Unlocking the neck - arpeggios #4

This exercise will take you through all the arpeggios in the key of G. 

Once you have mastered each if these exercises ascending up the neck, practice them descending.  When you are descending, you'll need to thing about the fingering to make the transitions smooth from one arpeggio down to the next.  Take your time on this as it is a great way to build some muscle memory in your fingers and this will help you fluency moving around the neck.

And for ease, here are the links to all the exercises.

Arpeggios #1 - key of C

Arpeggios #2 - key of E

Arpeggios #3 - key of A

And finally here is a 12-bar study

12-bar #1

12-bar #2

Unlocking the neck - arpeggios #3

Another arpeggio exercise, this time in A.  Once you have each of the exercises under your fingers, you can start to build up speed and fluency.

Arpeggios in the key of A

Unlocking the neck - arpeggios #2

Here is a study of the arpeggios in the key of E.  There are some tricky fingerings so take your time.

Here is arpeggios #1

Unlocking the neck - arpeggios #1

Unlocking the neck is a key milestone for guitarists.  The ability to see, hear, and most importantly access, all the tones in a key as chords, notes and arpeggios really expands your playing.  It gives your options for writing, comping, filling and improvising and if you've ever been trapped in the boxes (like I have been) arpeggios will give you an escape route.

A lot of online lessons recommend learning arpeggios shape-by-shape and I did that for a while but ended up getting trapped in a different set of boxes.  It's also a bit artificial as you are never likely to encounter a song that calls for the same type of arpeggio throughout, except perhaps for traditional blues.

So why don't you try learning arpeggios in keys?  That way you'll mix major, minor and diminished shapes as demanded by the chords in the key - just like in a song.

Here's an exercise in C to get you started.

Five steps to connecting up the blues

I've been on a mission to turn myself into a blues guitarist for a couple of years now.  For me I am using it as gateway to understanding a bit more theory and getting started with improvising. 

One of the things I struggled with for a while was mixing chords and lead fills.  Pentatonics got me so far but I was missing something.  I went out to a local blues jam session and was watching a couple of local players tearing it up all over the neck.  Not shredding but really melodically moving from one chord and position to another, and always seeming to be hitting those chord tones, and loads of different turnarounds.

It was clear I didn't know the neck well enough to hear and hit those connecting lines fluidly.

So this is the first part of what I did to boost my skills and connect up the blues using intervals and double-stops based on the chords.

Click here for the neck diagram. The diagram shows the dominant 7 chord tones for a blues in A (A7, D7, E7) all over the 4th (D) and 2nd (B) strings.  Here's how you use it.

1. Record yourself a slow 12 bar blues in A on a looper or on your phone.

2. Over the loop, practise playing the intervals over each chord - A shapes over A, D shapes over D and E shapes over E. Try to start and finish on the shapes that are shown as solid yellow, green and blue. These are the chord tones. Get used to how they sound over their home chord and how the different combinations of tones sound and feel different.

3. When you are comfortable with moving from chord tones, use the connecting notes indicated as coloured rings to move from one tone shape to another. You'll start to hear blues and country sounds (and clichés) straight away. Focus on landing on a chord tone shape in time with your loop or backing track.

4. When you are comfortable playing A shapes over A etc start practicing moving shapes with the chord changes. For example, over A, start with a solid yellow tone shape and move to a solid green tone shape as the chord changes to D at the end of bar 4 in your 12-bar.  Then from green to blue with the change from D to E.  Make sure you hit the change of tone shape dead on the chord change.

5. When you are comfortable playing with the changes, start using those connecting pairs to move from one chord to another.  You'll need to start moving ahead of the chord change, and hit the next tone shape dead on the chord change.

Follow the page for more charts in different keys and working off different strings.