You Can’t Play These Exercises Without Using Muscle Memory
In this step, we connect all arpeggios again, although now we play each shape just once.
Because you now move so quickly through the shapes, you have to have these well cemented in your muscle memory. All your attention will have to be on making the switch to the next shape.
This is a great test to see if you know all shapes well enough. Should you, for example, struggle with the Cm-shaped m7b5 in Db, it will become obvious as you fly through them.
Look at this exercise as a way to find out what you need to go back and work on, be it the Cm-shaped min7b5 shapes or anything else.
In the playlist above, you’ll find all these exercises in A and D, to move on to the next step, you must play from all the missing ten starting points as well.
Only when you can play through all shapes in G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, B and E, are you ready to move on to the next concept.
Here’s what this exercise looks like in TAB for the dom7 arpeggio in Ab.
Being able to connect arpeggios like this is down to muscle memory and fretboard visualisation. If I wrote this exercise for you in all twelve keys you would only become better at reading TAB, not connecting arpeggios.
With this in mind, keep those eyes peeled on the fretboard, not the TAB, and if you mess up on, let’s say, the D shape, you know that what you need to do is go back and practice that shape in isolation.
Once you can do this you’ll feel very confident in your ability and are consequently ready for your next test, to connect these arpeggios using the cycle of 4th, closest shape possible.
Arpeggios Guitar Lessons | Related Pages
Arpeggios | Step-by-step guitar course
There are only four CAGED arpeggio shapes to learn on the guitar, the min7, the maj7, the dom7, and the min7b5.
In the step-by-step arpeggio course, we master all these arpeggios in all CAGED shapes, an essential skill to acquire if you want to improvise.
Connect Minor Pentatonic shapes | Minor Scales
Once each shape is firmly under your fingers, it’s time to connect your Minor Pentatonic. The video lessons demonstrate this in Am.
When you can play along with the video lessons in Am, all you have to do is continue through all remaining keys.
Connect barre chords | Chords
This step is the first real test, when you can connect all barre chord shapes, you can move on to the next step.
Videos demonstrate this using E, A, D, G, and C as a starting point. To complete this step, you must do this to F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, and B as well. Minor and major of course!
Chordacus
Spytunes chords, scale, and arpeggio software, Chordacus is a refined version of the so-called CAGED system.
Now available as both a chromatic (original version) and “within a key”, developed with the help of a Spytunes student.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about connecting arpeggios, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.