How arpeggios connect to chords
An arpeggio is a chord's notes played one after another. Why that makes arpeggios the fastest route from scales to solos that follow the changes, with the chord tones of C major spelled out.
An arpeggio is a chord, spread out
A C major chord is the notes C, E and G played together. Play them one at a time and it is a C major arpeggio. Same notes, same chord, different delivery. That is the whole definition, and it is why arpeggios matter: they are the chord tones, and chord tones are the notes that sound right over a chord.
Why they beat scales for soloing over changes
A scale gives you seven notes, of which three or four agree with the chord of the moment. An arpeggio gives you only the notes that agree. When the chord changes and the arpeggio changes with it, the solo follows the harmony instead of sitting on top of it. Every player who sounds like they are “playing the changes” is doing this.
The arpeggios of C major
Each chord in the key has its own arpeggio, made of that chord's notes:
- C (I): C E G
- Dm (ii): D F A
- Em (iii): E G B
- F (IV): F A C
- G (V): G B D
- Am (vi): A C E
- Bdim (vii°): B D F
Every arpeggio in C major drawn on the neck with its sweep pattern
How to practise them
- Take a two-chord vamp — C to Am — and play only each chord's arpeggio while that chord sounds.
- Then let the arpeggios overlap: end the C arpeggio on E, which is also in Am, and you have a line that crosses the change without a bump.
- Add the scale notes between the chord tones last. Now the scale is decoration on a structure, which is what it was always meant to be.