Andy Basiola Guitar Lessons

When introducing my students to arpeggios, here is a simple exercise I often show them.

It's about targeting the chord tones (in this case the root notes of each chord). The example is in the key of G major and the chord progression is: G, D , Em, C

We are using the first 2 shapes of the G major scale, starting by playing the root note of each chord for the first 3 beats of the bar, followed by a 4 sixteenth notes line that uses the notes of the arpeggio of that particular chord, before resolving on to the next root note of the following chord:

Ex: start by playing the G root note, then a line using the notes of the G major (or Gmajor 7) arpeggio, then landing on D and so on..

This is a good improvisational tool as we are training our ear to target the chord tones.
This example is targeting root notes, but we can also target 3rds , 5ths, etc...

If you want to give it a try, I ll put the tab and the backing track in the first comment, and you can then also try your own ideas

My student Dinis performing “Take Five”