Jazz guitar arpeggios · Concept
A major triad is the first thing anybody learns. Played over the right chord it is also the last thing they master.
Play a triad none of whose notes belong to the chord, chosen so that all three of them land on tensions the chord accepts. Over G7alt, a C♯ (D♭) major triad gives the ♯11, the ♭7 and the ♭9. Your hand is doing something it has done ten thousand times; the sound is something it has never made.
The device belongs to dominants above all, and the reason is structural: a dominant is the one chord allowed to carry almost any tension, so there is room above it for a whole triad that avoids the chord entirely. Over a maj7 there is much less room, which is why the list below is shorter for major chords and longer for altered ones.
| Arpeggio | Built on | Notes | Against the chord | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G7#5 | 1 | G B D# F | 1 3 b13 b7 | Start here |
| C#7 | #11 | C# F G# B | #11 b7 b9 3 | Common |
| C#13 | #11 | C# F G# B D# A# | #11 b7 b9 3 b13 #9 | Common |
| Abm6/9 | b9 | Ab B Eb F Bb | b9 3 b13 b7 #9 | Common |
| A#m7 | #9 | A# Db F Ab | #9 #11 b7 b9 | Alternative |
| Gm7b5(b9) | 1 | G Bb Db F Ab | 1 #9 #11 b7 b9 | Colour |
An arpeggio is the set of notes that are safe. Tension and Resolution is about the ones that are not, and about when a line has earned the right to play them.
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The tool works it out rather than looking it up: it builds every triad on every root and keeps the ones where no note collides with the chord. What comes back for a plain dominant is different from what comes back for an altered one, and that difference is the whole subject — a natural 13 is beautiful over G13 and forbidden over G7alt, because the word "altered" is a statement about which notes the chord does not have.
| Arpeggio | Built on | Notes | Against the chord | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bdim | 3 | B D F | 3 5 b7 | Start here |
| G | 1 | G B D | 1 3 5 | Common |
| Em | 13 | E G B | 13 1 3 | Common |
| Dm | 5 | D F A | 5 b7 9 | Alternative |
| Esus4 | 13 | E A B | 13 9 3 | Colour |
The failure mode is obvious once you have heard it: the triad arrives, sounds like a triad, and the listener hears a guitarist playing a triad in the wrong key. What fixes it is approach and resolution — arrive at the triad from a semitone away, and leave it by resolving one of its notes into a chord tone of whatever comes next. A superimposition that is not going anywhere just sounds like a mistake, because functionally that is what it is.
The second thing worth doing is playing the triad in inversions rather than always from its root, so that the note on top changes. The top note is what the listener hears as the melody, and choosing it deliberately is the difference between a device and a phrase.