This exercise will have us play through all of the arpeggios of a same tonality. For the key of C Major, the diatonic 7th chords are:

• CMaj7
• Dm7
• Em7
• FMaj7
• G7
• Am7
• Bm7(b5)

All 7 Diatonic Arpeggios in Major Key

On the video, I first play the arpeggios all ascending.

Then, I use a zigzag pattern, meaning that I reverse the direction of the arpeggios for each new chord: the first arpeggio is ascending, the second one descending, the third one ascending, etc.

Then, I show you the "mirror" of that same exercise: where the sequence starts with the very first arpeggio descending

Start practicing those in the position I present (E shape) then go through all 5 positions. Remember that it is best to play the exercise well in one position, instead of butchering it in all 5...

Do not undervalue all of this arpeggio work on the guitar. We are constantly hearing about scales and modes, but arpeggios are a goldmine-- and they are much harder to master than scales!

Questions? You can send me a message through “The Guitar Channel” (see below) or contact me directly through my website: brunojazz.com.

See you again soon!

--Bruno

Note from The Guitar Channel

If you are looking for an excellent Jazz guitar teacher, I highly recommend Bruno. He produced many Jazz chronicles in French for La Chaîne Guitare which were highly appreciated by the Backstage Pass subscribers. I also took a Skype lesson with him once (read the story about it in this article) and it was a lot of fun and very useful to help my play better and increase my vocabulary on guitar.

Pierre.