SCALES Or ARPEGGIOS -- Which Is BETTER For Lead Guitar Playing?
When you are playing lead guitar over a chord progression, what should you be thinking about — scales or arpeggios?
This seems to be a significant debate between guitar players:
Many think that you should always just be thinking about the scale,
Many others think that you should just think about chord tones and arpeggios, and forget about scales.
People have gotten so carried away with thinking their way is superior (and being smug about that...), they have forgotten to ask themselves a very important question:
Why not both? Why does everything always have to be one or the other?
(Yeah, I know it sounds obvious... but wait until other people arrive and tell you that "you should not be thinking about anything", or "just play it by feel, man", or "theory is useless", or "will somebody think of the children?")
Is it maybe impossible to think about scales and arpeggios at the same time? Well, it's not impossible... if you do it like I show you. See below.
If you think about both things at the same time, then the arpeggio can show you which notes will sound at rest and harmonious over a chord, and the scale can show you how to move between them. (This is an example, not the only thing you can do!)
The scale can also show you which notes will sound tense over a given chord, which will create a more emotional sound,if you now when to use them
So, the only real answer to the question ‘scales or arpeggios?’ is "yes". The answer is yes.
But how to think about it? How to integrate these two approaches?
If you want to find out how to effectively balance these two concepts in your playing, check out the video linked below, and I’ll show you how I think.
If you want to become a great lead guitar player, it's a really good idea to understand the modes and how to use them. If you want to understand the modes better, check out my Master of the Modes guitar course.
Video Transcription
Tommaso Zillio 0:00
Hello internet so nice to see you! How do you visualize your guitar fretboard? How do you find every scale and arpeggio that there is there and integrate everything together? How do you use all this stuff? When you play over a chord progression? Well, there are many solution and some people here we go out immediately with, just go and learn the CAGED system.
Okay. I really don't like the CAGED system. If you want to use it to use it. I'm not going to be a fundamentalist about that. But I think there are better options than the CAGED system. As student of mine asked me how to go about all that how to use all the scales and arpeggios over a chord progression, how to integrate everything together how to visualize in an economic way, everything and I gave him a detailed answer. And the answer is this.
Speaker 1 0:51
So I had a question for you about outlining chords with either scales or arpeggios. I tried both ways. When did you when's the best time to use scales to outline chord progression? Or arpeggios?
Tommaso Zillio 1:07
You mean you mean them when you're playing a lead or at a bar chord progression immediately improvising or composing? Yeah, yeah, whenever whenever you are doing something like that. Most guitar player tend to preferentially use notes of the chord. If you play all the notes of a chord, you're playing an arpeggio. We are always there, okay? Because it's the most consonant knows, don't just feel more in the chord. So that's why they do it. On the other hand, our notes are perfectly legit.
Okay, I don't believe in avoid notes, okay, all the notes work if you put them in the right context. And pay attention. So you could put it this way, whenever you want to just fit in is in the corner whenever you want to put in a bit of tension or call or emotion. Another note, maybe in the scale, but not in the chord. Okay. Very, very rough suggestion. Okay.
Speaker 1 2:03
Idea, visualize. And so you would visually visualize,
Tommaso Zillio 2:07
for visualizing, I actually like to visualize the arpeggio first. So I mean, I don't know, you have a two chords, you would like to earn a minor in E, A minor, and D, a minor and D major. Okay, fantastic. So I'm thinking a minor, and I'm realizing they're paying me I'm here. Maybe I'm here, whatever. I'm here, just the setup position. And I'm visualizing these three notes, then I don't have to play with them when a minor I can play them.
I can hit another chord, the chord and then I can start using notes of the scale maybe bridge between them or to add the extra motion when I go from a note. That's another member of the chord. It's a C. That's now C, it's more emotional now. Like, okay, your bedrock, you know, the solid foundation and the chord and then on top, you are their staff for caller emotion and all the other things. So it's not like it's better to play or pay to play your scale.
Okay, there's this big debate on YouTube, which everybody goes like not learn scales, just learn chords. Now, guys, you have to learn the scales. I'm sorry. Anybody says don’t learn scales go away. They don't know that talking about. So the thing is, visualize the arpeggio. And to visualize the scale around the arpeggio. Okay, so yeah. Okay. Maybe the rest of the scale, but even if it's just the first three strings, and you want a picture here, which is this one was a minor and you have this case, just around. And you have that feature here. And you'll get arpeggios around the sorry, the scale of the arpeggios.
So you start by thinking where is your arpeggio? You play the scale around? Those are your reference point. After a while you start to recognize again no you're playing in Aeolian that's your arpeggio that the audience scales those notes around the are seeing it very simple if you want to say but at the same time, you had to put in some study into doing okay and I like to use the sweep arpeggios so two to five to note on the scene and the first string then one of them is in second string one on the third string very playable.
Okay, we think you can read the whole thing, okay. And I like to see the three notes per string scale around that I played you three notes three notes I do not see a third no different we're following just escape but typically start with the second note.
Unknown Speaker 5:07
I would do something like like this basically
Tommaso Zillio 5:16
right now you are playing the arpeggio and playing the scale and put them on just to visualize them because you can play the scale first and then the arpeggio you can play an arpeggio partner scale up, do whatever you want. Okay.
But yeah, it will be a good exercise to go like a arpeggio. And then scale or arpeggio down or arpeggio up sorry. And scaled down to one or the other. Okay, in other positions. And then the next chord you have was E. They're still in the key of A minor. And we'll have to play that A harmonic minor scale to fit so you still see the arpeggio.
Speaker 1 6:00
to make it even cooler down at seven E seven.
Tommaso Zillio 6:04
but yeah, you can, you can don't they don't have the arpeggio around, around the scales around the chord. And again, I like to use three notes on the first string on the second string to know the next thing before this kind of arpeggio.
Okay, the idea is that I have always a number of notes per string. And they're working, they're on the right hand is easy to regardless of what I'm playing, I always have the same number of notes. So anybody can invent in our in our in our chord plus scale, I can transpose it to any other chord plus scale in any of the possible inversions. So these multiply my effectiveness in moving things around a lot.
Because if I invent a leak then I can do it no new minor. I can do it in in this position. Again, do it in another position. And then in in this position. And then a faster start to some melodically meaningful to do this kind of thing. It doesn't work every single time. But if you start connecting all those positions, notice position of the same interface. If you want over three notes, the three notes here do not see your repeats is always 211.
And so moving things around and creating melodic references from one point to the solid to another becomes easier. I can think only in this case, it's possible I can think all in arpeggio is possible. I like to think arpeggio and super imposing, okay, Lana in those kinds of micro pattern only on three string at the beginning, then you extend it to 456 strings indefinitely, but suddenly we three, okay, okay. And because it clarifies immediately, whatever I have. And because finding their quarter page, it's easier and faster than finding the full scale in opposition.
Okay, and now this I am working only on the top three strings, which is where most people solo anyway. I mean, some people will be solos on the fourth and fifth occasion on the sixth. But the difference between the standard way of teaching patterns, they always start from the sixth string with a pattern which is the wrong position.
I mean, if I want to play here, multiple minor arpeggio here why am I going to think from here? Play the whole scheme. Jacks to arrive here, but I want to play you should natively find it here. So that's how I think Okay, makes sense. Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you, Josh. Appreciate it.