First of all,if you haven`t read the first lesson, I highly suggest you do so. (enter link)
On this lesson I`ll be showing you various arpeggios, each one with its unique sound.hopefully you`ll find something you like and add it to your guitar playing.
Section 1: Diminished Arpeggios (Cause neo classical farts love it!)
Well if you`re familiar with the works of becker, friedman, moore, etc`, you know they just love to use those diminished runs.
E||---------------5h--8--||
B||------------7---------||
G||-----5h--8------------||
D||--7-------------------||
A||----------------------||
E||----------------------||
The most common shapes of that kind are the 4 string shapes(shown above), which can be extended if you take the same thing 3 frets higher, and from there another 3 and so on.
E||---------------------||
B||---------------------||
G||---------------------||
D||--------------7--10--||
A||--------6--9---------||
E||--5--8---------------||
Thats also a diminished run,on the lower strings.
Here`s a nice diminished arpeggio I've come up with, that covers all 6 strings:
E||-----------------------------5h--8--|
B||--------------------------7---------|
G||-------------------5h--8------------|
D||------------4h--7-------------------|
A||-----3h--6--------------------------|
E||--5---------------------------------|
Thats about it for this section. use those shapes to get an idea about the sound and tonality of diminished.
Section 2: Pentatonic Arpeggios (break out of the box)
Every guitarist knows the pentatonic scale and can play it "in boxes". The problem is that most guys are stuck in those boxes and can't really expand the pentatonic sound to more stuff.
Becker showed in the AIM clinic some pentatonic ideas, which are original and great. His advice is to change the order of notes in the scale. Meaning, if we`re playing in A pentatonic minor, the notes are: A,C,D,E,G. So if we play those 5 notes in any order, how much we want to, we`ll get a pentatonic tonality.
Here is a pentatonic arpeggio,which sounds really awesome.
E||--------------------------5h--10--||
B||-----------------------8----------||
G||--------------------7-------------||
D||-------------5h--9----------------||
A||----------7-----------------------||
E||--5h--10--------------------------||
You can check if you`d like to, you`ll see that all the notes in that arpeggio are from the A penta. Minor scale. Thats one idea that you can utilize to every penta. Minor key you want.
Next is another arpeggio, which is actually famous! This is the arpeggio used in the intro of becker`s "perptual burn".
E||--17p-12------------------------12h-17-||
B||---------15------------------15--------||
G||------------16p-12----12h-16-----------||
D||-------------------14------------------||
A||---------------------------------------||
E||---------------------------------------||
This guy is A penta. Minor too! Becker just changed the order of the notes and got a great fresh sound, from an overly used scale.
Last idea for this section is actually playing the penta. Minor scale!
Well not exactly, we`ll play it by sweep picking.
E||--------------------------------------10h-12h-15-||
B||-------------------------------10h-13------------||
G||----------------------7h-9h-12-------------------||
D||----------------7h-10----------------------------||
A||-------5h-7h-10----------------------------------||
E||--5h-8-------------------------------------------||
Its pretty obvious, you got here the A penta. Minor scale, played in 3 different octaves. The key here is to make the arpeggio not sound like the same pattern repeated 3 times.
In order to do that, you`ll need to learn to sweep it, pick every string just once, meaning left hand is all legato. It might seem like an akward thing to sweep, but its possible and sounds great in my opinion!
Section 3: Weird Stuff.
The first weird arpeggio I`ll show is the Augmented. This one is rarely used, mostly because its so damn dissonant! Although you can hear it on cacophony`s "black cat" in the end of the chorus. Here is one shape that covers all 6 strings, you can derive from it smaller shapes. beware as it sounds very nasty!
E||---------------5h-9-||
B||-------------6------||
G||-----------6--------||
D||---------7----------||
A||----4h-8------------||
E||--5-----------------||
I guess you can use it for some shocking breaks, or that kind of stuff.
The next (and last in this section) Arpeggio is the Whole-tone. As you can tell, its based on the whole tone scale. If you`re not familiar with this one, the formula is: 1-2-3-b5-b6-b7. Whole-tone gives you a modern-day classical sound.
E||----------------------11h-15-||
B||-------------------14--------||
G||------------12h-14-----------||
D||---------13------------------||
A||--12h-14---------------------||
E||-----------------------------||
Thats pretty dissonant isnt it? Thats what makes this section "weird"!
That concludes this lesson, I hope you learned something new and liked it. On my next lesson I`ll show you exotic arpeggios, some beautiful stuff that becker showed in some clinics he did back in the day.
P.S: here is a GP5 file that includes all the ideas in the lesson, with some extensions that aren`t written here.
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