subject: Guitar Lesson -- Arpeggiated Picking Part 1 [print this page] All an "arpeggio" is is a chord with its notes played one at a time instead of all at once. They can be used as part of either a lead technique or a rhythm technique. This series of articles is about rhythm techniques.
These exercises use a D chord, a D2 (or Dsus2, or D add E, or D add 9 -- just don't call it a D9 chord), and a Dsus4 chord. What you want to do here is to finger your standard D chord and either lift your 2nd finger, or add your 4th finger as needed.
#1 Repeat over and over. Use alternate (down up) picking.
These 2 exercises do something similar using the A chord as a base, along with A2, and Asus4. As with the D chord above, finger your standard A chord and either lift your 3rd finger, or add your 4th finger as needed.
Again, the best way to do these exercises is to finger the entire chord first, then either lift a finger or add a finger as required.
Also, you are going to want to practice these things at different speeds. Start slowly at first just to get the patterns down, then gradually increase your tempo. The cool thing about these patterns is that they sound great no matter what tempo you play them in. The key is to be "clean" and accurate. With this style of picking, you can be a little sloppy and perhaps get away with it -- especially at faster speeds -- But clean is always better than sloppy.
