Learn to play this killer arpeggio riff in E minor with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with this video lesson.
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to show you how to play a little arpeggio lick in the key of E minor. Now this is a movable shape and so you can be able to play it in other keys and I’ll show you how to do that. So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at this.
Arpeggio Riff In E Minor
All right so we’re going to start off we’ve got this ascending E minor arpeggio. So we’re going to start here on the 12th fret of the low E string and I’m going to pick that and then a hammer-on to the 15th fret with my fourth finger and then from there I’m going to take my third finger and go to the 14th fret of the A string and then roll that finger up so it picks up the 14th fret of the D string. Then I take my first finger and come over to the 12th fret of the G string and then roll that up to the 12th fret of the B string and then roll it up again to the 12th fret of the high E string. Now the reason why I’m rolling it is because I want the notes to be as separate from each other as possible. So for the as far as the picking for this I’m using the sweep picking technique so when I pick that first note and do the hammer-on I let the pick come to a rest on the A string so it’s like I want to hit pick the A string and let it come to a rest on the D string and so on and so forth… Now once I get up here to that high the 12th fret on the high E string then I’m going to do a hammer-on to the 15th fret and then slide to the 19th fret and when I slide up to there I want to bring my first finger back to the 15th fret… And then I’m going to do a pull-off from the 19th fret to the 15th fret and then follow that that pull-off to the 17th fret of the B string with my second finger to the 16th fret of the G string with my first finger to the 17th fret of the D string with my second finger and then to the 19th fret of the A string with my fourth finger. So this here is just another E minor arpeggio, it’s just a different shape because that’s an E there. So this is movable like I said so like if you wanted to do it down here to the key of A and then I ended here on the A again, so entirely movable. This area right here is nice because it’s not too cramped and your arm is in a really bad position and then it’s also an E minor so this is like really great like a rock or a metal song or something to throw in there… Now when I’m descending this arpeggio I’m doing the same thing as I pick. I’m letting the pick come to a rest on the next string because you don’t want it to be like a bunch of separate down strokes and up strokes; the idea is it’s just one long continuous pick stroke. So as soon as I descend this pattern I immediately go right back up again and hammer-on to the 19th fret and now I’m going to tap the 24th fret and pull-off and then end there on the 17th fret of the B string because that’s an E. Now you can just do that same thing and move it around. If your guitar doesn’t have 24 frets you can’t tap that note you can just omit that note… So after you when you ascend back up you can just pull-off and then end there. Anyway I just like adding that tapped note in there because it just gives it a little color, but if you’re playing it in a different key or you have less than 24 frets that won’t be an issue. Now the other thing with this is I’m ascending it I’m taking the palm of my hand and I’m just kind of dragging it, well it’s not really the palm, it’s like the edge here kind of dragging along the strings so the strings that I’ve already played won’t ring… So if you’re playing this with overdrive it’s a lot harder to make it sound really clean because the guitar is just going to want to pick up every little sound so I really recommend that after you kind of get the sequence down is that you practice it with overdrive even if you’re not planning on playing it that way because if you can play it really precise and tight with overdrive on it’ll sound that much better with a clean tone. So there are all kinds of stuff you can do with these shapes. Like I said you can move them move it around. Something else I could point out that note the second note on the high E string is one, two, three, four, five frets away.
Conclusion
All right so there you have it… a pretty cool sounding riff in my opinion and a little arpeggio riff that can kinda give you an introduction to the sweep picking technique and you know using these arpeggios. What’s neat about using arpeggios in soloing is that it’s just an instant melody because you’re just outlining the notes that are in the chord. So this would be a thing like maybe the song ends on an E minor chord and well that’s ringing out if you’re doing that you’re outlining all the notes that are in that E minor chord. So if you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this or other guitar related topics. If you’ve not already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content that we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today thanks for watching and have a great day.
