Guitar Arpeggio Exercises

Skill Level: Intermediate – Advanced

Master arpeggios across the fretboard with focused exercises for major, minor, dominant, diminished, and more. Practice with interactive tabs, audio playback, and clear practice tips—perfect for building fretboard knowledge, finger independence, and musical fluency.

Why Practice Guitar Arpeggios?

Arpeggios are the backbone of lead guitar, improvisation, and chord-based soloing. They help you visualize chord tones, connect scale shapes, and create melodic lines that outline harmony.

Fretboard mastery: Learn to see chord shapes and intervals everywhere
Improvisation: Target chord tones for more musical solos
Technique: Improve finger independence, string skipping, and sweep picking
Composition: Write stronger melodies and fills

Arpeggio Tab Player

Use the dropdown below to select and practice different arpeggio types and patterns.
Focus on clean transitions, even timing, and visualizing the chord shape as you play each arpeggio.

Note: All examples use arpeggios with the root note C. You can transpose these by moving the arpeggio up or down the neck—e.g., move Cmaj7 up 2 frets and it becomes Dmaj7. For the three-octave arpeggios, the tab highlights each C note so you can clearly see where each octave begins and ends. Practicing these arpeggios in smaller sections ("chunks") as well as the full pattern is highly effective—each octave is a useful arpeggio shape on its own and worth memorizing. The last two examples show a pattern of multiple arpeggios in one key (C major); these arpeggios are built from the C major scale. For more, see What is a Chord? and Chords in Every Key.

Select Exercise

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How to Read This Tab

Standard Notation: The top staff shows traditional music notation for rhythm and pitch.
Tablature (TAB): The lower staff shows fret numbers for each string—play the indicated fret on the matching string.
Picking Symbols: ⊓ = Downstroke, ∨ = Upstroke.
Slides: A diagonal line or "sl." between notes means slide your finger from the first note to the next without lifting.
Fingering: Numbers above the top staff suggest which left-hand finger to use (1 = index, 2 = middle, 3 = ring, 4 = pinky).

How to Practice Arpeggios

The examples start at 40 BPM. Start slow and focus on accuracy, finger placement, and smooth string transitions. Gradually increase the tempo as you gain confidence. For more on effective practice, see 6 Essential Practice Tips for Guitar Students.

Arpeggio Practice Tips

Say the chord type out loud as you play ("C major seven", "C minor seven flat five", etc.)
Visualize the chord shape on the fretboard
Use alternate picking, sweep picking, or hybrid picking as appropriate
Practice both ascending and descending patterns
Apply arpeggios to real chord progressions and songs

Next Steps in Your Arpeggio Journey

Explore arpeggios in other keys and positions

Combine arpeggios with scale runs and licks

Practice arpeggios over backing tracks and chord progressions

Learn arpeggios for extended chords (9th, 11th, 13th)

Apply arpeggios to improvisation and songwriting

Unlock More with the Scale Explorer Tool: The Scale Explorer lets you visualize fretboard diagrams for chords and arpeggios generated from a wide variety of scales—not just the basics. Use it to discover new arpeggio shapes, experiment with unusual scales, and create your own unique fingerings and patterns. It's a powerful way to expand your fretboard knowledge and develop your own musical voice.

Remember: Consistent, focused practice is the key to mastering arpeggios and unlocking new creative possibilities on the guitar!