Arpeggios - tips and tricks to play these well and how to use the

[ald]

I'm not sure if this is really on the same topic but here goes. The kind of arpeggio playing I am interested in is those little fillers used during songs. Most recently, Ralph Porter posted a chordal version of Moon river and in between the chords he fills in with arpeggio patterns. Marc Woodward often does this with tunes (Yesterday) and Songs (Twist of fate). I can copy their tunes reasonably easy (although they might demur if they heard my versions of their tunes) but I would like to be able arrange a couple of tunes myself.
For instance, I picked up the revised edition of The Penguin of world history this morning and starting singing "Don't know much about history". Which reminded me that I have always wanted to play that tune. But not just banging the chords, something a bit more sophisticated with arpeggio patterns for the verses and neat little licks in between. Does anybody have any tips on how to set about this? What kind of pattern would fit in, etc. I'm playing it in D, so start off with 4th string sixth fret, 3rd string fourth fret, then open string and open string (which is a king of D) but then have to do closed chords for the G, Bm and A (if anyway has any modal type alternatives with more open strings to suggest!). I'm tentatively trying a 4,3,2,3, 1 ,2,3,2 pattern for the verse. Any other suggestions are welcome. And what other pattern options are there, for different rhythms, for example.

[Killian King]

.....Now I need to get back to "All 12 Melodic Minor Scales In Open Position".

And, loving it!
--Maxwell Smart

[greg_tsam]

I liked this video.

[John Flynn]

I am no expert, but I highly recommend learning cross-picking rolls with the right hand. Cross-picking chords is of course a type of arpeggio and I have found it very useful in a lot of different kinds of music. Rolls can be used for accompaniment and fills, and at more advanced levels lead to "chord-over-melody" and "duo-style" playing. Cross picking has opened up a lot of possibilities for me.

[belbein]

I hope that is acceptable playing practice.

"Acceptable playing practice" is whatever works. If it sounds good to you-or the people you're playing with-- it doesn't matter what Bill Monroe did! People who insist that there's an "acceptable" vs. "unacceptable" way are nut cases. Music is art, not religion, and what matters is the music, not someone's idea of "correct " orthodoxy. Sounds to me from all your posts like you're on the right path. Keep experimenting.

[gregorx]

Funny You asked this question today. I just started working on the follow-up book to the very popular "Mandolin For Dummies".

18 months into the mandolin (2 hrs a day) i know I want to need to learn all about arpeggios. After reading the reviews on this book, I just placed an order on Amazon.

Looking forward to more hard work.

Thanks Don...keep up the great videos and books.

greg west

[JonZ]

At the end of the day, you get good at what you practice. If you spend a lot of time playing "patterns", you will get good at playing patterns. If you use arpeggios to create interesting musical phrases, you will get good at using arpeggios to create interesting musical phrases.

Prioritize accordingly.

Also, the speed at which you can transition among arpeggios and other note collections is more important than the speed at which you can play any particular item. Practice transitions.

[Cindy]

I think I found this here in another context but it was the one thing that really made arpeggios come alive for me, because I found this exercise so much fun! (Your mileage will vary.) Now the first thing I do when I get near my mandolin is run through some arpeggios in a few keys. I'm more fluid in some than in others, but every day I get better and I'm beginning to apply them out in the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBTh4O-_wjM

[dulcillini]

This is a good book. I have it. I need to spend more time with it too !!

[tmsweeney]

The Mike Marshall fun with Arpeggios homespun CD- stresses the importance of arpeggios in Bluegrass, but I believe it is also relevant to most genres of western music.
So when you have a song in a key say C for example, for the most part you stick to the C scale regardless of the underlying chord.
When you play arpeggios - you change the arpeggio to fit the underlying chord. This can be "corny" if used excessively and in some bluegrass it can be over done. However -Mike has exercises where you practice changing the arpeggio with the chord, not as easy as it sounds, but the effect at least for Blue Grass solo's and ornamentation is profound.

[DavidKOS]

Good thread!

One arpeggio "trick" is to use two string pairs - the G and D string, the D and A strings, and the A and E strings - and use fingerings that make a chord arpeggio on each pair of strings.

The idea is that by using the same fingerings on higher pitched strings and progressively higher positions, one can play 3 octave arpeggios with some degree of ease.

Example: A7 chord

Play fret 2 and 6 on the G string, A and C#, and fret 2 and 5 on the D string, E and G

Use the same pattern starting from the 7th string A on the the D strings, and the 12th fret A on the A string, and you have a 3 octave arpeggio.

[Simon DS]

Another trick is to always remember the position of the root of your key.
The fourth is next to it but near the sky, the fifth is on the other side next to the ground. They form a bar of three places. Now see the shape of the bar if you add the fourth above the root and the fifth below the root -it’s a back-to-front ‘S’ shape.
Now you have a lot of places on the fretboard.

ALL major arpeggios starting from any of these places have the SAME shape.
Major double stops? -same shape.

Try DavidKOS pattern starting from any part of the back-to-front S shape.

[dadsaster]

Here are some exercises per Tim o'Brien;

Not to derail the thread but can someone tell me what the 3-4 with the I chord means? It sits over the tab at the beginning of each arpeggio group.

Thanks