In this week’s bass guitar lesson I’m going to show you the 5 easy arpeggios for beginner bass guitar players.
The simple definition of an arpeggio is a ‘broken chord’. Covered in this lesson are 5 of the most common chord and arpeggios types you’ll find in the early phases of playing the bass guitar.
Arpeggios are fantastic because they are a great tool to create strong sounding bass lines which perfectly outline the chords the rest of the band are playing
The 5 chords & arpeggios types in this lesson will cover 80% of pop and rock music.
This lesson is a follow on lesson from 5 Easy Scales For Beginner Bass Guitar Players - once you’ve taken this lesson be sure to check out the scales lesson.
In this lesson we’re going to learn each arpeggio in one single octave. Once you’re comfortable make sure you try them in even two or even three octaves!
Backing Tracks For This Bass Guitar Lesson
First of all ...If you want to get the backing tracks used in this lesson they are available inside ‘The Backing Track Vault’ as part of the Bass Lab PLUS Membership.
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Arpeggio 1 - C Major / Major 7
C Major Arpeggio
The intervals of a C Major Arpeggio are Root | 3rd | 5th | Octave
The intervals of a C Major 7 arpeggio are Root | 3rd | 5th | Major 7th & Octave.
Arpeggio 2 - C Minor / C Minor 7
C Minor Arpeggio
The intervals of the minor arpeggio are Root | Flat 3rd | Fifth | Octave
C Minor 7th
The intervals of the Minor 7th Arpeggio are Root | Flat 3rd | Fifth | Flat 7th | Octave
Arpeggio 3 - C Dominant 7th
The intervals of the C7 Arpeggio are Root | 3rd | 5th | Flat 7th | Octave
Arpeggio 4 - C Minor 7 Flat 5 (Half Diminished)
The intervals of the Cm7b5 are Root | flat 3rd | Flat 5th | Flat 7th & Octave
Arpeggio 5 - C Diminished 7th
The intervals of the C Diminished 7th Arpeggio are Root | Flat 3rd | Flat 5th | Double flat 7th | Octave
Lesson Wrap Up
Understanding arpeggios is one of the best ways of creating really strong sounding bass lines. Musicians often call these ‘chord tones’ too.
In my view understanding chord tones or arpeggios is much more beneficial than extensively learning scales. Why? Because the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th are strong sounding important intervals in any scale.
If you want to take the contents of this lesson deeper and understand music theory make sure you check out the Ultimate Music Theory Bootcamp inside the Bass Lab PLUS Membership program.
Here you can learn music theory and how it relates to the bass guitar right from the ground upwards!
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All Bass Lab PLUS courses are easy to understand and simplify complex ideas so bass players in the early phases of learning can make rapid progress and achieve results that impress their friends and family fast.
Good luck and get stuck in!
James