Bebop Arpeggios

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MATT WARNOCK GUITAR

Your Online Guide to Playing Better Jazz Guitar

Getting Chromatic: Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar One of the questions that I often get asked by students in lessons and workshops is, “I know all my arpeggios and can outline chord changes, but how do sound like jazz?” In response to this question I’ve started teaching a workshop titled “Instant Jazz: Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar. Since not everyone can make it to one of my Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar workshops in person, I decided to put the basics concepts of the class in an article for everyone to enjoy. If you want to check out how to add chromatic notes to scales check out my lesson titled “Bebop Scale Patterns for Guitar.” The basic premise behind these Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar is built around the notes of any chord, the arpeggio, which many people already know and have under their fingers. If you are a bit shaky on your jazz guitar arpeggio fingerings you can still work open in browser PRO version

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through this lesson, but you might also want to visit my Arpeggio page to learn more about these fundamental musical building blocks. Each example is based around adding one, two or three notes to a jazz guitar arpeggio shape, in this case C7. Take your time with learning each Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar pattern. Get them under your fingers, improvise with them, internalize the sound in your ears and apply it to other keys, chord progressions and tunes that you are working on in your jazz guitar practice routine. You’ll be sounding like a Bebop pro in no time! Got a question or comment about this lesson? Visit the Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar thread at the MWG Forum.

Here is the basic fingering for the C7 arpeggio that we’ll use to build our chromatic, Bebop lines.

Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar 1: C7 Arpeggio

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We’ll now add our first Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar pattern to this fingering. In this case, we’ll play one chromatic note below each note in the arpeggio. So, the C7 arpeggio has four notes, C-E-G-Bb, and we’ll add one note before all of these to produce, BC-D#E-F#G-ABb. Hear how the arpeggio is now sounding more “jazzy” just by adding one note before each chord tone?

Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar 2: 1 Note Below

In this example we’ll do the opposite approach, same idea but with one note above each chord tone. This one tends to sound a little “evil,” and most of my students with a background in open in browser PRO version


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‘80s Metal seem to prefer this one over all the other variations.

Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar 3: 1 Note Above

Here is one of the most well-used and important concepts in jazz improvisation, Enclosures. Here, we add one note above and one note below each chord tone. If you want to practice this example further, try playing one note below and then one note above each chord tone. This sound is a favorite of guys like Joe Pass, Pat Martino and George Benson to name a few.

Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar 4: Enclosure open in browser PRO version


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We’ll now do the same exercise as Example 1, though with two notes below each chord tone to add an extra dose of chromaticism to our playing.

Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar 5: 2 Notes Below

And again, we’ll reverse it so we now have two notes above each chord tone.



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Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar 6: 2 Notes Above

The last two examples will mix one and two note chromatic approaches, first with one note above and then two notes below each chord tone.

Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar 7: 1 Above and 2 Below



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Finally, two notes above and two notes below each note on the C7 arpeggio. Try mixing these last two up so that you start with the notes below each chord tone, then the note(s) above to add another idea to your Bebop bag of tricks.

Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar 8: 2 Above and 1 Below

The key to learning any of these Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar, or any jazz concept, is to apply it to a tune and improvisation right away. What I like to do is learn one idea, say one note below each chord tone, as in Example 1, and then once I have the fingering down on the guitar, I start to solo on the C7 chord using just that technique in my playing, usually with a static C7 play-along so I can get the sound of the chromatic notes against the harmony into my ears. This way, you are not only learning a new fingering and chromatic idea, but you are training your ears and brain to understand and become comfortable with these new sounds. open in browser PRO version


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After you can do this on one chord, take it to other keys, other chords, and then finally into chord progressions and tunes that you’re working on in your practice routine.

Do you have a way that you like to practice or solo with Bebop Arpeggios for Guitar? If so, please share it in the comment section below.

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22 Comments 1. Guy Boden, June 7, 2011: I always like to hear the chord tones fall on the down beats not the off beats. Guy 2. Matt Warnock, June 7, 2011: Guy: Yeah it’s a bit tricky to get the sound of the chromatic notes on the downbeats in your ears, I used to only practice them on off beats, then I did a few Pat Martino transcriptions and all the licks I loved were ones with the odd notes on the downbeats, so that converted me to check out that sound more. open in browser PRO version


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3. Leandro Martins, June 8, 2011: Amazing article!! 4. John Horne, June 13, 2011: Great series of articles going on here. I will post a link from my blog soon! 5. Matt Warnock, June 13, 2011: Thanks John, more to come! 6. rick bourne, July 20, 2011: great lesson 7. rick bourne, July 20, 2011: what is really great is the music notation with the correct fingering,i seem to grasp it easier 8. Matt Warnock, July 20, 2011: thanks Rick, glad you dug the lesson! 9. John, August 18, 2011: Great stuff! This is how you build walking bass lines as well, right? 10. Matt Warnock, August 18, 2011: Kind of, it is true that basslines use a lot of chord tones from arpeggios and chromatic notes to get to those chord tones, but there are other ways as well. Using that method is definitely a great way to start building basslines. Try this exercise: Play the root on the 1st beat of each bar open in browser PRO version


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Play a different chord tone on the 3rd beat of each bar Arrive at each of those notes from a half step above or a half step below That will get you started in creating jazzy sounding basslines 11. Aniss, December 15, 2011: Hi, just wondering about the fingering on these exercises? Been trying some different ones and they all feel weird. So I’d like to know what works best for you and I’ll take it from there? Great site by the way ;) 12. Matt Warnock, December 15, 2011: Thanks Aniss, I like to use the fingerings on this page http://mattwarnockguitar.com/guitar-resources/arpeggios But if they feel weird you can use any fingering that you like, the key is just adding in the extra note to get the chromatic sound, the fingering is not that important, as long as it’s one that works well for you. 13. Aniss, December 15, 2011: Thanks for the reply :) But you misunderstood me. I know my scales and arpeggios in many positions. But I don’t know how to put my fingers in order to do the ENCLOSURE. No matter how I do it it feels complely wrong so I would like to see the actual fingering others use to do that. With slides or how? 14. Matt Warnock, December 15, 2011: Ah, got it. Here is what i do for each finger. If i play a note with my first finger i do the enclosure with 2-1-1 , for the second finger i use 3-1-2, for the third finger i use 3-2-3 and for the fourth i use 4-3-4. open in browser PRO version


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finger i use 3-1-2, for the third finger i use 3-2-3 and for the fourth i use 4-3-4. Hope that helps! 15. Aniss, December 16, 2011: Yup! That helped a lot ;) Cheers.. 16. Mamalov, January 17, 2012: Thanx a lot mate. I’ve been studying you for a while now! Great stuff. 17. Matthew Warnock, January 17, 2012: Thanks, I appreciate you checking out my site! 18. Edward, May 12, 2012: I’m new here. I would like to say that there is alot of information on your site Mathew. I’m enjoying my stay here. Thanks alot for your time and effort. Edward 19. Guy, October 31, 2012: Matt, after nearly a year of transcribing various licks etc. I’ve got to thank you for your advice. The chord chord tones are played by many great players on the off Beats. Thanks again Guy 20. Matthew Warnock, October 31, 2012: open in browser PRO version


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thanks Edward, glad you dig the site! 21. Matthew Warnock, October 31, 2012: thanks great, glad it worked out for ya! 22. David, June 16, 2013: This is a great lesson, Matt, as is everything I’ve seen on your site. It seems as if there are two viewpoints here, but I don’t think there is really any conflict. Every chord tone has two dissonant (tension-producing) neighbor tones — one above, one below. Of the three tones (chord tone and two neighbors), the chord tone has the least tension, so it’s more interesting to stress a neighbor tone — either by placing it on the beat OR by accenting it on the offbeat. Oddly enough, I learned this in classical guitar studies. When I’d get to a cadence, my teachers would always tell me to stress the dissonant notes, not the notes they melt into when the tension resolves. Dissonant tones have more movement because they’re loaded with implications (they amp up our expectations), and implications are more interesting than their realization. When someone is ABOUT to sneeze, it’s more interesting than when they DO sneeze. Sometimes the tension (about-to-sneeze) notes fell on the final beat of a measure and the notes of resolution (sneeze notes) fell on the downbeat of the next measure, which meant you should disregard the bar line and stress the weak beat just before the downbeat and underplay the downbeat in order to wring the most emotion from the cadence. In other words, the lesson I learned is that it’s tastier to bring out the tension notes, whether they fall on the beat or off the beat. If they’re on the beat, they naturally get an accent. If they’re not on the beat, you might want to make open in browser PRO version


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selected notes among them “pop” now and then. If they’re just passing tones (adjacent scale tones), then they usually don’t need to be brought out, but tension tones that you reach by a leap are good candidates. I think that’s as true in jazz as it is in classical music.

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