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HOW TO PLAY MAJ7 ARPEGGIOS

written by Matt Warnock

Maj7 arpeggios are a must-know concept for any jazz guitarist, but they can be di cul
under your ngers when working these shapes around the entire fretboard. Finding a
system to organize your maj7 arpeggios can make playing and soloing with maj7 arpeg
easy, as you will be able to think less about the shapes of each arpeggio and their loca
the neck, and more about how you want to make musical and interesting lines.

In this lesson, you will learn how to build maj7 arpeggios, how to relate maj7 arpeggios
four inversions of maj7 chords, exercises to practice these arpeggios, and a sample
application of these shapes to the tune “On Green Dolphin Street.”

WHAT ARE MAJ7 ARPEGGIOS?

Maj7 arpeggios are four-note shapes that contain the Root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th notes o
major scale. Here is how those intervals look for a G major scale and Gmaj7 arpeggio.
 G Major Scale G A B C D E

1 9 3 11 5 13

Gmaj7 Arpeggio G B D

1 3 5

To help see this relationship, here is a G major scale next to the Gmaj7 arpeggio on th
fretboard, where you can see the notes of the arpeggio are directly taken from the rela
scale ngering.

Listen & Play Along

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As well,  the notes of the Gmaj7 chord are also in the Gmaj7 arpeggio. In this case, you
playing each note once in the chord shape, and not in note order, whereas in the arpe
you are playing each note twice to ll both octaves, and they are played in note orde
well.

Here are those two items, Gmaj7 chord and arpeggio, side by side for comparison.

Gmaj7 Chord Shape G F# B D

1 7 3

Gmaj7 Arpeggio Shape G B D F

1 3 5

And here are those two shapes, Gmaj7 chord and arpeggio, on the fretboard for
comparison.
Listen & Play Along

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With these comparisons on paper, try playing major scales and chords from di erent r
notes, followed by the related arpeggio shape to see how these items are related on
fretboard before moving on to the next step in the lesson.

MAJOR 7 ARPEGGIO FINGERINGS

When learning how to play maj7 arpeggios, one of the easiest ways to cover the fretb
is to relate arpeggios shapes to chord shapes.
This means that for each inversion of a maj7 chord you learn, you learn an arpeggio
same area.

If you learn maj7 arpeggios in this fashion, you will be able to cover the whole fretbo
with chord tones when soloing, as well as always have a chord shape and arpeggio sha
under your ngers for any maj7 change you are playing over, which can be very helpfu
any jazz guitar situation.

Now that we’ve looked on relating chords to arpeggios, you can now move on to learn
these four inversions on the guitar, relating each maj7 arpeggio to an inversion of a
chord.

To begin, here is a root position Gmaj7 chord with a Gmaj7 arpeggio built around tha
chord shape to practice.

Listen & Play Along

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Next, you can learn the 1st inversion of Gmaj7 along with the accompanying arpeggio

Listen & Play Along

2
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The next shapes are based on the 2nd inversion of Gmaj7 along with an arpeggio bui
around that chord shape.

Listen & Play Along

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The nal shapes are built around a 3rd inversion Gmaj7 chord along with its related
arpeggio shape.

Listen & Play Along

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When practicing these chords and arpeggios, make sure to play the chord rst followe
the arpeggio. This will make a mental connection between the two shapes and make
easier to switch between chords and arpeggios when you take these shapes to a musi
situation.

MAJOR 7 ARPEGGIO EXERCISES

Now that you have explored the four maj7 chord-arpeggio shapes in your studies, her
fun exercise that you can use to work these shapes in all 12 keys while moving to the
shape each time.

The goal of this exercise is to begin to see the next chord/arpeggio as close to the curr
chord you are on. So, if you are on Cmaj7 in root position, and want to move to Fmaj
you would play the 3rd position of Fmaj7, which starts on the note C.

Here are the rst four chords in this exercise, which we’ll call Group 1, which you will s
hear demonstrated below.
 Cmaj7 – Root Position

Fmaj7 – 3rd Position

Bbmaj7 – 2nd Position

Ebmaj7 – 4th Position

Here are those four chords and arpeggios that you can practice in order to begin expa
these maj7 arpeggios to multiple keys on the fretboard.

Listen & Play Along

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Once you have practiced these four shapes with your metronome, you can take them
other keys as you work them around the fretboard.

When doing so, you would get the following 2 groups of 4 arpeggios/chords in each a
the neck.

Group 2

Abmaj7 – Root Position

Dbmaj7 – 3rd Position

Gbmaj7 – 2nd Position

Bmaj7 – 4th Position

Group 3

Emaj7 – Root Position

Amaj7 – 3rd Position

Dmaj7 – 2nd Position

Gmaj7 – 4th Position

By working the chords and arpeggios in each of these three groups, the one in the abo
example and two groups listed after that, you will be able to practice all 12 keys of the
arpeggios around the fretboard, while learning how to move between the various
arpeggio positions at the same time.
EASY MAJ7 ARPEGGIOS – SOLOING SAMPLE

To nish your study of Easy Maj7 chords, here is a sample line played over the rst 8 b
the jazz standard “On Green Dolphin Street.” The phrase uses only arpeggios from th
lesson to create the line.

Once you have worked out this phrase, try putting on a backing track for these chord
other groups of Maj7 chords, and creating your own improvised phrases using the arp
shapes learned in this lesson.

Listen & Play Along

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Erwin

After listening a while, I encountered that the timing is just as important as the notes. I pl
the arpeggios but felt that something was missing: timing!

Reply to Erwin

Jerry

This lesson absolutely great. Thank you very much. Are you going to put minor 7 and dom
7 arpeggioos like this, cause exactly what we need for visualizing and put them together,
scales arpeggios and positions, for begginers like me. This is the best lesson I ve ever se
today among many jazz tutorial sites and blogs. Thank you again
 1

Reply to Jerry

Francis Zérah

So and for example an D-13 arpegio(D F A C E G B) is équivalent to a C major scale.

Reply to Francis Zérah

Jorge Luis

This lesson is very important for connections between chords and arpegios. Thanks .

Reply to Jorge Luis

Doug g

Good lesson Matt.Fills the gaps on fretboard. Thanks.

Reply to Doug g
 jose roberto

very good, thanks

Reply to jose roberto

Esteban

Great lesson! Thank you ver y much!

Reply to Esteban

Josh

This lesson is so helpful to me. I’m just new to jazz playing (not new to guitar) and your
lessons have been foundational to my learning.

Reply to Josh
 Horacio

Great contributtion to the freedom of soul

Reply to Horacio

Manlio

Ottima lezione!

Reply to Manlio

Dave Woods

This is all well and good BUT…. All chords get their feeling and sense of direction from Ke
Structure. Both The Ionian Major 7th and the Lydian major 7th Gmaj.7 & Cmaj.7 (Key of G
obviously Major seventh chords, but only The Lydian Maj.7 gives you the maj.7b5, +11, no
Ionian Maj.7. Each because of Key Structure. are different animals in their behavior. My
problem with what’s being taught here is it’s always presented as individual dissociated ti
of information. Disregarding key structure as just a another “throw away”.

0
 Matt Warnock

Hey Dave, I agree that keys are important, which is why these arpeggios are presented as
related to the major scale. For lydian, that would be another lesson as it would include
mention and study of the #4 note as you said. So the goal of this lesson is to introduce m
arpeggios, show how they are built, and relate them to inversions of Maj7 chords. What y
mentioned is very important, but just the subject for a different lesson, which we have pla
do in future. Cheers.

Reply to Matt Warnock

Dave Woods

This is why Rector always broke a tune down into keys, and the five shapes. All of the
arpeggios and chord voicngs are are contained within them. This overview serves me w
today. I admit that I know all the arps too, but I hear them, and my fingers find them with
shapes as I hear them as part of a phrase. The overview contains all this stuff. It beats
floundering in a sea of bits and pieces of information. I think this is very very important.

Reply to Dave Woods

doogie
Another great lesson Matt, too distracting as always, i’m meant to be doing one thing now
going over Maj7 arps instead!

As an aside though, regarding the Maj7 chord inversions, as long as either the root, 3, 5 o
the lowest note in the chord, this would still constitute an inversion, regardless of how the
other chord tones are stacked/voiced? it doesn’t have to be strictly:
1,3,5,7
3,5,7,1
5,7,1,3
7,1,3,5

Obviously on the guitar it is difficult to finger some of these voicings, and 7 next to 1 on lo
strings sounds too weird, so other ways need to be found. It’s just I would have not neces
called them ‘inversions’, maybe simply ‘other’ voicings.

I’ve never thought about that 2nd inversion shape before (5,3,7,1) so the lesson was wort
just for that!

Yours

Reply to doogie

Matt Warnock

Hey, yeah that’s why we use things like Drop 2 and Drop 3 chords. They allow you to play
voicings but you don’t have to break your hands on those crazy stretches!

Reply to Matt Warnock

 Nicolás

Thank you very very much! Great lesson

Reply to Nicolás

Francis Zérah

Excellent method for studying and ear training.

I consider that there are seven positions for each scale.
On each note of this scale, one can build a small or big arpeggio.
example:
first position of the CMaj scale = F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A
Built on the first degree of the C major scale:
1 little arpeggio CMaj7 = C E G B
2 big arpeggio CMaj7 = G B C B C E G E G
But also small and big arpeggios CMaj, CMaj add9, CMaj6, CMaj6 / 9 CMaj9, CMaj add13
CMaj13.
Do the same thing on the 6 other positions of the C Maj scale (second position of the CM
scale = G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B third etc…).

Reply to Francis Zérah

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