Building Extended Arpeggios with Triads

In the last issue of Guitar Notes, I walked you through a way of using triads to build an arpeggio that uses all the extensions of the chord. Specifically, it was on an FMaj7 chord.

This time, we will look at the Extended Arpeggio idea from another angle: the combination of three different triads.

In the example below, I've given you four of the five types of seventh chords to use with the Extended Arpeggio idea. The four given chord types, Major 7th, Minor 7th, Dominant 7th, and Half-diminished 7th are built with three different triads. (The fifth chord type, Diminished 7th, is not included here because when stacked tertially (in thirds) it inverts itself with the same notes throughout. There are other ways to tackle the Diminished 7th chord, which I will cover another time.) 

You'll notice that the arpeggios themselves are stacked tertially. In breaking the combination of notes down to triads, an interesting pattern emerges. The arpeggio ascends through the chord tones (1, 3, 5, 7) and extensions (9, 11 or #11, 13). At the same time, you can see that the triads descend down the the particular scale you're playing; i.e. F down to E down to D etc.

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So, what to make of all of this? Well, first off it gives a big picture of sound that fits over each chord type using all of the extensions. Secondly, there is a smaller picture of sound that you get from seeing/hearing the three different triads combining to make one sound. You can use these smaller parts (the differing triads) to play over a specific chord type to accentuate a particular color of sound. For instance, if I play only the Emin triad over the FMaj7 chord, it really brings out the colorful notes of the chord.

One last idea you can use with this combination of triads is that each triad is the basis for a pentatonic scale used over that chord. So, you could play an Eb Major triad over an F7 chord and really bring out the sustained 4th sound. Incidentally, if you're wondering how to play a diminished pentatonic scale, try this: 1, b3, 4, b5, b7. In the Fmin7 chord above, you find a D diminished triad. The pentatonic scale for that would then be the notes D, F, G, Ab, C.

Take some time and experiment with each different sound.   

If you have other ideas about this concept, let me know about it! Share your ideas below!

Happy practicing!!