Play Awesome Arpeggios On Guitar - Guitar Arpeggio Licks
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If you love the sound of guitar arpeggios...
Then in this guitar technique article...
I’ll show you awesome lead guitar arpeggio licks that are way cooler than the standard major/minor guitar arpeggios most guitarists play.
These guitar arpeggio licks are simple...
They make your lead guitar playing sound way more creative...
(Thus - giving you lots of cool ideas for your guitar licks and guitar solos you can use as soon as tonight.)
And on top of it...
These guitar arpeggio licks also help your guitar technique by developing your position shifting accuracy in your fretting hand.
(Which helps you with many other guitar techniques).
Plus, they are a ton of fun to play.
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EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
Ready to dive in?
Begin by watching this lead guitar arpeggio video:
Now that you’ve learned some awesome new guitar techniques for playing lead guitar arpeggios...
Here are 5 more guitar arpeggio techniques that help level up your guitar technique and lead guitar playing:
Tip #1 For Playing Arpeggios On Guitar: Train Proper Motions In Both Hands
I know it sounds obvious, but to play awesome arpeggio guitar licks, you need to spend time polishing your guitar technique.
Here are some tips for doing this that will help your guitar arpeggio playing:
- Learn sweep picking. Sweep picking is, without a doubt, the most common guitar used to play arpeggio guitar licks. (Common enough that many people think “sweep picking” is another term for “arpeggios” (and vice versa).)
The most important element of sweep picking guitar technique is the motion of the picking hand. Specifically, your picking hand must push through the strings (in a single motion) when you ascend the guitar arpeggio…
And pull back (in a single motion) when descending the guitar arpeggio.
Watch this video to see what the correct sweep picking motions look like:
- Make sure that your pull offs and hammer ons are in time with the other notes.
When you play lead guitar arpeggio licks that combine picked notes (or sweep picking) with hammer ons and pull offs, hammer ons and pull offs must ring out for the same duration as the picked notes (assuming that your lead guitar arpeggio is to be played in the same note values).
This lead guitar technique video shows how to master this element of your arpeggio guitar licks:
- Clean up your finger rolling. Finger rolling happens in many lead guitar arpeggio licks. It’s a technique for fretting notes on the same fret across several strings with the same finger.
When done right, finger rolling allows you to play lead guitar arpeggio licks quickly and cleanly. Sloppy finger rolling makes the notes bleed together and makes your guitar arpeggios sound sloppy.
Fun fact: many lead guitarists (even those with great overall guitar technique who can pick through scales and sequences lightning fast) tend to avoid lead guitar arpeggios with finger rolling.
But guitarists who master this element of playing arpeggios on guitar can build a lot of guitar speed very quickly.
Watch this finger rolling tutorial to see how to master this element of technique.
Tip #2 For Playing Arpeggios On Guitar: Learn Lead Guitar Arpeggio Inversions
One of the simplest ways to level-up your guitar arpeggio licks is to play your lead guitar arpeggios in more than 1 inversion.
Here is how it works:
Any guitar arpeggio is simply a chord. And just like you can invert a chord simply by rearranging the order of its notes, you can do the same with arpeggios on guitar.
For example, a C major guitar arpeggio (i.e. chord) has notes C E G. C is the root, E is the 3rd and G is the 5th.
If you play this arpeggio with the C as the lowest-sounding note, you’re playing it in root position.
If you play the C major guitar arpeggio with the 3rd of the chord (the E) as the lowest-sounding note, you’re playing it in 1st inversion.
And if you play the C major guitar arpeggio with the 5th of the chord (the G note) as the lowest-sounding pitch, you’re playing it in 2nd inversion.
This leads to having several guitar arpeggio patterns to learn that challenge your lead guitar technique in different ways.
Most notably, some of the inverted arpeggio shapes contain the guitar technique of finger rolling and others don’t.
This video shows you the common major and minor arpeggio fingerings to know that will help you create awesome-sounding lead guitar arpeggio licks and improve your guitar technique:
Question: “Tom Hess, what is the benefit of learning inversions of arpeggios on guitar, if I'm still just playing the same 3 notes?”
Answer: Guitar arpeggio inversion shapes help you play guitar arpeggio licks with smooth voice leading.
This enables you to:
- change between guitar arpeggios without making big fretting hand movements ...
- play guitar arpeggios faster (by reducing fretting position shifts) ...
- make your lead guitar licks sound more musical and more pro.
This video goes in more detail on the topic of voice leading and how to use it to level-up all areas of your guitar playing and musicianship quickly:
Tip #3 For Playing Arpeggios On Guitar: Control String Noise
To make your lead guitar arpeggio licks sound good, it’s critical to play them cleanly – without any string noise.
There are 2 types of string noise to worry about when playing lead guitar arpeggios:
- string noise from the lower (in pitch) strings
- string noise from the higher (in pitch) strings
- string noise from the notes bleeding together.
To mute string noise from the lower strings, I recommend the technique I call thumb muting.
Just like it sounds, you rest your picking hand’s thumb on the lower (thicker) strings to “lock” them down as you play the higher ones.
Then, your thumb simply slides up and down the strings as you play guitar arpeggio licks, keeping half of your guitar quiet.
Question: “Tom Hess, when I try to do thumb muting, I tend to mute the string I'm trying to play and/or I get pinch harmonics on the notes I don’t want. What should I do?”
Answer: The solution is to change the way you hold the guitar pick. If your thumb hangs over the edge of the pick, thumb muting becomes impossible and it is very hard to avoid unintentional pinch harmonics.
Here is how I recommend to hold the guitar pick when playing anything (lead guitar or rhythm guitar):
To mute the higher in pitch strings, use the index finger (of your fretting hand) to rest across the thinner strings.
The index finger should be in a similar position to doing a barre. (Except it shouldn’t apply actual pressure to the higher strings – it should just lightly touch them.)
And as for muting string noise from notes bleeding together?
This noise is most often caused by notes bleeding together (due to not releasing the previous note of the arpeggio as you are playing the next one).
The solution?
Listen carefully for bleeding between notes as you practice your lead guitar arpeggios (and other lead guitar techniques). When you hear notes bleeding together, concentrate on separating them, so that you hear the new note at the exact moment the previous note stops... not before or after.
Bonus tip for cleaning up sloppy string noise in your lead guitar playing: Practice... ‘extremely’ slowly.
Yes, I know this sounds super obvious. But there is quite a bit more nuance to this advice than you might think.
In fact, I bet you’ve never tried ‘this’ kind of slow practice.
Do this:
- Choose the lick you want to clean up (make sure distortion is on).
- Set the metronome to whatever speed you typically practice at.
And then...
- Play the lick in whole notes. (1 note... every 4 clicks.)
For reference, if you are playing in 16th notes, you’ll be slowing to a whopping 6.25% of your speed.
Doing this is not only waaaaaay more challenging than you can possibly imagine (it’s much harder to play in time and you’ll probably forget what the notes even are, because you’re not used to playing ‘this’ slowly)...
But you’ll also spot string noise much more easily as the notes lose sustain (and any noise that’s not muted becomes much more obvious).
This way:
- you can spot where the noise is coming from
- the noise will bother you way more (so you’ll become more motivated to fix it)
- there is more time to fix the string noise between notes
- there is NO excuse for making your playing anything other than pristinely clean. Because you cannot use the excuse of “well, mistakes sometimes happen at this speed” when you play THAT slowly.
Then, after making sure your whole-notes playing is impeccably clean, you can jump back to playing your normal note values and...
Voila! Your playing is likely much cleaner now. You’re welcome.
Question: “Tom Hess, is it better to practice guitar arpeggios with distortion or a clean tone?”
Answer: Use distortion most of the time. Clean tone makes it harder to hear string noise from the open strings (and/or the notes bleeding together) – which makes it more difficult to control sloppy guitar playing.
Tip #4 For Playing Arpeggios On Guitar: Alternate Between The Neck And Bridge Pick Ups When Practicing Guitar Arpeggios
There are unique benefits to playing guitar arpeggios using the bridge pick up and the neck pick up.
I recommend using the bridge pick up specifically for ‘practicing’ (and not ‘just’ for playing) guitar arpeggios.
The reason is: the neck pick up makes it easier to spot sloppy lead guitar playing (such as: string noise and notes bleeding together).
The more obvious string noise becomes – the easier it is fix.
That said, the neck pick up generally gives you a thicker, smoother tone that many guitarists prefer when playing arpeggio lead guitar licks and solos.
Question: “Tom Hess, I have a hard time switching between the bridge and neck pick ups when I practice arpeggios on guitar. Any tips?”
Answer: Yes. Switching between pick ups is a guitar technique skill you need to develop, just like you develop any other element of your lead guitar technique. Simply work on it for a few minutes per day and it will become easier.
That said, some guitars have the pick up selector located in the worst possible place for fast lead guitar playing (E.g. Les Pauls.).
If/when you buy a new guitar, pay attention to the location of the pick up selector and make sure it’s in a spot you can reach simply by flicking your fingers. (E.g. Strats and Ibanez guitars get it right.)
Tip #5 For Playing Arpeggios On Guitar: Create Your Own (New) Guitar Arpeggio Licks
One of the best ways to build an arsenal of lead guitar arpeggio licks is to take guitar arpeggios you already know (and/or learn in other places – like this article) and create variations on them.
The good news is: this is quite simple to do. You can begin doing this even if you don’t have a lot of guitar speed yet.
Here are a few simple ways you can do this using basic major/minor guitar arpeggios:
Now that you know how to play cooler guitar arpeggio licks, I want to help you level-up your fretting hand guitar technique and make everything you play on guitar feel easier. I show you how in my free eGuide: Master Fretting Hand Finger Independence. Download it today and discover the guitar technique secrets most guitarists will never know.
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