Stop 5 of 6
Arpeggios: playing the changes
Chord tones as melody, over every change.
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Stop 5 of 6
Chord tones as melody, over every change.
A solo over a progression can sound "on top of" the music or inside it. The difference usually lies in the notes you choose when the chord changes. In Expression Peaks you learnt to aim for ; now you take that idea all the way: playing the chord tones as melody, with seventh-chord in every position of the neck. Jazz musicians call it "playing the changes".
Go back to 7th position (index on fret 7). These are the Cmaj7 notes that fall under your four fingers:
String 6, Fret 7: B2 · 7 · Seventh
You recognise the picture: it is the E shape of C with the 7 added (fret 7 on the sixth string, fret 9 on the fourth and fret 7 on the first). Play it low to high and back:
Play every note separately, without letting them ring together: an arpeggio is not a slow strum. Lift each finger as you move to the next string, especially on the fourth string, where two notes fall on neighbouring frets (9 and 10).
Like any chord, the Cmaj7 arpeggio exists in the five CAGED shapes. Here are all its notes on the neck: every C major shape you already know, with its major seventh added.
String 6, Open: E2 · 3 · Third
You don't have to learn five new pictures: you already know them. Take the CAGED shape and add the seventh, which always sits a half step below a root. For a dominant arpeggio the seventh is a whole step below; for an m7, the third also drops a half step.
In every CAGED position the arpeggio notes are a subset of the scale: 1, 3, 5 and 7 are four of the seven notes. If you know the scale position, you know the arpeggio: just skip every other note. It works the other way round too: the notes you skip (2, 4, 6) are the ones that connect one arpeggio to the next.
As with chords, seventh arpeggios differ by only one or two notes. Take the Cmaj7 arpeggio in 7th position and transform it:
Compare the Cm7 picture with the Cmaj7 one: same zone of the neck, three notes moved.
String 6, Fret 8: C3 · 1 · Root
This method saves you memorising twenty separate pictures. Learn one arpeggio per CAGED shape really well (the maj7, which matches the major chord shape plus the seventh) and derive the rest by moving degrees. As you do it, say out loud which degree you are moving: that way the exercise trains your hand, your eyes and your theory at once. In time you will stop "deriving" and simply see each arpeggio, but the shortest road there is understanding where every note comes from.
Now the important part: without leaving 7th position you can play the arpeggios of all three chords of a ii–V–I in C. Compare the three pictures:
String 6, Fret 8: C3 · ♭7 · Seventh
String 6, Fret 7: B2 · 3 · Third
String 6, Fret 7: B2 · 7 · Seventh
Notice the notes they share: D and F are in Dm7 and in G7; G and B are in G7 and in Cmaj7. Those common notes are bridges between chords. And the notes that change do so by a half step: C → B, F → E. Exactly as in voice leading.
The key exercise: one arpeggio per bar, switching exactly when the chord changes. So that the line doesn't break, start each arpeggio on the nearest note to the last one you played. Listen:
Look at the seams: bar 1 ends on C (seventh of Dm7) and bar 2 starts on B (third of G7), a half step down. Bar 2 ends on D and bar 3 starts on C, a whole step down. The seams are so smooth that the chord change can be heard in the melody.
Now the same thing with varied rhythm and direction, ending on the third of Cmaj7. It is a short, original phrase built only from chord tones:
The F at the end of bar 2 (seventh of G7) resolves a half step down to the E in bar 3 (third of Cmaj7). That little step is what makes the phrase "land".
A sequence is a short motif repeated from each note of the arpeggio. It breaks the monotony of up-and-down and forces you to see the whole position. Here the motif is three-note groups in triplets: C-E-G, E-G-B, G-B-C…
Other sequences you can invent: groups of four (1-3-5-7, 3-5-7-1…), alternating leaps (1-5, 3-7, 5-1…) or the same motif descending. The rule: the motif must be short and recognisable.
Goal: Play the four-bar exercise over the backing, looping, four times in a row without mistakes at 80 BPM.
Work the sequence in two-minute blocks with a pause between them. When a tempo is clean three times in a row, add 4 BPM. If you plateau, drop 10 BPM: a plateau is almost always broken by playing slower and more relaxed, not faster.
Goal: Play the triplet sequence with even notes at 70 BPM, then apply it to Dm7 and G7.
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