Major 7 Arpeggios

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Welcome to our lesson on major seven arpeggios and using the major seven arpeggio in your music. The major seven arpeggio contains four notes and is commonly used in improvisation to play either over major chords or to use as an arpeggio substitution. . An arpeggio is just the notes of a chord played one by one. Let’s start by taking a look at the intervals of a major seven arpeggio

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Minor 7 Arpeggios

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The minor 7 arpeggio is an essential improvisational tool that can be used by jazz improvisers to play over minor 7 chords. If you have followed the previous lessons on jazz arpeggios then you will know that as well as using a minor 7 arpeggio over a minor 7 chord, you can also use it to play over a host of other chords using a technique known as arpeggio substitution.

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Diminished 7 Arpeggios

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Welcome to this lesson on the diminished seventh arpeggio. The diminished seventh arpeggios is much like the diminished arpeggio but it contains one extra note. The diminished seventh arpeggio has four notes and can be represented using intervals like this:

1, b3, b5, bb7

Notice the double flat seventh note present in the diminished 7 arpeggio. Also you should be aware that the diminished 7 arpeggio is made up from stacking minor thirds. For example in a C diminished seven arpeggio the distance between C and Eb is a minor third, the distance between Eb and Gb is a minor third and the distance between Gb and A is also a minor third.

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Diminished Arpeggios

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Welcome to this lesson on diminished arpeggios and how you can use the diminished arpeggio in your jazz playing. The diminished sound is common in both jazz and classical music. In this lesson we will be looking at the three note diminished triad arpeggio. It is important to note that there is also a four note diminished seventh arpeggio but we will cover that in another lesson. You can find a diminished arpeggio in the major scale, melodic minor and the harmonic minor scale. Jazz players have been using the sound of the diminished arpeggio for a very long time. The diminished arpeggio has a very strong sound harmonically and that makes it a very useful improvisational tool.

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Augmented Arpeggios

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Welcome to our in depth lesson on using the augmented arpeggio. Augmented arpeggios have a real fusion type sound to them and they are especially useful in jazz because they are present in the melodic minor scale. I love the augmented arpeggio sound and they can be a really useful tool for playing over dominant 7#5 chords. The augmented arpeggio can be seen as two stacked major thirds, for instance in the C augmented arpeggio the distance between C and E is a major third and so is the distance between E and G#.

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Major Triad Arpeggios

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This lesson will be dealing with the simplest of all arpeggios, the major triad arpeggio. The major triad arpeggio, as the name implies, is an arpeggio made up of only three notes. The great thing about using triad arpeggios is that, because they are so simple harmonically, they can be used in a wide variety of situations. You can find interesting uses for even the most basic of harmonic structures.

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Arpeggio Substitution

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Welcome to our quick lesson on arpeggio substitution that will hopefully get you up to speed on this wonderful improvisational tool. Arpeggios are an essential part of the jazz language but many people ignore the harmonic possibilities available to them by choosing to play the most obvious arpeggios over a chord. Arpeggio substitution is a really great way of creating new sounds and ideas and there are almost limitless possibilities for developing this technique. Arpeggio substitution is not as daunting as it may first seem and certainly not that complex. All we are doing is playing different arpeggios over a given chord to create new sounds. Some arpeggio substitutions will sound fantastic and others will sound plain wrong. You need to do a bit of experimenting to really find the sounds that work together.

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