Arpeggios

An Arpeggio (Ar*peg"gio) is a chord whose notes are played individually and  in rapid succession as opposed to playing the notes all at once. Playing an arpeggio is also referred to as sweeping because of the sweeping motion your picking hand makes when playing them. Lets start with the Am chord shown below. 

While holding the chord, the first 5 notes should be played with  a downstroke in a long downward sweep. Then play the last 4 notes with an upstroke, in an upward sweep.  I labeled each with a ^ (downstroke) or a v (upstroke) 

E||-----------------------0------------------------||
B||-----------------1----------1-------------------||
G||------------2--------------------2--------------||
D||-------2------------------------------2---------||
A||--0-----------------------------------------0---||
E||------------------------------------------------||
  |--^----^----^----^-----^----v----v----v-----v---|


Now, lets play a 2 chord arpeggio using an Am and C. 

E||-------------------|-0-----------------|------------------|
B||----------------1--|------1------------|----------------1-|
G||-----------2-------|-----------2-------|-----------0------|
D||------2------------|----------------2--|------2-----------|
A||-0-----------------|-------------------|-3----------------|
E||-------------------|-------------------|------------------|
  |-^----^----^-----^---^----v----v----v-----v---^----^----^-|


--0-------------------|-------||
-------1--------------|-------||
------------0---------|-------||
-----------------2----|-------||
----------------------|--3----||
----------------------|-------||
--^----v----v----v-------v----|
 

If this sounds familiar, it is the beginning of the famous Animals song "House of the Rising Sun" The song uses some easy arpeggios. If you are playing in a cover band, or want to, its probably a good idea to note that this is regarded as the most widely requested song of them all. 

In the Chord Construction lesson, we learned that a chord is made up of at least 3 notes which are determined by musical rules. One of the chords we built was a D minor. The D minor chord consists of the following 3 notes- D,F,A. Now, lets play an D minor Arpeggio on the fretboard.  

E||-----------------------13---17---13----------------------||
B||-----------------15-------------------15-----------------||
G||-----------14-------------------------------14-----------||
D||-----15------------------------------------------15------||
A||-17---------------------------------------------------17-||
E||---------------------------------------------------------||
  |--^---^-----^-----^----^-----v---^----v-----v----v-----v-|

Try playing some arpeggios using various chords. It is important to use downstrokes and upstrokes properly to get the right effect.  
 
While practicing these, play the note, mute it, then play the next note. Did I mention these are played really fast? If you start out slow, don't worry. Its actually pretty easy once you get the technique down.