Arpeggios | 8 Guitar Lessons
Min7 Arpeggios – Step 1
In this first step, we practice the min7 arpeggios in all CAGED shapes. This is easy if you know your minor pentatonic shapes.
Video lessons are available starting on an A. To complete this step, you must play starting on the remaining 11 notes as well.
Maj7 Arpeggios – Step 2
Let’s practice the maj7 arpeggios in all CAGED shapes. This is relatively easy as long as you know your CAGED maj7 chord shapes.
Video lessons are available starting on an A. To complete this step, you must play starting on the remaining 11 notes as well.
Dom7 Arpeggios – Step 3
In step 3, we practice the dom7 arpeggios in all CAGED shapes. This is easy if you have completed the previous step, the maj7 arpeggios.
Video lessons are available starting on an A. To complete this step, you must play starting on the remaining 11 notes as well.
Min7b5 Arpeggios – Step 4
The most difficult of the four is the min7b5 arpeggios, to learn it, we practice slowly in all CAGED shapes.
Video lessons are available starting on an A. To complete this step, you must play starting on the remaining 11 notes as well.
Connect all arpeggio shapes – Step 5
To ensure you do know all your arpeggios, in this step, we connect all arpeggio shapes by playing each shape twice, then moving up to the next available shape.
To complete this step, you must practice all your min7, maj7, dom7, and min7b5 shapes like this, in all 12 keys.
Connect all arpeggio shapes once – Step 6
In this step, we connect all arpeggio shapes again, although now we play just once per shape, this will require muscle memory to achieve as the shapes go past so fast.
Video lessons demonstrate this for Am7, Amaj7, A7 as well as Am7b5. To complete the step, you must play in all 12 keys.
Arpeggios through the cycle of 4th – Step 7
To ensure you do know all your arpeggios, in this step, we put them through the cycle of 4th. This means we play Amaj7, Dmaj7, Gmaj7, Cmaj, and Fmaj using the closest possible CAGED shape.
To complete this step, you must do the same to Dom7, Min7, and the peculiar Min7b5 as well.
Arpeggios and Ionian – Step 8
In this final step, we play all arpeggios around the Ionian CAGED shapes. This is easy if you can play all CAGED chords around the major scale.
Videos demonstrate this in the key of A. To complete this step and master the CAGED arpeggio shapes, you must practice in all keys.
Chord Progression | 8 Guitar Lessons
Harmonize the major scale – Step 1
This is where it all starts and where all music theory teachers (kind of) agree. We harmonize the major scale and get seven chords.
The ABCs of musical harmony do have many names, but at least we all agree on the fundamental principles.
In a minor key – Step 2
As we try to do the same In a minor key, things get complicated, teachers start to argue, and most students give up on understanding music using theory.
The question is; if we are in minor, do we call the home VI or I? And what about when the song is clearly just a II – V?
The Blues – Step 3
When we look at the Blues, all rules are broken and theory teachers go for lunch. This is where music school fails and also when the music gets good.
If you can grasp the contradictions of the blues and how it blends with the standard language of Roman Numerals, you can understand popular music.
Im, IVm & Vm chords – Step 4
The variations that make the songs are often created by changing a chord that should have been major, into a minor chord (Im, IVm & Vm).
This creates unexpected sadness, a great songwriting trick! Learn how to hear these chords and you will connect the theory with the ear.
IIx, IIIx & VIx chords – Step 5
Just like major can be minor instead, minor can be major instead, after all this is what the blues taught us.
These chords (IIx, IIIx & VIx) are explained using different names by classical and jazz teachers, let’s make sense of it all.
bVIIx & bIIIx – Step 6
Two extreme chords are created by lowering a minor chord a semitone and also making it major, the VII and III chords can be bVIIx & bIIIx.
Nirvana and Radiohead both broke through using these chords. They didn’t know it, but we can learn from their tunes.
Tritone substitution – Step 7
Now it starts to get complicated and smell like jazz. What’s important is to understand what the effect of doing this really is.
Not just for spicing up chord progressions, using tritone substitution we can also create that outside sound when soloing, even if the chord hasn’t changed!
Modal Interchange – Step 8
This could be very complicated. Modal interchange is where theory teachers paint themselves into a corner and kick the ball in their own goal.
What may seem like a modal interchange is most of the time better described in a different way. Let’s find out how it really works.
This week @ Spytunes | Related Pages
A-Z Songbook
As a guitarist, a repertoire is the greatest asset you can acquire. It is your ticket to playing with other musicians.
To help you, I’ve gathered all the tunes in a Songbook you can play with acoustic duos, Jazz trios, Indie/Rock/Pop bands, and Funk/Soul/Motown ensembles.
