How to Play Minor Arpeggios in Five Positions

How to play minor arpeggios in five positions?

What are the five positions to play minor arpeggios in? To start, we will learn how to build the minor arpeggio.

When compared to a major arpeggio, 1, 3, 5; playing a minor arpeggio, scale, or chord, you have to lower the third. This becomes 1, b3, 5.

For example, any chord, arpeggio, or scale formula is always compared to its major scale. If you are working in the key of A, you would use the A major scale. These notes are A, B, C#, D, E, F#, and G#. So lowering the third note, C#, gives you C natural. The A and E notes stay the same.

Why start with the minor arpeggio first? Well if you know the minor pentatonic scale which I will link to, playing a minor arpeggio is basically removing two of the notes.

So here is the minor pentatonic scale in A at the fifth fret.

And when compared to the minor arpeggio in the red notes

As you can see, it consists of A, C, and E notes. Play these notes one at a time and you have an arpeggio. If you played a combination of all three notes, you would have an Am chord.

I call this the first position playing an A minor arpeggio on guitar. This is because this is usually the first pattern when learning the minor pentatonic scale. After this continuing onto the next position as pattern two and so on.

Pattern Two

This one starts with C, the minor third (b3), on the sixth string. Use finger two followed by the index finger for strings five and four. Use the fourth finger for the C note followed by the third finger on string three. Finish with the fourth finger on string two ending with the second finger on the first string.

Pattern Three

Use the fourth finger on both the sixth and fifth strings to start. Next, use the second finger on the fourth string, then onto the first finger for E. For string two, start with the first finger on A. This is a position shift to finish by adding the fourth finger on C, then using the third finger to play the final note, E on the first string.

Pattern Four

Pattern four starts on the E note, the perfect fifth. Use the first finger for E and A notes on strings six and five. This sets you up to use the fourth finger for the C note. Use the third finger on the fourth and third strings. Lining up nicely for strings two and one with the second and first fingers for C and E.

Pattern Five

Pattern five can be played here or twelve frets higher. Either way, start out with the fourth finger playing A. Use the second finger for C, leading to strings four and three with the first finger. Stretch up with the fourth finger to catch the C. Do the same for strings two and one for the E and A notes.

Things to Note and More

Fingering choice

The fingering is something that is suggested, so experiment.

Minor Seventh Arpeggios

Also, you can turn these minor arpeggios into minor 7th arpeggios by adding the G note. So after playing the 5, add the 7th note, G from in the pentatonic scale.

This is a lowered seventh, b7 (or dominant seventh as it is sometimes called) compared to the major seventh G# from the A major scale that was mentioned earlier. So the formula for minor 7th arpeggio or chord is 1, b3, 5, b7. Which in notes equals, A, C, E, and G when compared to the A major scale.

Minor Triad

The three notes that make up this A minor arpeggio, (A, C, and E), can also be called a minor triad. Triads are just downsized chords that you may have learned from full-sized chords.

The triad can be in any order like 1, 3, 5 (root position), 3, 5, 1 (first inversion), or 5, 1, 3, (second inversion).

Try tapping

Try figuring out how to tap the minor triad on each string. for example, string six would equal, A on the fifth fret, C on the eighth fret, and E on the twelfth fret. Use index, pinky, and your opposite hand’s first finger.

So pluck the sixth string with your opposite hand’s first or second finger to start. Then hammer onto C with your pinky. And last, hammer on the E note with your opposite hand.

To start it all over, when finished hammering the E note, pull off the string again to sound the C note fretted by your pinky. Then pull off your pinky to sound the A note with your index finger. Repeat by hammering onto the C note followed by hammering onto the E note with your opposite index finger.

Do this with the other strings. Some strings may be harder than others. Just map out A, C, and E on every string. The sixth string will just mirror itself to the first string since these strings are the same.

Superimpose

To get even more mileage out of these minor arpeggios for guitar, you can superimpose different minor arpeggios over the A minor backing track.

For example use A minor arpeggio, B minor arpeggio, and an E minor arpeggio over the A minor chord or backing track. Use pattern one for the A minor arpeggio, then for the B minor arpeggio try pattern five at the seventh fret. And lastly for the E minor arpeggio use pattern three starting on the fifth fret.

In Closing

Memorize each of the patterns. Practice each of these arpeggio patterns over your own backing tracks or pick one from YouTube in A minor.

As always have fun practicing!