The Most Important Arpeggio For EVERY Jazz Chord (It Will SKYROCKET Your Playing)
Most guitarists spend hours practicing arpeggios that never work in solos. The problem isn’t that they don’t know their arpeggios. It’s that nobody told you which one to use on which chord.
Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and George Benson all had a way to deal with this. It’s a simple rule, and it works on every jazz chord.
So in this video, I’ll show you the most important arpeggio rule and how it’ll skyrocket your playing, how the Pros use it on different chords, and a trick that helps you sound great even with altered dominants.
If you are stuck with the basic arpeggio for each chord, a II V I in C major sounds like this:
But check out what George Benson does on the V chord in this II V I.
That isn’t a G7 arpeggio. There’s some nice chromatic playing on the Dm7 as well, but the thing I want you to hear is what happens on the G7.
Let’s look at what that is.
Benson’s Dominant Arpeggio Trick
This II V I lick is from George Benson’s solo on Billie’s Bounce;
I just transposed it to C major. I am sure this is something he took from Charlie Parker, who he checked out a LOT.
On the G7 he goes straight in with the arpeggio:
So what you have here is B D F A, a Bø arpeggio over the G7.
G7 is the dominant in C major, and if you look at the diatonic chords in C major, you’ll notice that the Bø is the arpeggio from the 3rd of G7 in the scale.
Extra text here… it was not in the article:—————-
Not G7 is G B D and F and G7 is also the dominant in C major,
so if you look at the diatonic chords of C major then notice that the arpeggio of the chord on the 3rd of G7 so the B, is a Bø arpeggio.
That is the rule: take the arpeggio from the 3rd of the chord. In this video, you’ll see Joe Pass, Benson, and Wes all put it to use in different ways. I’ll give you an overview of how and why it works as a rule but let’s first hear it in action.
A II V I line using the Bø arpeggio over G7 sounds like this, and notice how well it resolves to the G on Cmaj7.
Besides using the rule, I’ll also show you some ways to play the arpeggios that give your lines stronger rhythm and phrasing.
There’s more to jazz than just the notes.
Let’s get to the next chord: The m7.
A Huge Maj7 Arpeggio
Here’s Wes using the arpeggio from the 3rd on a m7 chord. This is from his song Four on Six, but I transposed it to a Dm7 chord for this video.
The line starts with a chromatic enclosure around the 9th, E.
And next we get something pretty rare: a 2-octave maj7 arpeggio. You mostly see 1-octave arpeggios in jazz.
And this is the rule again — the 3rd of Dm7 is F, so the arpeggio from the 3rd is Fmaj7.
This leads into another low Dm7 melody
One of the ways you can vary the rhythm of arpeggios to make them sound better is to play the arpeggio as a triplet and add a leading note before the first note.
That adds a bit of flow and energy to the line.
That is what I do with the Fmaj7 arpeggio in this example, and that works with any arpeggio.
Instead of trying to learn the examples off the video, pausing and going back to read the tab, you can download a free PDF with all of the examples. The link is in the description.
Now let’s look at how great this sounds on a maj7 chord, and how Charlie Parker also uses triplet arpeggios.
Charlie Parker’s maj7 trick
This phrase is a transposed version of a line that Charlie Parker played in his solo on Ornithology. He is not a guitar player, but this is where a lot of important jazz vocabulary comes from.
The arpeggio is at the end of the phrase, and he leads into it with a descending scale melody with a chromatic passing note from A via Ab down to the E
The E is then the first note in the Em7 arpeggio.
And he plays it as a triplet, the same thing we just did on the Fmaj7.
That is not a coincidence; triplet arpeggios are a part of the language, a part of the sound.
If you want my help turning arpeggios into jazz solos, check out my Jazz Guitar Roadmap course. You’ll learn how to play real jazz solos on a jazz standard, using the step-by-step method that has worked for more than 8500 students.
The link is in the description.
Now that you’ve heard three examples from great artists, let’s look at how the rule actually works. Then I’ll show you what to do when you run into an altered dominant.
How The Rule Works
This works for any chord, and the best way to see that is by looking at the diatonic chords of a scale.
If you want a guide to get started practicing those as arpeggio then ask me in the comments, I have a video on that.
Here are the diatonic chords of C major
Cmaj7 Dm7 Em7 Fmaj7 G7 Am7 Bø Cmaj7
For the dominant, G7, the third is B.
The arpeggio is a Bø, and you can see why it works: three of the notes are already in G7, you just get a 9th on top.
For the Dm7, the 3rd is F
and that chord is an Fmaj7. Same thing again — three notes from the chord, and the E on top is the 9th.
And for Cmaj7, the 3rd is E
and you have an Em7, again: chord tones and a 9th. It works everywhere in the scale!
That’s also why practicing the diatonic arpeggios pays off.
Once you know all seven in a scale, the arpeggio from the 3rd is right there on any chord in the song. You already practiced it.
If you want a way to get started with that, let me know in the comments, and I’ll point you to a video on it.
If this is the kind of thing you want to dive into learning jazz, then subscribe to the channel. I publish a video every week.
Before we get to altered dominants, let me show you what Joe Pass does with the arpeggio from the 3rd.
It takes a boring arpeggio and makes it sound surprising.
Joe Pass’ Arpeggio Trick.
This is a common way to play arpeggios, but it’s not something you usually see explained or come across in lessons.
Check out this short Joe Pass line using an Fmaj7 as the arpeggio from the 3rd on a Dm7 chord:
Everything that is played on the Dm7 is just that Fmaj7 arpeggio, but it is not just a basic arpeggio melody.
If you look at the notes it is still the notes of Fmaj7: F A C E.
But the first note is an octave higher, and then you go back down, so it comes from this:
And you move the first note up an octave:
It sounds so much better! This is what Barry Harris called a “pivot arpeggio” when I studied with him, and you can do it with any arpeggio.
If you go back to the first George Benson example, he plays a pivot arpeggio version of Em7 over Cmaj7 at the end of the example:
Same Em7 arpeggio, just with the first note up an octave.
So this is a way to make your arpeggios sound surprising instead of predictable.
Let’s get to the altered dominants!
Altered dominant trick
On an altered dominant the rule runs into trouble.
The arpeggio from the 3rd of G7 is Bø, and that gives you a natural 9th and a perfect 5th — which doesn’t work with an altered dominant.
You can still use a half-diminished arpeggio here, but you have to find it a different way.
For G7 altered, you might think of chords like this:
And notice how these chords are the same, just with a different bass note:
So instead of thinking G7 altered, you can think Db7, which is the tritone substitute for G7.
Now we have the arpeggio from the 3rd of Db7: Fø
And check out how this sounds on a II V I with a G7 altered:
Remember that all the examples are in the free PDF so you don’t have to learn them off the video. Link in the description.
So the rule is simple:
Use the arpeggio from the 3rd of the chord.
It gives you 3rd, 5th, and 7th, all strong chord tones plus a 9th on top, and this works on every chord.
On an altered dominant, use the tritone substitute and take the arpeggio from the 3rd of that instead.
Take a song you already know, find the arpeggio from the 3rd on every chord, and try them out. Make sure to use them as triplets and pivot arpeggios as well.
The “Boring” Triad Exercise
Now you know how to make arpeggios sound right, and this video shows you a similar triad exercise. It is incredibly simple and might feel boring, but it lets you nail the jazz sound in your solos. Pro jazz players obsess over it for the same reason, but most players ignore it and don’t realize what they are missing.
Check it out!
Learn Jazz – Make Music
This “Boring” Triad Exercise Will Save You Years! (But Most Ignore It)
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