Arpeggios

[Christoph]

I have a question about using arpeggios. When playing along with a guitar for example, a G-C-G-D progression. Would I play the G arpeggio when the guitar is on the G chord, then do a position change and go to C arpeggio, then to D arpeggio when the guitar is strumming D? I’ve always been more of a rhythm player on guitar and would like to branch off and begin doing more melodies and lead with the mandolin. Thanks, Jim.

[AlanN]

For that chord progression, you don't need a position shift. Arpeggios can be played over G-C-D all in first position.

[Christoph]

Okay, thanks!

[mandotopia]

If you do it all in first position, you would need to crosspick on the c arpeggio. I like to go to third position (first finger, fifth fret, g string) for the c arpeggio. Then I can use a g arpeggio starting with the first finger on 5th fret of the d string. Of course you want to get good at both and be comfortable moving between them. They each have different advantages and disadvantages relating to speed and tone. It is sometimes useful to use arpeggios to jump up to the higher voicings of the g,c and d chords.

[John McGann]

The notes you seek are:

G- GBD
C- CEG
D- DF#A

These are the root, 3rd and 5th of each chord.

This is a "1,4,5" or I, IV, V chord progression in the key of G.

Note that the G and C chords have a common tone (G) as does the D and G chords (D)- you can think of those notes as 'links' between the changes.

From your low string (G) you can get everything in 1st position:

GBDGBDGB
GCEGCEG
ADF#ADF#A

Try some patterns, like GBD BDG DGB etc.

Then, rather than jumping to the root note at the point of chord change, try connecting to the next chord by just moving up or down from the current chord tone (arpeggio note) to the nearest note of the new chord.

Say you are on the C chord and the last note played is an E- the next beat starts the G chord- you could go up to G (which happens to be the root) OR down to D (the 5th of the chord).

Say you are on the C chord and the last note played is an C- the next beat starts the G chord- you could go up to D (5th of the G chord) OR down to B (3rd of the G chord).

Of course, you can skip around and NOT do the above- the above is the idea of 'voice leading', where you connect from the 1st chord to the 2nd chord in the 'smoothest' way possible (the least amount of movement)- it is an old trick that has served music really well since the earliest days of chords around 400 years back or so...hard to believe there was a time before the chop chord, but there ya go...

Listen to how each note sounds against the chord- they each have a different 'personality'. Those are great notes to know really really well, since they are the most "foolproof" notes to play against a chord, and if you analyze what melodies are made of- most melodies are at least 85% chord tones (assuming music that uses chords, like bluegrass or rock and roll, and assuming the absence of a lot of "blues notes").

Hope you enjoy playing with that- the discovery rocked my world

[Christoph]

Wow, really helpful. Thanks for taking the time to type this out.