How to play great sounding Guitar Arpeggios and sweep away !
Guitar Arpeggios – we love them and no solo is complete without at least one or two of these shred tools.
written by Female Metal Shred Guitarist The Shredmistress who loves her Arpeggios
- Arpeggio are the notes of a chord played individually, rather than together.
- Guitar Arpeggios can be found all over the guitar neck.
- We can play guitar arpeggios across 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 strings.
- This tutorial demonstrates guitar arpeggios across 3 strings (high E, B and G strings).
- Notation/Tablature PDF and a short demo sound example is included below.
GUITAR ARPEGGIOS ACROSS 3 STRINGS
After publishing a cool ** 2 String Arpeggio Tutorial ** played at a moderate pace, let’s step it up a few notches. I wrote a follow-up: How to shred more with Arpeggios.
Here we are using the top 3 strings (E, B, G) to create a repetitive but fun sounding arpeggio at a rather fast pace. Set your metronome to 160 bpm.
Shred Guitar 3 String Arpeggio
Download PDF of Arpeggio Example
A few words to the below exercises:
3 strings are involved: the high E, B and G strings. The chords used for each exercise are: Fm D Bm Fm D A D E Fdim. As I said previously, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the notes that belong to a basic major or minor chord. Repeat after me: A basic major chord contains the 1, 3 and 5 notes of a given major scale. A basic minor chord contains the 1, b3 and 5 notes of a given major scale. For a refresher on this, check out my tutorial on:
** How to Build a Major Scale. **
This guitar arpeggio exercise uses a mix of hammer-ons and pull-offs. Sweep across the 3 strings upward and downward. Occasional, a note is picked. Download the below PDF, which will show you how it is done.
First of all, if 160bpm is too fast for you, start at a slower speed
Make sure all the notes and sweeps sound distinct. Once you have mastered the chord progression at a nice slow speed, increase the metronome and go to town.
To get the best arpeggio effect, set your amp/effects to a highly distorted sound. Make sure that the notes do not run into each other. You want to sweep separately across the strings. Not an easy task. When sweeping, only show a tiny bit of the pick tip. Keep your palm very close to the strings. Some players ‘angle’ the pick just a bit when sweeping downward, and straighten it out when sweeping upward.
Have fun with this cool arpeggio exercise. In addition, I will write more on this topic soon. After all, we have six strings to cover, don’t we?
More Details for Guitar Arpeggios
The term Arpeggio comes from the Italian word arpeggiare, meaning: ‘to play on a harp.’
When playing an arpeggio on the guitar, keep it to sweep picking. That includes hammer-ons and pull-offs. As a result, it creates a seamless, fluid succession of notes.
Who invented Sweep Picking? Well.. evidently guitar wizard Frank Gambale. Seems like he is the one. According to documented sources.
Arpeggios can of course be played with a clean guitar sounds. Therefore, it is a good idea, for clarity, to keep the effects to a minimum. As a result, we can hear each note well. However, the most stunning effects are achieved by using a very highly distorted guitar sound. Probably the most ‘liquid’ sound you can find. That is, nevertheless, the ticket to great sounding, awe-inspiring arpeggio solos.