An arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time. Arpeggios enable you to play parts which fit chord progressions perfectly, since every note of an arpeggio is a note of the accompanying chord. Here is a G major arpeggio which consists of the notes G, B and D. These are the root, third and fifth of a G major chord. To play this arpeggio, simply pick the first three open strings individually, as shown.