very similar to that of a standard G Major shape and
all you are doing is replacing the B note with the note which
is a scale tone lower, A, which gives you the following three
note arpeggio… (G,A,D)
EXCERSISE IV
Excersise
IV is an extended six string G Major arpeggio with an added C
note which gives it a bit of a lydian flavour. Usually the C note
would take the place of the B note making the arpeggio a sus4
(as shown in the excersise V) but here this is not the case as
the C note is only played at one oppertunity which makes it even
more unusual. This particular apreggio can be fairly difficult
to play so start off slow and work your speed and
accuracy up.
e|———————–7h10p7—|
B|———————8——–8-|
G|———4h5p4—–7————|
D|——-5——-5s7————–|
A|—–5————————–|
E|-3h7—————————-|
This
shape also introduces the use of a slide in your playing. Watch
the video closely for the stange fingering required to play the
note following the slide.
EXCERSISE V
This
excersise sees us return to a five string arpeggio formation,
this time, as discussed in excersise IV, we are going to replace
the B note of the G Major arpeggio with a C note which gives us
as Gsus4 arpeggio. The
notes of this arpeggio are (G,C,D)
e|————10h15p10————|
B|———-13——–13———-|
G|——–12————12——–|
D|——12—————-12——|
A|-12h15——————–15p10-|
E|——————————–|
This
arpeggio has a very unusual and interesting sound and as far as
i am aware is not overly used in rock and metal but fusion players
use this shape sometimes.
Okay, so now that you know a few different variations on the G
Major
arpeggio you are probably wondering how to link them together.
Combining
different shapes gives you a whole wierd and wonderful world of
sounds to
explore such as the following example…
EXCERSISE VI
This
excersise combines two arpeggios, first a Gsus4 and then the Gsus2.
This provides a very unusual sound…
e|————10h15p10————|
B|———-10——–10———-|
G|——–12————12——–|
D|——12—————-12——|
A|-10-15——————–15p10-|
E|——————————–|
The arpeggios
has the notes (G,C,D – G,A,D).
Experiment and see if you can come up with your own unique sounding
arpeggios.
Finally
in this lesson i will show you two examples of how to interlink
these arpeggio shapes using various techniques, i hope you have
fun playing these, they are pretty flash to watch but also musical.
EXAMPLE I
This
example plays through the GMaj7 arpeggio then follows up with
a Gsus4 arpeggio which has a nice sliding tap between notes B
and C on the e string. This is a really nice sounding melodic
lick and i hope it comes in useful
for you.
e|—————10h14[15]14p10———————–10h15[19]s[20]s[19]15p10———–|
B|————-12————–12——————-13————————13———|
G|——–11h12——————12p11————12—————————-12——-|
D|——12—————————-12——–12——————————–12—–|
A|-10h14——————————–14-10h15————————————15p10|
E|—————————————————————————————|
Nice sounding
huh?
EXAMPLE II
This
example is a lot more complex than example I and alot more flash
to watch but it still maintains musicallity, work hard at this
one and i hope it is of use to you!
e|———————–7h10p7——————————-10h14[15]14p10——10h14s19p15——|
B|———————8——–8—————————10————–10—10———–17—–|
G|———4h5p4—–7————7————-11h12p11–12——————12—————16—|
D|——-5——-5s7—————-9———12——–12—————————————-17-|
A|—–5——————————10-10h12——————————————————-|
E|-3h7————————————————————————————————|
Well
there you go, i hope you found this lesson interesting, infromative
and useful and i hope it has aided you in some way.
Adam Ironside
TAB SYMBOLS
h = hammer-on
p = pull-off
[] = Tap
s = slide
