In this month’s column, I’d like to demonstrate a really cool technique that I learned from the great Larry Carlton that’s commonly referred to as the “super arpeggio.” It’s based on stacking major and minor triads on top of a chord, yielding much longer arpeggios that move through different triadic forms and sounds.
Let’s start with a Cmaj7 chord, as shown in Figure 1. The most natural triad to play over this chord is C major, which consists of the notes C, E and G.
The “super arpeggio” concept is based on forming successive triads off the second note of each triad. As shown in Figure 2, we start with a C triad and then play a triad based on the second note, E; this yields an E minor triad formed by the notes E, G and B. We then form a triad from G, the second note of Em, which yields a G major triad with the notes G, B and D.
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In Figure 3, I play over a static vamp on a Cmaj7 chord by outlining the C major, E minor and G major triads.
In Figure 4, I use this approach to play a solo-type line, moving from C major to E minor to G major in steady 16th notes before resolving the line with a lick based on the C major pentatonic scale (C, D, E, G, A).
Figure 5 offers an example of “bookending” the three triadic shapes with lines based on C major pentatonic at the beginning and end of the improvised melody.
It’s useful to be aware of what intervals each triad includes: a C major triad consists of the C root note, the major 3rd, E and the 5th, G. Relative to C, the E minor triad gives us the major 3rd, E, the 5th, G, and the major 7th, B. Superimposing a G major triad over a C root gives us the 5th, G, major 7th, B, and the 9th, D. All together that gives us a Cmaj9 arpeggio (C, E, G, B, D).
These triads can and should be played everywhere on the fretboard. In Figure 6, the three triadic forms are moved down to 2nd/3rd position.
A great place to go from here is to apply this concept to a minor chord. The relative minor of C major is A minor, so many of the same notes will appear but within the triadic forms built from A minor.
If I were to play a static Am vamp, I can play lines based on the triadic forms of Am (A, C, E), C (C, E, G), and Em (E, G, B).
In Figure 7, I move through all three of these triadic forms with an improvised line played in a rhythm of 16th notes and 16th-note triplets. Notice that I end the phrase with a lick based on A minor pentatonic (A, C, D, E, G). You’ll find that combining the progression of triads with minor pentatonic lines will sound very musical and also offer many different options for improvisation.
This will be the last installment of Blues Expansions for now, so I hope you have enjoyed these columns and that the concepts presented have been useful to you in your soloing endeavors. Thanks for reading, and please check out more of my lessons at Corey Congilio.
