Once you’re ready to get more technical with your playing, it’s time to start looking at jazz guitar arpeggios. Being able to use your arpeggio shapes is a big part of playing better solos.
Here’s why:
- Jazz guitar arpeggios let you outline chord changes in your solos. By using the notes of each chord in your lines, you’re highlighting the notes that make each new chord tick.
- They show other players where you are in the song if they (or you) get lost. When you’re playing with people that know the tune, outlining the chords can help them get back on track – or catch up to where you are.
- At a high level, they help you give the impression that chords are being played in the background. Even if you’re only playing single note lines. Check out Joe Pass’ Album, Virtuoso for examples of this.
But jazz guitar arpeggios are also tricky to get started with.
You see, for most instruments arpeggios are a fast track to improvisation. When I was in college, I spent a ton of time working on arpeggios. It can be a quick way to get younger players sounding pretty good.
In fact, most of my lower level improv classes were based around playing the different kinds of arpeggios – and connecting them together to create lines through chord changes.
And it makes sense – for most instruments.
The Guitar Fretboard Learning Curve
But for guitar, there is a little steeper learning curve to being able to use arpeggios in your playing.
Your finger patterns cross strings, and it’s easy to get tangled up moving from one chord to the next. The arpeggio patterns that work well with the guitar aren’t necessarily “nice and neat” one octave shapes.
So what should we do? To get the most out of jazz guitar arpeggios, we need to take a little longer approach. It takes time to get these patterns learned to the point where you can actually use them.
Where a lot of students start to get frustrated is they try to learn the skill (jazz guitar arpeggios) and the application (playing through chord changes) at the same time.
I’ll show you how to sidestep this problem. We’ll dive into the details of jazz guitar arpeggios and how they work. I’ll even show you the single octave patterns I used to use because they fit with my college improvisation classes.
But we’ll also take a look at arpeggios in the context of our 5 shape system – because that’s what’s going to get you the most bang for your buck. And finally, you’ll see some of the practice strategies I use with my own students – and in my own practicing.
Ok. Grab your guitar, and let’s dig in.
Understanding Jazz Guitar Arpeggios
An arpeggio is a chord that is played one note at a time. You can think of an arpeggio as a “broken” chord. As in, broken into its individual parts: a root(1), third (3), fifth (5), and seventh (7).
In his book The Advancing Guitarist (Affiliate link), Mick Goodrick calls arpeggios “melted” chords. I like that image – as well. Just find a way to thnk about these that makes sense to you.
In many styles of guitar playing, you play arpeggios all the time by holding down a chord shape and picking through the chord one string at a time.
That’s a good way to play arpeggios, and it can work well as an accompaniment technique. You hear it all the time in popular music, and even classical guitar.
But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about arpeggios as a vehicle for playing melodies – not backgrounds.
We’re going to be playing arpeggios in a way that lines up more closely with your scale patterns. This way, we can use arpeggios to help you create melodic lines through chord progressions.
Types of Jazz Guitar Arpeggios
There are 5 primary arpeggio types in jazz guitar – Major 7, Dominant 7, Minor 7 Minor 7b5, and Diminished 7. These will cover the majority of chords you’re going to come across in jazz guitar.
So if you understand how to play these arpeggios, you will be able to play over just about any chord you find.
- Major 7th arpeggios are made up of a Root (1), Major 3rd (3), Perfect 5th (5), and a Major 7th (7).
- Dominant 7th arpeggios are made from a Root (1), Major 3rd (3), Perfect 5th (5), and a Minor (or flat) 7th (b7).
- Minor 7th arpeggios are built using the Root (1), Minor (or flat) 3rd (b3), Perfect 5th (5), and Minor (or flat) 7th (b7).
- Minor 7b5 arpeggios are made from the Root (1), Minor (or flat) 3rd (b3), Diminished (or flat) 5th (b5), and the Minor (or flat) 7th (b7).
- Diminished 7th arpeggios and made up of a Root (1), Minor (or flat) 3rd (b3), Diminished (or flat) 5th (b5), and a Diminished (or double flat) 7th (bb7).
Don’t Sweat the Theory
Now with all due respect to the correct music theory terms, I don’t use them. At least not in the jazz guitar context.
Don’t get me wrong, they are correct – it’s the right answer on a theory test. And it’s important to know, understand, and use them if you’re studying music in school.
But some of these terms tend to get students confused when we’re talking about chord structures in jazz.
For example – we have a minor 7th arpeggio… but the dominant 7 and minor 7b5 arpeggios both contain a minor 7th interval.
It’s understandable how people can get things mixed up. Trying to square the interval names with the chord names can make you feel like you’re going crazy.
Like the guy tracking a serial killer in the movies – with newspaper clippings all over their walls and string connecting things all over the room. But with jazz guitar arpeggio names instead of a serial killer.
This is why I like to focus on the more practical label.
I’ll typically use a normal number, like 3 – or a flat number, like b3. Here’s why:
- This approach works better with what you’re actually doing to the notes of an arpeggio
- It also matches better with what you would do with these notes in written notation
- You end up with a more solid reference point that’s quicker to think of and use
Using normal numbers – calling the third a 3 or a b3 – is also how jazz musicians typically talk about chord structures. We use a shorthand, not the technical terms from classical theory.
Single Octave Jazz Guitar Arpeggios
Single octave finger patterns are a good way to get the sound of an arpeggio into your ears without keeping track of too many moving pieces.
It’s the closest method to how other instruments learn to apply this material in jazz. But for us there are a lot more shapes to learn by following this method.
It’s simpler from a technical perspective, and there are some jazz guitar players who really like this way of thinking – so let’s take a look. It might just work well for you.
There’s a concept in guitar playing where you split the fret hand into 2 halves: the strong half, and the weak half.
The strong half is made up of your pointer finger and middle finger. And the weak half is you ring and little fingers. The idea is this:
When you’re dealing with one octave patterns, you want to have 2 options for any arpeggio you’re going to play. One pattern that starts with the strong half of the hand, and one that starts with the weak half of the hand.
Let’s take a look at this by arpeggio type. I’ll show you the logical options for both strong and weak half arpeggios.
Major 7 Arpeggios
Dominant 7 Arpeggios
Minor 7 Arpeggios
Minor 7b5 Arpeggios
Diminished 7 Arpeggios
These single octave patterns are a simple way to build up your jazz guitar arpeggios. There aren’t too many moving pieces – you just have to learn some single-octave chunks. Which also means you can get away with learning just a couple of shapes at a time.
You could learn a couple of shapes and work on them in songs for a while, and then come back to learn more. The more shapes you know, the easier it will be to find your next arpeggio shape without moving your hand too much.
But the downside – there is also a lot of material here, which can be overwhelming. Especially if you’re trying to learn it all at once. Just looking at the arpeggio shapes in the last section cna be stressful for some people.
“I have to learn all that?!”
For the majority of my college career, this is how I approached arpeggios and scales. It made sense with what I was being taught by professors who played other instruments.
And as far as jazz guitar went, I was self taught for a while during college – piecing things together from books and one off lessons with players who came through town.
And with some work, I was able to come up with some bigger patterns that I could work up the neck – by connecting these one octave shapes together in various ways.
It was a valuable learning experience. And it also created a giant to-do list in my practice sessions.
If these jazz guitar arpeggio shapes work well for you, that’s great – a lot of jazz guitar players do like these smaller patterns. Go for it, and have fun.
But if this all seems crazy and overwhelming, I’ve got you covered.
In the next section we’ll cover a simpler approach – and one that I think works really well for the majority of guitar players.
The 5 Shapes System – Jazz Guitar Arpeggios
If we apply arpeggios to our 5 shapes system, we can really cut down on the amount of things we have to practice.
This is the exact same system that we use for our jazz guitar chords, and jazz guitar scales. By using this system, you get to use some of the muscle memory you’ve already built up from your scales to play your arpeggios.
Which makes it less work for you to learn jazz guitar arpeggios – so you can use them in your solos sooner!
Plus I’ve found that this covers all of your bases on the “strong side, weak side” theory. Each of the 5 shapes has some of a strong side pattern, and some of a weak side pattern.
So it’s a simpler way to practice your jazz guitar arpeggios, and it blends well with the rest of the skills you’re learning. This is what I recommend to all of my students – use the 5 shapes system. It just works.
You Have to Keep Your Patterns Organized
The 5 shape system I use for jazz guitar arpeggios, scales, and chords isn’t new. Jazz guitarists have been using this for a long time to organize themselves on a fretboard.
In a lesson I took years ago, I was told that Tal Farlow used this system as a way to organize his scale patterns. Since then, I’ve seen this exact system taught in just about every jazz guitar book I could find – with slight variations in finger pattern. Or in what they call each finger pattern.
Most people come across this set of shapes as the CAGED System. And it’s usually geared towards playing movable chords or scale patterns.
The CAGED system lets you relate finger patterns back to open chords you’ve probably been playing forever. It’s a popular method for people getting started with movable patterns on the neck.
I do it a little differently though.
What’s In a Name?
You’ll find countless variations on this system, and it all comes down to the labels people give the scale patterns. They all make sense to different people, and you can see the logic in what each teacher calls their scales if you sit and think about it.
But I like my labels better. Here’s why:
I label all of my shapes by string number. And that string number is where we find the root of the arpeggio.
- The 6th string form has its root on the 6th string
- The 5th string form has its root on the 5th string
- The 4th string form has its root on the 4th string
- The 3rd string form has its root on the 3rd string
- The 2nd string form has its root on the 2nd string
In my experience, this is a faster way to locate your arpeggio patterns on the fretboard – because you’re only looking for a single note, on a single string.
It’s the way my first jazz guitar teacher taught me to navigate the fretboard with chords – and I’ve found it works really well for everything else, too!
5 Shapes of Jazz Guitar Arpeggios
In this section, we’ll take a look at jazz guitar arpeggio shapes each of the 5 main chord types – major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, minor 7b5, and diminished 7.
For each type of arpeggio you’ll find diagrams of the 5 arpeggio patterns, and a link to a more detailed article on that arpeggio type.
Practice these slowly, and one at a time. If you don’t rush through it, you’ll learn it faster.
Major 7 Arpeggios
Dominant 7 Arpeggios
Minor 7 Arpeggios
Minor 7b5 Arpeggios
Diminished 7 Arpeggios
Practical Applications
Connecting Jazz Guitar Arpeggios Across the Fretboard
Jazz guitar arpeggios can be a vehicle for moving your hand up or down the fretboard in a musical way. This lets you change positions to set up your next lick (or a more convenient finger pattern) while still playing your solo.
When you know how to play all 5 of the patterns for an arpeggio, you can start working on shifting between patterns as you play. This is a fun challenge, and will help build your confidence all over the fretboard.
Using jazz guitar arpeggios to change positions lets you keep your solo going as you shift to a new position, and keeps your playing smooth.This sounds and looks a lot slicker than having to stop, move your hand, and then start again in a new position.
To practice this, start small.
Pick 2 arpeggio patterns that are next to each other on the neck. You’ll see examples of this below.
Practice each arpeggio separately, to make sure you have the finger pattern down. Once you’ve got the hang of both patterns, start shifting between them as you go.
You don’t need to plan it out too much – in fact, I’d recommend you keep it kind of loose. Just a general idea of what you want to do is plenty of planning.
Pick a note to stop on, and figure out how you’re going to shift up or down to the next pattern.
Do this on a loop, and you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
The more you do this exercise, the easier it will get – and the smother your position shifts are going to be. And once you feel pretty good with this, move to the next pair of 2 arpeggios.
Before long, you’ll be able to shift all the way up and down the neck, using each arpeggio pattern as a stepping stone.
Use the 5 diagrams below as a guide – they show you every place to play a Cmaj7 arpeggio using this system.
Using Jazz Guitar Arpeggios in Improvisation
The concept behind using arpeggios in improvisation is pretty simple:
- See the chord
- Play the matching arpeggio
- Repeat
What gets trickier is trying to make your playing sound smooth. It’s hard to be able to “see” the whole arpeggio pattern before you play it – so this approach can feel clunky at first.
This is where it pays to take your time, go slow, and plan out your moves in advance. It’s slower, but you’ll learn faster. Trust me on this one.
When you’re working through a song or a chord progression, take your time to plan out your arpeggios in advance.
Decide where your first arpeggio shape will be on the neck (we gotta start somewhere… so pick a spot).
For your next arpeggio, look at your fretboard and find the closest possible place to play it. Your next arpeggio shape will never be more than 2 frets away from where you are. If you’re moving your hand more than 2 frets, you’re not finding the closest arpeggio pattern
And repeat. Continue this process through a few measures of your song, or through a ii V I progression.
This exercise is time consuming at first – but it will make you way better in the long run. It makes you stop and think about what your best choice is going to be – rather than just finding the first thing you can think of.
Which usually isn’t the best choice – it’s just the pattern that seems the easiest to you right now.
Plus you’ll get faster at this exercise the more you do it. And before too long, you’ll be able to do this on the fly – if you’re consistent about it.
Blending Jazz Guitar Arpeggios with Scales
All of your jazz guitar arpeggio patterns come from scales. There is always some logical way to make the patterns match up.
And once you understand how they line up, you’ll be able to mix and match the arpeggio notes with “non-chord tones” in the scale.
In fact, this is how you get what we call extensions – the 9s, 11s, and 13s of the chord. These can be used strategically to add color to your solos, and help you get a more melodic sound in your playing.
This is especially if you’re playing over a single chord for a long time – just the arpeggio by itself is going to get boring fast.
Check out the example below for the arpeggios that fit within the G major scale. You’ll find 2 major 7 arpeggios, 1 dominant 7 arpeggio, 3 minor 7 arpeggios, and 1 minor 7b5 arpeggio.
All contained within one of the 5 major scale patterns.
Playing around with your arpeggios in this context is a great way to see the bigger picture of how arpeggios can fit into your solos.
Exercises and Practice Routines
New Finger Patterns
Whenever you come across a new finger pattern, my advice is the same. Get the mechanics down first.
Play the arpeggio, move up a fret, and do it again.
Keep going until you run out of space, and then work it back down the neck if your hand isn’t tired yet. The repetitions are what will make you good at this.
This process is going to really get the pattern into your muscle memory fast – so you can use it automatically as you play.
Repeat this process with each of the 5 finger patterns. I find that one shape a day is a good way to work this out without spending all of your practice time on a repetitive drill.
Some people like to do more, and that’s fine. But if you’ve got limited time or start to feel overwhelmed, just do one pattern. There’s always tomorrow.
Applying Jazz Guitar Arpeggios
The best way to learn how to solo with arpeggio patterns is to jump in and get your hands dirty. There’s no book that can explain every detail of what you need to do before you get started.
But getting started and trying things out can teach you a lot. And you’ll learn a lot about playing your guitar that would be hard to put into words in a book.
My advice for using these arpeggios in songs is the same as in an earlier section:
- Play the arpeggio for your first chord
- Find the closest place you can play the arpeggio for the next chord
- Continue for 4 bars. Or the rest of the song – whatever works for you
There’s nothing wrong with working out 4 measures of a song for a day. In fact, it might just be what you need to do at first with this kind of work. Start small, and add to your workload as things get easier.
Start With the Root… At First
As you start out, I recommend playing each arpeggio from the root. This is going to help you get the sound of the chord into your ear and understand where you are on the fretboard.
But once you get more comfortable…
… I recommend you start finding the closest note in the closest arpeggio to move to.
Take it really slowly when you start trying this one. Pause when you’re ready to move to the next chord.
Try to picture your next arpeggio shape in your head – in relation to where your finger is right now.
Then, move to the closest possible note in that arpeggio to move on.
It’s hard at first, and you’ll need to go really slowly.
You’ll even need to press pause and give yourself time to think your next move through.
But once you get the hang of it, it will unlock your ability to play changes and visualize your arpeggio patterns on the fretboard.
Conclusion
Jazz Guitar Arpeggios are a great way to improve your technique and play better solos. They help you outline chord changes by using the notes of the chords as a way to create jazz lines.
And jazz guitar arpeggios can also become a kind of cheat code for developing your own jazz vocabulary. You see – by connecting arpeggios smoothly through chord changes, you’re using the same basic tools as the jazz greats that came before you.
But jazz guitar arpeggios are also a lot of work – especially when you’re just starting to learn them. There’s a longer learning curve to using them if you do it right. But they’ll also be a lot more useful to you if you take it slow.
So be patient, and treat them like a technique exercise at first. Because that’s what they will be until you get more familiar with the patterns.
Once you have the basic shapes down, it will be easier to start putting them to work in ii V I progressions, and in songs.
And that’s where the magic happens.
So be patient, and pick an arpeggio shape to work on. Before you know it, you’ll be outlining chord changes like a pro.