Advanced Minor Arpeggios on the Guitar

As promised, it's about time that we have a look at some more advanced minor arpeggios that can be played on the guitar. Hopefully, you are already familiar to the 3 most commonly used minor arpeggio shapes that we've had a look at in a previous guitar lesson, because we will use some of these as a base to build on in the current one.

First of all we will have a look at a really nice minor arpeggio shape that starts off from the 6th string and involves some hammer-ons and pull-offs, sweep picking and tapping, so not only it will sound good, but it will also look very impressive.Example 1 - Advanced A Minor Arpeggio 1 (16th notes)
E||-------------------8h12-17t12p8------------||
B||----------------10--------------10---------||
G||--------------9--------------------9-------||
D||-----------10------------------------10----||
A||------7h12------------------------------12-||
E||--5h8--------------------------------------||
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ V V V V


Stretching from the 7th fret to the 12th fret of the A string may seem a bit difficult at first, but it's absolutely possible to achieve it and this example is a really good way to exercise that ability. If you however find it impossible to do that, simply play the example several frets up, then gradually go lower until you are able to play it in A Minor with ease. If you learn to stretch right, you should be able to play it even in G Minor (2 frets lower).

Here is another great example that utilizes a lot of stretching:
Example 2 - Advances A Minor Arpeggio 2 (16th notes)
E||-----------------------12h17-20t17p12----------||
B||--------------------------------------13-------||
G||-----------------14h17-------------------14----||
D||-----------10h14----------------------------14-||
A||------7h12-------------------------------------||
E||--5h8------------------------------------------||
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ V V V

A popular guitar player who uses guitar licks like these is Joe Satriani. Did you notice how we jumped from the G string right to the E string? This is a guitar technique called string skipping and it can be used to play some brilliant sounding arpeggios, especially when combined with tapping. Here's an example to illustrate that - a fantastic guitar lick that you can incorporate into your playing to impress other guitarists.

Example 3 - String Skipping A Minor Arpeggio 1 (16th notes)
E||---------------------------------------------||
B||-----------------10h13-17t13p10--------------||
G||---------------------------------------------||
D||---------7h10-14t---------------14t10p7------||
A||---------------------------------------------||
E||--5h8-12t-------------------------------12t8-||

Now, the most interesting fact about this lick is that there is no picking involved at all. That's right, instead of picking every first note on each string, you just have to hammer it with your fretting hand. An alternative is to gently pull the string up with your tapping finger, as if you are playing fingerstyle guitar. When doing this, your finger should be right above the position that it is going to tap, otherwise you won't be able to play the lick very fast.

And here's how the same lick would've looked like with the root located on the 5th string. Hope you have all the 24 frets required for this one. If you don't - just play it few frets lower.
Example 4 - String Skipping A Minor Arpeggio 2 (16th notes)
E||--------------------17h20-24t20p17----------------||
B||--------------------------------------------------||
G||-----------14h17-21t---------------21t17p14-------||
D||--------------------------------------------------||
A||--12h15-19t---------------------------------19t15-||
E||--------------------------------------------------||

Have fun exercising these fantastic guitar licks!