Basic Minor Arpeggios on the Guitar

Today we are going to talk about minor arpeggios. We'll have a look at the 3 most common minor arpeggio shapes on the guitar, how to discover them in different keys and how to connect them, so you can later form some monster licks.

The basic consists of only 3 notes - root, minor third and fifth, so the following complicated shapes are actually just these 3 notes repeated in different octaves. To make it easier for you to remember them, we'll write down the notes right above the guitar tabs and you'll see how easy they really are. Well, let's get to the actual shapes!

Now, if you are playing a song in let's say the key of A Minor, the easiest way to build a minor arpeggio is finding where A (the scale root) is located on the fretboard. Then, you must also discover C (the minor third) and E (the fifth), connect them with A and voila - that's a minor arpeggio. The most obvious places where A occurs are at the 5th fret on 6th string and at the 12th fret on the 5th string. Here are the 3 most common arpeggio shapes that can be formed starting from these positions.

Example 1 - A Minor Arpeggio with Root on 6th String (triplets)A C E A C E A E C A E C
E||--------------------5-----------------||
B||-----------------5-----5--------------||
G||--------------5-----------5-----------||
D||-----------7-----------------7--------||
A||--------7-----------------------7-----||
E||--5h-8-----------------------------8--||
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ v v v v v

Example 2 - A Minor Arpeggio with Root on 5th String (triplets)

A C E A C E A E C A E C
E||----------------------12--17p-12------------------||
B||------------------13--------------13--------------||
G||--------------14----------------------14----------||
D||----------14------------------------------14------||
A||--12h-15--------------------------------------15--||
E||--------------------------------------------------||
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ v v v v v

Example 3 - A Minor Arpeggio with Root on 5th String (triplets)

A C E A C E A E C A E C
E||-----------------8h-12--17t-12p-8-------------||
B||-------------10--------------------10---------||
G||----------9----------------------------9------||
D||------10----------------------------------10--||
A||--12------------------------------------------||
E||----------------------------------------------||
^ ^ ^ ^ v v v



If you are wondering what the little "^" and "v" under each example mean - these mark the pick strokes. You should be playing these arpeggios using a sweep picking technique, so the "^" stands for downstroke and the "v" - for upstroke.

So, these fingerings are valid for any given tonality, as long as you remember to transpose them in the right key. For example: if you want to use them in G Minor, you'll just play them 2 frets down, and for B Minor - 2 frets up.

As you can see all of them are using the same 3 notes, so it's logical that you can connect them. Here's an example of how you can do that:

 

Example 4 - Connected Minor Arpeggio Shapes (16th notes)

A C E A C E A C E C A E C A E C
E||--------------5-8/12p8----------------|
B||------------5----------10-------------|
G||----------5---------------9-----------|
D||--------7-------------------10--------|
A||------7------------------------12-7---|
E||--5-8-------------------------------8-|
^ v ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ v V V V V ^ V

C E A C E A C E A E C A E C A E
-----------------8-12/17-12-------------------||
--------------10------------13----------------||
------------9------------------14-------------||
---------10-----------------------14----------||
----7-12-----------------------------15-12----||
--8----------------------------------------12-||
^ ^ v ^ ^ ^ ^ v ^ v v v v ^ v

Impressive, isn't it? Especially if you learn to play it fast. Following this logic, you can build many more cool guitar licks based on minor arpeggios. We'll have a look at some of them in another lesson dedicated specially to the advanced minor arpeggio licks on the guitar.

Erica Mills is a guitar teacher and musician for over 10 years. She loves teaching students with a passion in music on how to play guitar songs. She is passionate about his work and dedicated in helping students achieve their dreams. Visit http://www.bandjammer.com for more guitar song lessons.