Arpeggios, Part 1 by Tom Brislin

Once you’ve got a few chords in your vocabulary, you’ll undoubtedly start looking for different ways to make them sound more interesting in the music you play. When you play the notes of a chord in succession, you have an arpeggio. Arpeggios are useful in several ways, such as creating melodies (think “Clocks” by Coldplay), accompaniments (think of the bassline in “Riders On The Storm” by the Doors), or a little of both (first movement of Sonata No. 14, Opus 27, No. 2, by Beethoven; the “Moonlight Sonata”).

I, Arpeggiator

You may have a keyboard that has an arpeggiator feature. Isn’t it great? You hold down a humble C major chord and out comes a whirlwind of sound. One thing I like about onboard arpeggiators is that you can instantly hear the different ways one chord can be broken up. With that logic in mind, let’s cover the main directions arpeggios take.

Up. In Example 1, every chord voicing is arpeggiated from the lowest-pitched note to the highest. After the highest note is reached, start the arpeggio again at the lowest note of the voicing. The “Moonlight Sonata” features this type of arpeggio.


Ex. 1. Arpeggios can go up . .

Down. In Example 2, every chord voicing is arpeggiated, from the highest-pitched note to the lowest. After the lowest note is reached, start the arpeggio again at the highest note of the voicing. “Clocks” features this type of arpeggio.


Ex. 2. . . . and they can come back down.

Up and down. In Example 3, each chord voicing is arpeggiated from low to high, then descends back through the whole chord, instead of resetting once the highest note is reached.

Ex. 3. This up-and-down arpeggio is one of the most common keyboard accompaniment figures; in the classical repertoire, it’s called the Alberti bass.

Down and up. In Example 4, every chord is arpeggiated from high to low, then ascends back through the whole chord, instead of jumping back to the top note.


Ex. 4. The down-and-up arpeggio combined with a variety of chord inversions gives more emphasis to the voice leading, and the chord roots become less obvious to the ear — a very cool sound.

You can get a lot of mileage out of these basic arpeggios. In the next segment, we’ll go over ways of using them for right-hand melodies, left-hand accompaniments, and two-handed patterns. Until then, I encourage you to find a lead sheet or piano/vocal sheet music that includes chord symbols. Play through the progressions, arpeggiating every chord using the directions illustrated above, with both hands. Play at an easy tempo, and make sure you go from one arpeggio to the next without losing the beat. Happy practicing!

Arpeggios in Action

Here are a few tunes to check out that get a lot of mileage out of simple arpeggios like the ones we’ve worked on here.

Ben Folds, “Zak and Sara”
Blue Oyster Cult, “Don’t Fear the Reaper”
Glenn Miller, “In the Mood”
C.P.E. Bach, “Solfeggietto”

Tom Brislin plays for the modern rock band Spiraling (www.spiraling.net), and has toured with Yes, Meat Loaf, Camel, and others. He is the author of 30-Day Keyboard Workout (Alfred), available at www.tombrislin.com.

This article presented courtesy of Keyboard Magazine.