After messing around with different scales in different keys, arpeggios and their function in solos caught my eyes (to be exact my ears). I have difficulties use them properly. Can someone explain to me how i can use them and how greatest guitarists use them?
tnx
You could probably write an entire book on the subject so not easy to answer simply.
The best thing to do is practice as much as you can with them, start out by playing arpeggios only … over each chord in a progression. Get used to them to a point where you can play them without pausing.
Don’t try to get too musical with them at first, just learn and try to play them in multiple positions. Once you’ve got them down, try breaking them up and incorporating them among your scale playing.
Over time you will find yourself thinking about the notes within the chords you are playing over and your soloing should start to reflect the chord changes. Don’t think of arpeggios as a kind of scale that needs to be played ascending and descending, i.e., there’s no need to play all of the notes in an arpeggio – you could play just one or two notes, repeat notes, slide or bend into them etc.
Do things like this a thousand times, start with simple three chord progressions so that your brain has enough time to keep up while you’re learning them. It takes a little time but you’ll see a whole new world start to open up within your solos.
Play around with as many ideas as you can think of. For example you could play a scale over one chord, arpeggio over the next. Use them with just three strings, or four, or five it doesn’t matter. All of this gets you to where you want to be, which is thinking about chord tones as well as scales.
