Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Dominant 7th Arpeggio – How To Use In Blues – EP150

Description

This lesson was designed both to explain what the arpeggio is and how you can use it when playing lead. The arpeggio can be an extremely powerful tool and can give your leads a more sophisticated sound by mirroring what the chords changes. In this lesson, you’ll see that arpeggios can be created out of any chord voicing, so if you already know how to play a chord, you can easily convert that chord into an arpeggio, which you can use when playing lead. I’ll demonstrate with 2 chord shape patterns (E and A) and will give you a lead that is made entirely out of dominant 7th arpeggios.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walk-Through

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

    • ajm says

      Thanks Brian! Great lesson. And I too, appreciate using a familiar jam track some times. I Love how you always quickly remind us”where” the notes are coming from,in relation to the chords while you are explain your various solos/techniques. Its very helpful to me! Definitely one of the reasons I keep coming back!

  5. Aussie Rick says

    Congratulations on your 150th. superb lesson Brian.

    I’ve been keen to incorporate arpeggios into my lead playing for some time without much success, so this lesson will be a great help.

    I am really looking forward to applying this, as you suggest, by playing arpeggio lead into last week’s 12 bar blues shuffle (EP149). These two lessons really do ‘unlock a whole world’ of possibilities.

    Cheers,

    Rick

  7. Michael J says

    G/day Brian,
    Much applause for your ton & a half of lessons. This is a great one. Memories of Stevie Ray’s Riviera Paradise with the hybrid phrase.
    Thanks again, all the best for now.
    Michael J.

  15. kubrider says

    Really really cool lesson Brian. You’re giving us All the tools we need to get where we want to be. The rest is up to us.
    Thanks so much! Did you think you’d ever get to lesson 150? Congrats!
    Rob

  17. sunjamr says

    Yes, I have seen lessons on arpeggios on Youtube, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a simple explanation of how to actually use them. I hereby resolve to burn these into my brain until I can play them forwards and backwards without looking at my fretboard. After all, if I get lost I can just play the root chords and I’ll be back on track. And I’ve got 150 lessons to practice them with!

  19. Bluesman68 says

    Dear Brian, Many congratulations on reaching lesson no. 150! Your high level of creativity, quality and consistency is truly amazing and shows no sign of flagging. Long may it continue!

  24. Frank says

    Congrats on your 150th – wow!!!
    Yes you are right the net is full of arpeggio videos and info but no practical “how to use them” lessons or guides. Much appreciated.

  25. Boland says

    The first chord diagram is incorrect I think. It shows the root on the 6 string 2d fret if I am reading it properly. It should be 6 string 3d fret like you play it in the video.

    • Brian says

      It’s the pattern, not the literal fret. So that would be the 3rd fret. Sorry for the confusion on that. You can use that same pattern for any of these…. so just pay attention to the root frets

  27. Lefteris B says

    A very useful lesson. so that everyone can understand the arpeggios and the use of them. Will you continue with the other positions, too?
    By the way, why the tablature page can not be loaded?

    • wrightclick says

      I am sure by now you know it is an Epiphone Sheraton 2 retails around £500 mark in the uk lots of famous Blues player use this model and is a lot cheaper than a Gibson 335 .A great guitar i have one myself under the bed an original .I might by a copy from Ali express just to see how they compare . You can quickly identify this model by the more elaborate flowery pattern on the longer headstock and the square inlays with triangle shape inside .You may wish to check out the Epiphone Casino aswell of which Lennon and Harrison used around 65 .

  30. Buster89 says

    Great lesson Brian and , indeed, an eye opener. I just revisited lesson 134 and found such an Arpeggio in the second part when you played the melody in C#7 finishing on the 7th note.
    Suddenly the relevance of lesson 150 became clear.

  31. wbwill says

    Absolutely a Teacher. Indeed, the lesson is #150, but the true amount of lessons throughout are infinite.

    The empathy and sympathy you extend “not a lot to choose from and a lot to stray from” around 12:40, which was so funny I had to start over, is also a great example of the patience, thought and time you put into everything.

    I would bet 15 minutes of lesson, comes from hours and hours of planning and tweaking, which can only come from years of dedication and practice, and the effort it takes to share so much knowledge. A great example of the heart of a Teacher.

    I read many comments hinting maybe part 3 or more of the arpeggios, and I would like to add my vote to that. This lesson amplified [no pun] some of my frustrations with creating leads. I see where I tend to build leads with maybe too many arpeggio type notes.

    But like any excellent Teacher, this lesson not only helped me understand much more about arpeggios, but at the same time picked up on some of the stuff I don’t do correctly. I actually thought an arpeggio was more of using the chord notes but up and down like a scale.

    Excellent and well done lesson as always. When a lesson inspires one to want to dig deeper, you know the information was right on track. Much appreciated.

    Maybe you could compare a non arpeggio lead creation, with this lesson. You explained the timing, and that is part of it, but this really opened my thinking.

    I guess one would describe my lead playing on a non cover, with too many notes of a chord, and not getting that blues note in the mix, or at the right time, or other licks in the mix, when mostly just putting some kind of lead to a generic jam track. My blues are not blue enough, my rock is not rocky enough and my country has to much city.

    The presentations/lessons using charts and examples super imposed and then accented [super imposing the bar to show a completely different chord and how they relate] are brilliant.

    And while not missing a lick on the video really shows the thought you put into the smallest of details, and how to convey them in a way that makes the lessons so fluid and helpful to understand.

    • Brian says

      Thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough comment. Your feedback is very helpful! I think I will do another arpeggio lesson… and reference back to this lesson.. maybe even use the same jam track so that you can see how they are different. Thanks!

  33. steve h says

    great lesson. very helpful to understanding both theory and application. enjoying going back in time to these more basic lessons to help me with my foundational skills. much appreciated. best wishes.

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