Best Way to practice arpeggios?

[wishface]

I have a few methods i've designed for myself. But i'm curious if there are any established methods for practicing them?

[wishface]

anyone? I'm sure not the only one practicing them

[chris_b]

Start slow and speed up. Play them in every key!!

[wishface]

When I play an argpeggio, say Cmaj7, should i play it all the way up the neck? Each inversion? Or is there a more efficient method?

[chris_b]

Start at the lowest note of the chord on your bass and play up to the highest note. Then come back down again. Work through all chords.

[wishface]

Should you play through more than one octave?

[chris_b]

Start with one octave, then expand it out to two octaves and keep going till you're fluent across the whole neck.

[paul_c2]

Its probably also worth mentioning, its worth knowing (a variety of) them, so that you can relate what you play in songs/tunes. They come up again and again in tunes.

As a starting point, in this order approx (IMHO of course):

Major
Minor
Dominant 7th
Minor 7th
Major 7th
Diminished*
Half-diminished (7b5)*
Augmented (M3, A5)*

*These last 3 are not common.

[wishface]

So this is what i've been doing, but it's pretty involved. Is it too in depth (i asked this on talkbass)?

Take a major 7th arpegio in F.

Start 1f E string I try to go two octaves and come back through the inversions. Thus:

 

G----------------2--5--9---10-9------------------------------------------9--10--14------

D---------2--3--------------------10-8-------------------------------10-------------

A-------3---------------------------------8--7------------7--8--12------------------

E-1--5------------------------------------------8--5---8--------------------------

 

There is one final part, but I couldn't fit it in this diagram - the final inversion and then back all the way to 1f E string.

Not only that, but when i intend to start the exercise afresh with each subsequent inversion. This example is the root inversion (F, A, C, E), it comes down with the first inversion and so on.

 

If that's clear

[paul_c2]

That's one way of playing the notes. I am sure there's about 128 different ways to do it though - the notes of the arpeggio are all over the fretboard, so you could legitimately play it in loads of different positions. Whether there's one (or a subset) of right and wrong ways, not sure though. So it might be worth practising playing the same thing in the various different positions. I would probably go for the ones which minimise shifts. 

[lowdown]

On 20/08/2019 at 14:56, wishface said:

Should you play through more than one octave?

I like to play through all the chord extensions (including inversions), and over the years, I found it to be great ear practise as well (picking out the intervals).

But saying that, I recently went back to real basic, Triad arpeggios (on Electric and Upright), going up and down the neck in semitones.

Only, this time around, singing the notes as I played them. Basic stuff, but good for warm ups ( chop wise, ear training and vocally).

 

Although below is all major, I also go through all the different triads (maj/min/dim/aug etc...)

Ascending, starting on the root, descending starting on the fifth.

 

 

 

Major Arpeggios.pdf

Edited August 24, 2019 by lowdown

[wishface]

Well said, the basic triads can be tough

[paul_5]

Seventh triads (minor, major, dominant) up and down the neck (2octaves) , then pick four chords and play a couple of bars of each as a slow progression, then speed up.