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Jazzguitar - Be-Jazz Blues Arpeggios For Guitar 2

This document provides instruction on playing jazz blues arpeggios over a Bb blues chord progression using a single position on the fretboard. It outlines Bb7, Eb7, Bdim7, and F7 arpeggio shapes that can be played without shifting positions. Exercises are included to practice ascending, descending, and alternating between the arpeggios. The goal is to outline the chord tones in solos while keeping hand movement minimal.

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368 views6 pages

Jazzguitar - Be-Jazz Blues Arpeggios For Guitar 2

This document provides instruction on playing jazz blues arpeggios over a Bb blues chord progression using a single position on the fretboard. It outlines Bb7, Eb7, Bdim7, and F7 arpeggio shapes that can be played without shifting positions. Exercises are included to practice ascending, descending, and alternating between the arpeggios. The goal is to outline the chord tones in solos while keeping hand movement minimal.

Uploaded by

KEKOFLAMENCO
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Jazz Blues Arpeggios for Guitar

jazzguitar.be/blog/jazz-blues-arpeggios-for-guitar/

Matt Warnock April 2,


2015

When learning how to play arpeggios over the jazz blues chord progression, or any tune
for that matter, the easiest approach you can take in is to learn the arpeggio shapes
within one position on the fretboard.

This means that you’ll be able to play arpeggios over each chord in the progression
without moving your hand up or down the fretboard, or with a minimal movement up
and down the fretboard.

By doing so, you will be able to outline each chord in your solos, nailing the chord tones
in your improvised lines, while making it easy on your hands at the same time, as you
won’t be making any unnecessary leaps or shifts in your playing.

The following lesson provides you an outline of how to play arpeggios over a Bb jazz
blues progression in one position, how to practice these arpeggios in your studies, and
a sample study written out to provide you an example of these shapes in action.

Bb Jazz Blues Arpeggios – Bars 1-4


Here are the shapes you can learn to play over bars 1 to 4 in a Bb jazz blues , starting
with the Bb7 arpeggio on the 6 th string and moving to the Eb7 arpeggio on the 5 th string.

By mixing these string sets, you will be able to practice, learn, and later solo with
these arpeggio shapes over a Bb jazz blues progression without moving your hand up or
down the fretboard.

Listen & Play Along

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Bb Jazz Blues Arpeggios – Bars 5-8
Moving on, here are the four arpeggios for bars 5 to 8 in a Bb jazz blues , all played
without moving your hand on the fretboard.

You will notice that the last arpeggio (G7b9) doesn’t have a root note within this shape.
This is because you are using a Bdim7 arpeggio over the G7b9 chord. This is a very
common approach to using arpeggios over 7b9 chords, playing a dim7 arpeggio from
the 3rd of the underlying chord in order to highlight the 3-5-b7-b9 intervals over that
underlying chord.

To get a 7b9 sound, play a diminished arpeggio starting on the 3rd of the dominant chord.
Example: play a Bdim7 arpeggio over G7

If this is a new concept for you, try putting on a G7b9 backing track and solo over that
single chord using the Bdim7 arpeggio in order to get this rootless arpeggio sound
under your fingers and into your ears before taking it to the full jazz blues chord
progression.

Listen & Play Along

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Bb Jazz Blues Arpeggios – Bars 9-12
In the final four bars of the Bb jazz blues progression, you will move your hand a few
frets to play the F7 arpeggio, adding a bit of a shift up the neck by a few frets in order to
use the same shape for F7 as you did for the Eb7 arpeggio in this exercise.

Sometimes you will need to make a decision between using a new fingering for an
arpeggio, such as F7 in this blues progression, or moving around the neck a few frets in
order to use the same shape as you did earlier in the tune.

There is no right or wrong way to approach this, so try both methods out and see
which one works better for you in your studies.

Listen & Play Along

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Easy Jazz Blues Arpeggios – Directional Exercises
Now that you have the Bb jazz blues arpeggio shapes under your fingers in one position,
you can work on a few exercises in order to memorize these shapes and work on
transitioning between each shape over the 12-bar progression.

In the following exercises, you will see a single direction applied to each arpeggio,
written out over the first four bars of the Bb jazz blues in the examples.

Once you have the first four bars down, continue each directional approach to the
arpeggio over the whole 12-bar progression in order to take it further in your studies.

To begin, here are the first four bars to a Bb jazz blues progression with the arpeggios all
ascending through the chords.

Listen & Play Along

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Moving on, here are the same four bars, but this time all of the arpeggios are
descending over the changes.

Listen & Play Along

Lastly, you can also alternate one arpeggio up and one arpeggio down and you
practice these shapes over the jazz blues chord changes.

Listen & Play Along

Bb Jazz Blues Arpeggio Study


To finish your intro to in-position jazz blues arpeggios, here is a sample study written
out over the Bb jazz blues chord progression. Start by learning to play the study as
written, memorizing it if possible, in order to get an idea of how you can apply these
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arpeggio shapes to a musical situation.

From there, try writing out an arpeggio study of your own, using the shapes in this
lesson, as well as putting on a Bb jazz blues backing track and soloing over those
changes using only the arpeggios you learned in this article.

Listen & Play Along

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