I watched a JG lesson on YT the other night (not much else to do!) where Justin was discussing arpeggios. He describes these are liquid chords with the notes of the chord plucked individually. This bit I understand. If I remember correctly these can be used in solos/improv. as they are from parts of scales.
He then went on to demonstrate, but instead of forming a chord and plucking the strings individually he basically played one note (with one finger on the neck) each time, which to me is just parts of the scale.
My question, I guess, is how do you know when someone is playing arpeggios and not just bits of the scale?
my take on it is the following: the term arpeggio in my book is mainly used in case where you play chords note by note, not any random note of the scale. So you could, with some practice, distinguish it from the sound of the notes being played.
As an example you play in the key of G and currently even the G chord: When the notes G - B - D are played each after another in any random order (like D-B-D-G or whatever), this I would call arpeggio, whereas playing other notes of the G-Major Scale I would not call an apreggio, e.g a sequence like B-A-D-C-G.
But a little disclaimer: I’m not to deep down the solo- and arpeggio path myself. That’s my take on it, and I’m not 100 % sure it’s correct, though.
In a solo You really don’t unless you have a very well tuned ear. If your are transcribing a song you’d figure it out. When playing chords it stands out more
You need to understand the difference between arpeggiating a chord and playing an arpeggio.
Arpeggiating a chord is forming a chord like G and picking out each note of the chord individually
An Arpeggio is more like a scale. It is every note of a chord that is available in that pattern.
Take the G major scale and only play the notes G B D but play every G B D not just the ones that you can play when fretting the chord.
You will notice there is a B on the A string that isn’t played in the G barre chord because you are fretting the note D on the same string.
Because you can hear it. In the first solo of Sultans of Swing there is an A major arpeggio followed by a D minor. Listen and you will hear it. If all else fails, I’m sure Justin covers it in his song lesson.
There are also arpeggios in the solo in JethronTull’s Aqualung. Listen and you will find.
In the Sultans example the A major is not in “the scale” cos the song is in D minor; he is playing to the chord changes…
