Hopefully by now you checked out the Triad Arpeggio lesson. In this lesson, we are extending the idea of the triad to form 7th arpeggios. We use the same basic idea behind the triad, and simply add the 7th note from each mode. In this case, we find that there are 4 unique 7th chords (remember - arpeggios are just chords with notes played separately): Major 7, Minor 7, Dominant 7, Minor 7b5. The Minor 7b5 is also known as the Half Diminished 7. That's all the theory in this lesson!

The 7th chords can not be played strictly with sweep picking like the triads can (unless you have inhuman fingers). You have to throw in some hammer-ons and pull-offs or a couple alternate pick strokes. But I think that is an advantage rather than a disadvantage. I get bored playing arpeggios using sweep picking, so playing 7th arpeggios is always a refreshing change. They also have a much richer sound than the triads. The triads sound too stale to me. The 7th arpeggios on the other hand sound much more alive because of the added active tone. And when played with a combination of short sweeps and legato, they sound nice and smooth.

The first 3 exercises (A Major 7, C# Minor 7, B Dominant 7) all fall within the key of E Major. I had meant for exercise 4 (the Half Diminished 7) to also be in E Major, but I spaced and played an E Half Diminiahed 7 (the correct Half Diminished 7 in the key of E would be Eb). So just keep that in mind in case you try to harmonize all those arpeggios together. You would need to move the Half Diminished 7 down a half step in order for all the arpeggios in this lesson to be in the same key.

Here is a weird sounding arpeggio for you. Would you expect anything less from a Dminished arpeggio (well, Half-Diminished...)? I think not. You would want to use this one in the key of F Major.

Here is the E Half Diminished 7th arpeggio. There is something very important to notice here: The 4 notes in this arpeggio are part of the blues scale. So when you are playing pentatonic and blues lines, throw this arpeggio into the mix to see what kind of effect it has. Might turn some heads that way (hopefully not away!).

See exercise 1 from this lesson for any instructions on playing this arpeggio. If you know your blues scale, then this exercise should feel really comfortable.