Guitar Today

 A guitar arpeggio is a broken up guitar chord where each note is played individually instead of playing them all in one strum. It is like taking a guitar chord and stretching it out, note by note across several strings and frets on the guitar neck.

Arpeggios are a great easy way to add interest to your guitar solos by using them to transition from lick to lick or even to another key. You don’t have to be a Guitar Hero like Yngwie Malmsteen or even Zakk Wylde to make use of arpeggios in simple forms here and there. It is easy and sounds great to take one chord and play it in the form of an arpeggio within your normal guitar soloing routine.

There are three ways to play an arpeggio:

Conventional guitar picking - This would be the method of picking you are likely used to by now. It is simply plucking notes individually alternating between up and down strokes.

Hammer on / Pull-off technique- You can mix hammer-ons and pull-offs ‘ into any peice of music to give it a smooth guitar solo style.  When playing a multi-string arpeggio on the guitar you may want to use either a hammer on or pull off, or several of them to add more interest to your playing.

Sweep-picking technique - Sweep picking is an easy guitar method to master which produces a very cool effect. You can practice sweep picking by fretting a guitar chord that you are comfortable with (such as a Am) and strumming with a rigid wrist to pluch each note individually. Use a sweeping motion of the pick and combine with your fret hand technique to sound each note of the chord indivually.

Example of a major guitar arpeggio:

Practice this arpeggio using each of the three techniques for arpeggios that we have covered in this online guitar lesson

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