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Basic Major Guitar Arpeggios
by Shawn Bradshaw
What the
heck do I need to know them arpeggios for?
Well, guitar arpeggios are the notes of a chord played one note
at a time. One important reason for learning them, is
to use in improvisation where a strong chord sound is
desired. This lesson will cover basic major arpeggio shapes.
Be sure to also learn the basic
minor guitar arpeggio shapes.
Guitar Arpeggio Basics
The root is the letter name of the
chord or arpeggio (A is the root of Am, A7, A5, etc.) All of the
fingering charts in this lesson are written in the same format
as chord charts.
You will play each note one at a time, usually from the lowest
sounding note to the highest, and back down. You will see the
same diagram with two different sets of numbers in the dots. One
is the fingering, and one is the function of the notes in relationship
to the root.
The numbering system for the functions is based
on how the notes compare to the major scale. If you see 1, 3,
5, the notes of the arpeggio are the same as the 1st, 3rd and
5th notes in the major scale. If you see 1, b3, 5 then the b3
is a half step (1 fret) lower than the 3rd note in the major scale.
Note that a small (b) is used to represent a flat
( ). This
is a very common text version of the flat symbol, especially on
the Internet. This is going to be an important concept for applying
music theory to the fretboard. Even if you do not fully understand
the theory behind this, you can still get started with learning
arpeggios.
| A major scale has 7 different notes, and therefore the
functions assigned to the notes of the scale are 1 2 3 4 5
6 7 then it will start over with 1.
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Major scale
functions
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Major arpeggio functions
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Major arpeggio fingering
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Page 2, major guitar arpeggios with
the root on the 6th string 
Basic Major Guitar Arpeggios Guitar Lesson
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