{"id":27311,"date":"2023-07-21T22:30:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T02:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=27311"},"modified":"2023-07-22T05:22:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T09:22:09","slug":"arpeggios-music-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/arpeggios-music-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Arpeggios: Basic types and how to use them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Illustration:<\/strong> Leo Peng<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arpeggios are an incredible musical tool that can be used in a wide array of contexts.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Much like with triads,<\/a> a fundamental understanding of arpeggiation can significantly open up one\u2019s compositional skills and improvisational abilities. In this article, we break down what arpeggios are, the basic types, some advanced applications, and how to use them in your music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What are arpeggios?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An arpeggio<\/strong> takes the individual notes which make up a given chord and plays them successively in ascending<\/a> and \/ or descending<\/a> order (rather than simultaneously or with a strumming action). While arpeggios are constructed by as few as three individual pitches, their usage regularly spans across at least two octave ranges of each, creating a flowing sound which can feel much more like a playing a scale than playing a single chord. This is a reason why arpeggios can also be referred to as broken chords.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many MIDI keyboards today boast some type of arpeggiation mode, including one of the most common pieces of starter hardware for producers in the MPK Mini<\/a>. In this case, the idea of breaking up a chord is made incredibly clear, as by simultaneously holding down as few as two keys, the player will hear the individual notes played in steps at a set tempo. More advanced synthesizers and MIDI instruments can create far more complex arpeggiated pathways, such as the Arturia MicroFreak<\/a> used in an example below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How arpeggios are played<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Outside of MIDI, the usage of arpeggios in live performance is commonly associated with stringed instruments in classical and jazz styles. We may consider the root of the word itself, which derives from arpeggiare<\/em> in Italian, meaning “to play a harp,” which in itself evokes the rhythmic, swift plucking of chords on the instrument. Here’s also to hoping that this may inspire a few metal guitarists out there to start honoring the instrument which brought them their cherished sweep picking\u2014at a minimum, wouldn’t smashing a harp be just as much (if not more) fun than smashing a guitar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of which, in addition to the harp and piano, the guitar is undoubtedly one of the most well-known stringed instruments that’s particularly well-equipped to showcase arpeggiation. This is exemplified quite well here by Ichika Nito,<\/a> though most often guitars and arpeggios are associated together through the aforementioned method of sweep picking. Also called “sweeping” and quite popular in metal and metal-adjacent genres, this approach to broken chords rapidly spits out the determined notes across the six strings of a guitar while the player largely maintains the same fretboard position. The movement is visually very vertical, whereas playing arpeggios on a piano would call for a lot of side-to-side movement depending on the number of keys and how many octaves the player is traversing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Examples of arpeggios: Major, minor, augmented, and diminished<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you’re a listener of groups like Polyphia or Daft Punk, your ears are likely already quite attuned to the use of arpeggios. To get acquainted with their sound, let’s start by having a listen to a basic major arpeggio performed on a nylon string guitar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let’s also hear some examples of minor, augmented, and diminished<\/a> arpeggios:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arpeggiating more complex chords<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What becomes really interesting here is that, when exploring arpeggios, there’s one more type that goes well with any given key: the dominant seventh arpeggio. This chord is typically constructed from the 5th degree of a scale, embellishing the major triad with a minor seventh on top. This provides an incredibly distinct chord to be creative with in compositions, and sounds like this when arpeggiated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to build further upon this foundation, you can take using arpeggios to yet another level with modes,<\/a> where you may find even more uses for things like dominant sevenths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major seventh and minor seventh arpeggios<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Let’s take this a step further. If there are arpeggios that use more than the core three notes in a triad, such as the dominant seventh chord above, what other notes within a scale can we arpeggiate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For starters, we can build upon our dominant seventh example by also considering minor seventh and major seventh chords. With a root of E, those are build like so:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E dominant 7th<\/td>E<\/td>G\u266f<\/td>B<\/td>D<\/td><\/tr>
E major 7th<\/td>E<\/td>G\u266f<\/td>B<\/td>D\u266f<\/td><\/tr>
E minor 7th<\/td>E<\/td>G<\/td>B<\/td>D<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you play a major seventh arpeggio on your instrument of choice, you may notice it resembles a particular TV theme\u2014have a listen to a deep dive on this via Nick Chen below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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