How to Finger Pick Arpeggios on Guitar

It's a fancy-sounding word, and daunting to beginners, but an arpeggio on the guitar isn't that complex. A guitar player picks out notes on the chromatic scale and plays them in a sequence. For someone without any music theory knowledge, there's a learning curve, but eventually, an arpeggio becomes another familiar part of your guitar styles. Here's how to finger pick an arpeggio on an acoustic guitar.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Start with your "base" note. You can tell your base note this way. Your chord is "named" after it. Let's take C, where the third fret of the low A string (second string from bottom) is actually a C note. You will pick this string first in an arpeggio.

2. Make sure your left hand is holding a C major chord formation. That's the third fret of the A string, the second fret of the D string, and the first fret of the B string. The C major is a "diagonal" shape on the fret board.

3. Pick through the strings. After you pick the A string, pick the D (third string from bottom), the G string (the fourth string from bottom), and the B string (second string from top); you should hear a nice, familiar series of notes. That's your arpeggio. It's a first, third and fifth note, and then an octave.

4. Go back down in sequence when you've hit the B string. Think of it like climbing up and down stairs, one at a time. Make your arpeggio picking into a rhythmic, flowing cadence that repeats.

5. Add extras. When you get good at arpeggio finger picking, try adding bass notes, switching your string sequence, or otherwise jazzing up your arpeggio. You'll be playing good chord-based note melodies perfect for rhythm guitar or background music for any formal occasion.