how to study arpegios?

[morfeas]

can you give me a hand in how to study arpegios?

taking 4-note arpegios for example, how do you study it?

normal, 1st inversion, 2nd inversion , 3rd inversion and back?

i have been doing some lessons on electric bass before the clarinet i started now. the above routine makes sence on the bass as each inversion has different finger patterns.

i'm not sure though if it will make sence on the clarinet...

 

[Pete Thomas]

That sounds like a good starting point. (If by 4 note you mean triads start root to root, e.g. C - E - G - C

then E - G - C - E

then G - C - E - G

After that you could try over two octaves as you have plenty on the clari 🙂

C - E - G - C - E - G -C

and down again.

You may find some more on my saxophne pages (adapt for clarinet by extending the range.

For arpeggios with 7ths there is a very good exercise there also:

http://www.petethomas.co.uk/saxophone-exercises-1-01.html

 

[spike]

One that I like to use a lot is from Ernie Watts -
1 - 3 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 3
Take the pattern and move it around through every key,
I often move it up and down chromatically or in thirds and in fifths.
Also make it major, minor, dim or augmented etc.
Move it around diatonically up and down within a scale.
Add a seventh to it. . . whatever.
I've used it a lot and regularly for many years now,
it's a real good loosenerupper.
gruss - spike

 

[Linky Lee]

I play a pattern that goes like so;

1 3 5 (b7) 8ve, then rise a semitone and take that as your new 'root' and play 8ve, (b7), 5, 3, 1 (then rise a semi-tone and repeat throughout register).

Then you can do it in minor, diminished, augmented. And then all of those starting from the 8ve , (b7), 5, 3, 1, rise, 1, 3, 5, (b7), 8ve
SO that you've played all of them both up and down.

Check intonation, and tone throughout. Keep them at a constant speed (use a metronome if needed). Start slow. Get it so that you can go faster.

It's a really nice way to warm up the fingers for a playing session.

 

[philthd]

you only play dominant sevenths linky? a major seventh arpeggio is at least as important and a little less intuitive so i always think deserves more practice .

 

[morfeas]

thank you all so much for your replies!!!

i meant 4-note without the top root actualy, but on second thought it's probable better idea to start with triads. that's how i did it on the bass as well now i come to remember it.

will try out the patterns suggested and the exercices and try make a method that goes progressively.

also i'm looking into the practice routings here in the beginner section.

in order to put the above question into perspective, i will tell you what my problem is.

i wanna play greek / turkish / balkan / gypsy type of music (folk stuff) on the clarinet. i do listen to a lot of jazz as well but the jazz clarinet i was never too keen on...

my teacher, as it happens with all teachers + players of this music here in athens is 'practical musician' meaning that surely someone showed him, but he play by ear and cant read at all.

i realy dont mind that at all, there is not much written scores for this type of music anyway. what i do mind though is that he doesnt have a system / method for teaching the stuff.

what we do so far are the scales (from all keys) and an exercise on each scale that goes like:
1,2,3,4 2,3,4,5 3,4,5,6 ... i'm sure you get the picture.

regarding arpegios, he shows me the major or minor triad (from the root) depending on the scale i'm learning at the time. no inversions, no 4th note.

me on the other hand, i'm used to be tought by my bass teacher who studied at berkley, and has a very systematic and progressive aproach to teaching the instrument. we did the scales, exersices on the scales like the pattern above, other paterns like 1,3,2,4,3,5,4,....

then we did the arpegios starting with three note ones + hi root and then the 4-note ones for the 6, M7, m7,dim, half-dim, augmented and sus + the whole-tone. we also did the majore modes and theory on which arpegio would go to which mode, first choise + second choise arpegios and so on.

so many times i just sit there and do the scales, do the exercise, and i'm sure there is more to it but it seems i will have to create this method on my own and follow it.

moreover, i think i'm gonna have to look into modes myself cause these scales we do now on the clarinet are not like the ones i know already. so far on the clarinet we have done:
major: rast, hitzaz, hitzaziar
minor: ousak, pimenikos / niavent , sabah

anyway, will probably come back with more questions...

sory for long post and thank you all again 🙂

 

[Simon]

here's one I've used that's in a 6/8 feel, descending by whole step

pros: gets you around the cycle of fourths; switches use of note from tonic to 5th, so you hear it on its on; change the quality of the chord to get more mileage; can be used over 4/4 later for different sound

8-5-3 1-3-5 5-3-1 5-1-3 eg C-G-E C-E-G C-A-F C-F-A

the last note resolves by a semitone up to the Tonic of the next key (ie Bb). The same digital pattern applies for the other 10 keys.

Over 4/4 you'd get

C-G-E-C//E-G-C-A//F-C-F-A//Bb-F-D-Bb//D-F-Bb-G//Eb-Bb-Eb-G to Ab...

Give it a go!
Simon

 

[mfox]

nice one simon
also get yourself an otis redding CD and play along to things like "i've been lovin' you" all apegios.
nice chord changes too..

 

[Linky Lee]

PhilthD I practise loads of different arpeggios, I just kept the example down to one.
No need to state the minors, and all other fancy pants arpeggios out there.

I like mfox's idea of playing along with tunes. You can do some nice tone control with it too making sure your tone fits in well.

 

[Bobby G]

mfox wrote:
nice one simon
also get yourself an otis redding CD and play along to things like "i've been lovin' you" all apegios.
nice chord changes too..

I can't play along to that one. I'm too busy filling up :cry: It's probably one of my desert island discs.

Tearfully yours, Bob (RIP Otis)

 

[spike]

morfeas wrote
major: rast, hitzaz, hitzaziar
minor: ousak, pimenikos / niavent , sabah

Hi morfeas,
can you explain the above I'm not familiar with this terminology.
Is it anything to do with Klezmar scales or similar?
- Ahava Raboh and Mi Shereybakh.

sounds like you would wash it down with a cold becks or a light red at room temperature? - just jesting.

gruss - spike