Chords for Paul Gilbert Arpeggio Lesson

_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _
_ _ [D#] _ _ _ [D] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ I want to talk to you about arpeggios.
And in the world of guitar, many people use the sweep picking technique for arpeggios.
And I've done it myself, but I really prefer a lot of [F] other methods.
So I want to introduce you to those, and we'll let the sweepers of the world take care of the sweeps.
Arpeggios.
My favorite way of doing arpeggios is string skipping.
There's a couple different ways to string skip.
The most basic one I would want to show you would be this E [Em] minor triad.
_ _ _ Two notes on the E string, _ and then two notes on the G string, _ and then one note on the D string.
I'm doing that with three downstrokes, and all the rest of the notes are pulled off. _
I like those pull-offs because they make the licks sound very smooth and natural. _ _
_ And that kind of shape allows me to do different phrases, _ _ _ hammer-ons and pull-offs. _ _ _
_ To me, that kind of phrasing is very natural and very musical and very useful in tempo.
So experiment with using those in different [Gm] tempos in your music.
_ [A] _
[Gm] _ [Em] _ [D] _ _ It's a cool way of throwing in arpeggios with almost more of a pentatonic style of phrasing.
_ Another way of doing arpeggios is to take a short or small shape.
For example, this [Em] shape.
_ Very simple.
I'm using the same frets, 7 and 10, on the low E and low A string.
And this happens to be all the notes in an E minor 7th arpeggio.
_ [E] It's got [G] the root in the 3rd, [B] it's got the 5th and the 7th.
That's all you [G] need.
So let's take it up an octave and start it here. _
Same fingering shape, just an octave higher.
_ [G#m] And once again up [G] an octave.
_ _ _ So real slow. _
_ _ This is a really cool way of visualizing how to play an arpeggio.
_ Because you have the same shape in three places.
[B] And all you have to do to be able to find those places is know where your octaves are.
So I'm looking for the B here, here and here.
And you can even practice moving your first finger between those B notes.
_ _ _ [G#] That way your hand gets used to the technique and your eye gets [B] used to visualizing that [G] position shift in order to make that arpeggio happen. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Let me show you a couple more examples because this is a really good technique for even more complex 7th arpeggios.
For example, how often do you play a C sharp minor 7 flat 5 arpeggio?
[B] Probably not very often, but that's because you don't know one.
Or at least I didn't until [Em] _
I [B] learned this very simple shape.
It's B and C [C#] sharp, [Em] then E and G.
That's it.
That's all you have to know. _ _
And then just put that in the octaves.
Up an octave starting on B.
Up an octave starting on B.
_ Same shape every [C#] time.
_ Then just experiment with it to try to find hammer-on and pull-off sequences that allow you to go between the positions. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ By coincidence, [G#] this [A] arpeggio to me sounds really good over an A7 chord as well.
It's sort of a chord substitution.
The jazz people can explain it to you better than I can.
But it sounds nice over this chord.
_ _ [C#] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [E] You can even add the [A] A, the root of the chord, into the arpeggio by [C#m] sliding [Em] into your original [Am] shape.
I do A, slide up to the B, and then I've [C#m] got my original [A] shape. _
And I can do that each time.
Here's the A.
Here's the A.
_ _ _ _ _ That's a nice sounding arpeggio.
_ [C#] _ _ _ _ [N] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ [N] _ _ It really allows you to travel over the fretboard _ in new ways that you might not have found before.
And they're pretty easy to visualize because they're all the same.
You can even do something as simple as a bend. _
And do that in different octaves.
This is again using the octave idea _ to expand your playing.
Those are all B going up to C, a half-step bend. _
Or _ _ _ add a little [D] phrase to it. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Any lick you have, you can do in different [F] octaves. _ _
_ _ _ [D] You could do a cool phrase like this. _
_ _ [D#] _ [D] _ _ [E] _ [C#] _ [Dm] _
There's so many different ways of using octaves to get over the fretboard. _ _
[G#m] Three note per string scales work that [G] way as well. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ [Dm] _ _ [E] _
So I [A] recommend learning _ [G] those octaves and suddenly the world of arpeggios [D] will _ come flying open and you can enjoy them and rock and roll. _ _ _ _ _ _ _