Guitar Arpeggios Explained: Chord Tones in Every Shape

A guitar arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time. Instead of strumming C major, you play its notes — C, E and G — individually, across as many strings and octaves as the shape allows. Learned in the five CAGED shapes, arpeggios put every chord's notes under your fingers anywhere on the neck, which is what connects chords to lead playing.

Arpeggio vs chord vs triad

The three words describe the same notes used in different ways:

• A chord is several notes played together. An open C chord has five strings ringing, but only three different notes: C, E and G.
• A triad is those three notes and nothing else: root, third and fifth, usually on three neighbouring strings. It's the chord at its smallest, as covered in the guitar triads guide.
• An arpeggio is the chord's notes played one after another, often across two octaves or more. It can be a triad arpeggio (three notes) or include a seventh or other extensions.

In practice, an arpeggio is a scale made only of chord tones. That's why it's so useful for soloing: every note you play is a note of the chord underneath. This guide is part of the triad lessons and builds on the CAGED arpeggios section of the CAGED guide.

C major arpeggios in the five CAGED shapes

Each CAGED shape tells you where a chord's notes are in one area of the neck. Play only those notes, one at a time, and the shape becomes an arpeggio. Here is C major in all five shapes, from the open position up, labelled by interval.

Notice how much each shape overlaps the next. The A shape and G shape share the 5th fret of the D, G and B strings; the G and E shapes share the Cs at the 8th fret of both E strings; the E and D shapes share the 10th fret of the A and D strings and the 9th fret of the G string. Those shared notes are how you'll connect them later.

Minor arpeggios

A minor arpeggio is the same idea with a minor third: root, flat third and fifth. As with chords, every major shape becomes minor by lowering its third one fret. Here is A minor in the E shape at the 5th fret and the A shape at the 12th, the two most common.

The E-shape A minor arpeggio sits inside the first A minor pentatonic position, and the A-shape one inside the fourth. If you know those positions, you're already playing these notes; the arpeggio just tells you which of them are the chord. The minor CAGED shapes guide has the other three minor shapes.

Adding the seventh

Add one more note and the triad arpeggio becomes a seventh-chord arpeggio. There are three you'll use most:

• Major seventh (1, 3, 5, 7) — Cmaj7 is C, E, G, B. Smooth and settled.
• Dominant seventh (1, 3, 5, ♭7) — C7 is C, E, G, B♭. Bluesy, and wants to resolve.
• Minor seventh (1, ♭3, 5, ♭7) — Am7 is A, C, E, G. Mellow rather than dark.

The difference between Cmaj7 and C7 is a single fret. Compare them in the E shape:

And A minor seventh in the E shape, which is the A minor arpeggio with each G added — two frets below the A on the D string and the 8th fret of the B string:

Interestingly, Am7 contains every note of C major (C, E, G) plus an A. The two chords share a lot, which is why the same arpeggio shapes keep turning up in different keys. The seventh intervals themselves are covered in seconds, sixths and sevenths.

Connecting arpeggios across the neck

Once two shapes are comfortable, link them through the notes they share. Three ways to practise:

• Slide on a shared note. Play the E-shape C arpeggio up to the G at the 10th fret of the A string, then continue into the D shape from there. The note is in both shapes, so you never lose the chord.
• One string at a time. Play every C, E and G on a single string from the nut to the 15th fret. You're crossing all five shapes in a line.
• Up one shape, down the next. Ascend through one shape and descend through the next one up the neck, so the change of shape happens at the top of the run.

Using arpeggios in solos

You don't have to play arpeggios as fast sweeps. Their main use in a solo is as a map of chord tones: when the chord changes, the arpeggio shape nearest your hand shows you which notes will sound resolved. Mix a few arpeggio notes into a pentatonic phrase and end on one, and the solo starts to follow the harmony.

The most useful arpeggio note to land on is usually the third, because it names the chord as major or minor. That's the idea behind soloing over chord changes, which works through it over two complete progressions.

Common mistakes

Treating arpeggios as a speed exercise

Fast sweep-picked arpeggios get the attention, but speed isn't the point. Play them slowly enough to name every interval, and use them in phrases at the speed you'd actually solo.

Learning shapes without the root

An arpeggio you can't place by its root only works in one key. Mark the roots in every shape and start and end on them until they're automatic.

Running the arpeggio straight up and down

Playing every note in order sounds like an exercise. In a solo, take two or three notes from the arpeggio, mix them with scale notes, and finish the phrase on a chord tone.

Ignoring the chord underneath

An arpeggio only sounds right over its own chord. When the chord changes, so should the arpeggio, even if it's just the nearest few notes of the new one.

A practice routine

Ten to fifteen minutes a day.

1. Week 1 — one shape. Learn the E-shape C major arpeggio. Play it slowly up and down, naming each interval, then start and end on different roots.
2. Week 2 — the neighbour. Add the D shape and connect the two through their shared notes.
3. Week 3 — minor and seventh. Lower the thirds to make the minor shapes, then add the seventh to each: major seventh, then flat seventh.
4. Week 4 — over chords. Over a two-chord vamp, such as C to Am, play the arpeggio of each chord as it comes round, in one area of the neck.

Then add the remaining three shapes one at a time, always connected to the ones you already know.