How to Play an Arpeggio on the Guitar

Once you know chord structures on a guitar, it's easy to turn those into arpeggios.

Playing a chord is the basic style of playing a guitar, but separating that chord from a strum into a slow roll is an arpeggio. An arpeggio, also known as a broken chord, is playing or singing the notes of a chord in sequence, rather than all together. Often arpeggios are used as a part of the fingerpicking style of playing on a guitar, but they are a common musical device on any instrument. Playing them is very simple.

Instructions

1. Create a chord on your guitar. In open tuning, the guitar already tunes to a certain chord. In standard tuning, use your left hand on the fingerboard to create a chord. For example, an E minor chord is played by putting your fingers on the fourth and fifth string (the ones second and third closest to you) on the second fret.

2. Run either your pick or your right hand slowly across the strings above the sound hole, from the string closest to you (the biggest string) to the one farthest from you. This will arpeggiate the chord that your left hand is forming by separating it into individual notes on each string.

3. Pick an arpeggio with your right fingers in rhythm, while your left hand forms a chord. Change the chord fingering on your left hand while continuing to pick and arpeggiate, giving the sound a feel of continuity while changing the chord that you play.

References

• Guitar Secrets: Guitar Arpeggio Exercise

Resources

• Chordie: Chord Tabs