About Bill Palmer
BILL PALMER is a guitarist, composer/musician and an educational author. His style is a mix of rock tones, ambient sound-scapes and jazz-influenced harmony.
Along similar stylistic lines to Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson but with a voice all his own, Bill’s debut self-recorded album “Outlines” (ToneFreak records 2007) has garnered much critical acclaim from both music industry press and insiders and has been described as:
“Classic Satch style shred…” Australian Guitar Volume 64
“Face melting runs, complex arpeggios…” Rave Magazine 2008
“Your material is awesome, really great stuff…” Mark Holden – Aust. Idol Judge
“Great playing, writing and arranging – awesome!” T.J Helemerich (LA based producer)
“Bill Palmer’s “Outlines” is a guitar pickers heaven…” Manly Daily
“Tone, control and melody – epic sounding….” Australian Guitar Volume 64
“Plenty of heat, the songs are both catchy and original…” Manly Daily
Follow this link to reach Bill’s Website
Download Bill’s Songs from iTunes!
Free Acoustic Guitar Lesson – Playing Arpeggios
The word arpeggio (also called a “broken chord”) comes from the Italian word “arpeggiated,” which means “to play on a harp.” Simply put, playing an arpeggio indicates that we are playing the notes of a chord one at a time rather than all at once as per a strum. Some instruments lend themselves to a more singular type of arpeggio sound (such as violin or brass/woodwind instruments) but the acoustic guitar generally favours a more flowing sound where the notes ring into each other.
The Basic Idea
The general idea when it comes to acoustic guitar and arpeggios is that we hold a chord shape with our fretting hand and then apply a definitive picking pattern with our opposing hand. This creates consistency and some overall form to the sound.
Here is the transcribed example of the first arpeggio (an open position G chord) played in the video (1:08)
You want to aim for a smooth, flowing and even attack from your picking hand so that the notes rise and fall without feeling stuttered or jilted. You may also notice from the transcription that apart from the 3rd fret on the low “E” string, every other note is open. As I articulate in the video, it’s not necessary to finger the full “version” of a G chord to play this example, merely the notes that are needed; in this case the 3rd fret of the low E.
Root Notes
Another key thing with playing arpeggios is that generally, you want to begin your pattern on the root note of the chord that you’re playing. Doing so establishes the specific sound of the chord and places it rhythmically on a strong beat (the first beat of the bar) which further emphasizes the actual sound you are playing.
As you can see from the following transcribed example, the G chord shape begins on a G note and the change to the C chord is facilitated by a starting note of C when it comes to that chord (3:40 on video)
Picking Hand
Another key ingredient in obtaining a natural arpeggiated sound is to develop a smooth picking hand. After all, this is where all the rhythmic interest and variety is coming from.
You can (as I do) use an “anchor point” by resting your pinkyfinger just below the high E string or go for the full “floating” approach that other players do. Experiment and see what feels more natural to you. You should relax your hand and whatever approach you adopt, it needs to feel comfortable, loose and agile. If I could offer any advice, it would be to start slow and maintain accuracy. I’ve seen so many students over the years try and build speed prematurely; invariably what they play ends up sounding like a sloppy mess!
More Examples
The following are more transcribed examples from the video lesson.
In closing, the examples I’ve provided here are very basic but like anything, start slow and do your best to get the fundamentals of the technique down. Ensure your time is even and that you can play these at a range of tempos. As always, please comment if you have anything to add and I’ll catch you again soon for more acoustic fun!
Floricel on Wed, 6th Jul 2011 4:29 pm
This is really helpful Bill. You especially mentioned that one important factor when doing arpeggios is your finger picking hand technique. And so I think, that’s basically what we as learners should also primarily practice. I for one can say that to myself.
So are you basically saying that when playing arpeggios, you can actually decide which string you wish to pick first? I just want to clarify?
Once again, thanks for this lesson Bill.
Cheers!
Bill Palmer on Wed, 6th Jul 2011 9:58 pm
Hey Floricel – yeah, picking hand technique is really important as this is the hand determining the sound and rhythm of the sound. If it’s sloppy and uneven it will undo any good fretting hand technique.
Re “you can actually decide which string you wish to pick first…” Yes, that’s true. Ideally, you want to keep the pattern consistent from chord to chord so when you change your chord, try and keep the string-pattern exact or at least, somewhat similar. Virtually every song that uses this technique has a very similar arpeggio pattern from chord-change to chord-change.
Thanks for the feedback… If there’s anything else, drop me a note and I’ll answer
Bill Palmer on Wed, 6th Jul 2011 10:03 pm
Bit of an error in the transcription folks…
The D-G chord change from “Everybody Hurts” shows an open “B” string note as the last note of the arpeggiated G chord when in-fact, it should be an open “G” note as per the video.
Floricel on Mon, 11th Jul 2011 2:51 pm
Thanks for clarifying that Bill!
Dilip on Wed, 21st Sep 2011 4:28 pm
What a super lesson mate! One of the best demonstrations of arppegios I’ve come across.What you have so beautifully taught can, I feel, be incorporated into a practice seesion.It will improve both left & right hand technique & because it sounds so beautiful will encourage practice & also to try new things.
Thank you so much.Hope to see more such lessons!
Dilip from Pune in India
Rajarshi Mukherjee on Thu, 22nd Sep 2011 4:23 am
Hi Bill,
Recently I tried the song ‘When you say nothing at all’ by Ronan Keating which follows a G, Cadd9 and later on D arpeggio pattern I guess…this one again makes you feel really good when you hit the notes correctly. Just one thing I would require your advice on…till now I have learnt to use my thumb, index and middle finger for picking…yet to use the ring finger (some even use the pinky!)…is it absolutely necessary to learn to play with all the fingers or I can concentrate on what I am able to do now!
Thanks for the lesson. I have been playing guitar for the last two years or so now. Finger picking is one of my fav things and playing arpeggio is nice
Cheers
Deb Swain on Thu, 22nd Sep 2011 11:11 am
Bill, you have one of the best arpeggio videos that I have watched. I can read music so it was great to have that included. Do you have a book with more music like what I see above. Thank you, Debbie Swain
jayanth on Thu, 22nd Sep 2011 2:01 pm
This is one of the best demonstrations of arppegios I have come across. Thank you very much. I hope to see more and more such lessons!
Bill on Thu, 22nd Sep 2011 10:36 pm
@Rajarshi = Thanks for the comment! To answer your question about finger-style picking – there are no “rules.” It’s great you’re using 3 fingers so far. In an ideal world, you’d be able to use all 5 but admittedly, that takes a lot of time and dedication. I’ve been playing guitar for 18 years now and only started using the ring/pinky on my picking hand in the last 4-5 years. Thanks! Bill
Bill on Thu, 22nd Sep 2011 10:39 pm
@Debbie = thanks for the kind words! No, I don’t have a book that explores more of this kind of thing. I wrote a book some 7 years ago on understanding jazz theory but nothing along the purely technical side of guitar. Thank you so much for commenting and for the positive feedback! Bill
Bill on Thu, 22nd Sep 2011 10:40 pm
@jayanth = thank you! Yes I hope to do some more videos for LAG in the near future. I’ll be back!