5 Extended Jazz Guitar Arpeggio Exercises

As you take lessons and continue your journey of learninghow to play jazz guitar, youre told about the
importance ofknowing your arpeggiosinside and out, as well as being able to run them through changes to
create improvised lines and solos.

But what do you do when you can run all of the arpeggios up and down for any tune you know, as well as
use them in animprovised context?

The answer just might be to start checking out extended jazz guitar arpeggios, those that move beyond
the first octave,1-3-5-7, fingeringsthat many of us already know.

What Is An Extended Jazz Guitar Arpeggio?

Extended jazz guitar arpeggios are those that go beyond thetypical 1-3-5-7 shapesthat we normally
study in the the practice room.

For example, a normalCmaj7 arpeggiowould be:

C-E-G-B or 1-3-5-7

The extended jazz guitar arpeggio would take you beyond the 7th, toinclude the 9th, 11th (in this case
the #11) and 13th like so:

C-E-G-B-D-F#-A or 1-3-5-7-9-#11-13

Being able to play extended jazz guitar arpeggios is a great way to outline chords while at the same
timestepping beyondthe first octave of the chord and out into the upper extensions, 9-11-13.

You can learn more about these ideas in my in-depth article Extended Jazz Guitar Arpeggios.


So how do we do this?

Well, you could just find the notes that make up the9th, 11th and 13thfor any chord youre working, such
as maj7, 7, m7 or mMaj7, but that might take too much time or produce awkward fingerings.

Instead, an easy way to extend arpeggios is to take anyfour-note shapeyou already know, and then pair
it with a simple, three-note triad that you already know, and voila, instant extended arpeggio.

You can see how this works in the following example:

Cmaj7 up to the 13th isCmaj7+D triad

or

C-E-G-B + D-F#-A

So you havent learned anything new, just took two things you already knew andcombinedthem to form
a new concept.

Here is a basic chart for figuring out the extended jazz guitar arpeggios forcommon chords:

Maj7 = maj7+M triad a tone higher (produces a Lydian sound)

7 = 7th+M triad a tone higher (produces a 7#11 sound)

m7 = m7+m triad a tone higher

m7b5 = m7b5+M triad a semi-tone higher

mMaj7 = mMaj7+m triad a tone higher

Once youve checked out extending jazz guitar arpeggios for thesecommon voicingsyou can come up
with your own for any chord or arpeggio that you want to explore such as Maj7(#5), 7(b13), 7(b9) and
many more.

How to Practice Extended Jazz Guitar Arpeggios

Pick a tune

Play the ascending extended arpeggios for each chord

Play the descending extended jazz guitar arpeggios for each chord

Play the ascending extended arpeggio for the first chord, then descending for the second and
continue
 Reverse the previous idea so you start on a descending extended arpeggio

Improvise on the tune using only extended jazz guitar arpeggios

Being able to solo with chord tones, either arpeggios orextended arpeggios, is an important tool in any
jazz guitarists bag of tricks.

If you are already familiar with the normal 1-3-5-7 shapes and how to use them, try adding asimple
triadon top of these fingerings.

It will allow you to keep the sound of the chord in your melodic ideas whileexpanding your tonal
optionsat the same time.