Arpeggios
Up to this point, everything you have learned has been based on the use of scales. There are also other important groupings of notes called arpeggios. An arpeggio is a chord played one note at a time. The value of arpeggios is that they enable you to play lines which fit chord progressions perfectly, since every note of an arpeggio is a note of the accompanying chord. The following example is a C major arpeggio which consists of the notes C, E and G. These are the root, third and fifth of a C major chord.
Here is an F major arpeggio which consists of the notes F, A and C. These are the root, third and fifth of an F major chord.
Like scales, it is important to be able to play arpeggios in every key. The following example demonstrates major arpeggios played around the key cycle.
For every type of chord there is a corresponding arpeggio. This means there are major, minor, augmented, diminished, dominant seventh and minor seventh arpeggios among others. The most common arpeggios used in Rock are major, minor and seventh arpeggios, so these are the ones which will be discussed in this book. The following example is a C minor arpeggio which consists of the notes C, Eb and G which are the root, flattened third and fifth of a C minor chord.
This is a G minor arpeggio which consists of the notes G, Bb and D. These are the root, third and fifth of a G minor chord.
Here are all the minor arpeggios between C minor and B minor played chromatically upwards. Try playing them downwards chromatically as well.
The riff played in the following 12 Bar Blues consists entirely of notes from minor arpeggios. The chord symbols written above the music tell you which arpeggio you are playing in any given bar.
The previous chord symbols in the last examples relate directly to the arpeggios played by the saxophone. However, generally the chord symbols in the book relate to the chords played by the accompanying instruments. Because the saxophone is a transposing instrument, these chord symbols will be in a different key to the saxophone melody.
The following example shows the same riff with the accompanying chords for both the alto and tenor versions written above them. Because the riff is played in the key of C minor on the saxophone, the accompanying chords for the alto version are written in the key of Eb minor while the chords for the tenor version are written in the key of Bb minor. If you are still unsure about the relationship between the key you are playing in and the key the accompaniment is in, refer to the chart in lesson 6.
