FREE JAZZ GUITAR LESSONS

by Tony Oreshko
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Jazz Soloing: Lesson 8

More on Ornamented Arpeggios

In lesson 7 we learnt how to play ornamented major arpeggios in the style of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt by using lower auxiliary notes.

In this lesson we're going to learn about upper auxiliary notes. By combining upper and lower auxiliary notes we'll create another ornamented arpeggio pattern that sounds even more like a classic Django lick.

Have a listen to this soundclip to find out what I mean:

C Major Arpeggio with Upper and Lower Auxiliary Notes

If you're interested in figuring out how it's done, then read on!

Lower Auxiliary Notes

To recap on the previous lesson, we started by learning a simple C major arpeggio. The notes in the arpeggio going from bottom to top were G, C, E, G and C. Notice that there are only three different notes - two of the notes are repeated at a higher octave.

We then played a note a semitone lower (a lower auxiliary) immediately before each arpeggio note, like this:

Lower Auxiliary Note
F#
B
D#
F#
B

Arpeggio Note
G
C
E
G
C

Here's a reminder of how it sounded:

C Major Arpeggio with Lower Auxiliary Notes

We then went on to repeat each pair of notes, but this time we're going to do something different with the pattern.

Upper Auxiliary Notes

As you may have guessed, these are the same as lower auxiliary notes, only played above the arpeggio notes. The only slightly complicated thing is that one of them is a semitone (1 fret) higher, and the others are a tone (two frets) higher than the arpeggio note. Here's the upper auxiliary note for each arpeggio note:

Upper Auxiliary Note
A
D
F
A
D

Arpeggio Note
G
C
E
G
C

Combining Upper and Lower

The final pattern that we're going to play is shown in the table below. As you can see, we first play an upper auxiliary, then the arpeggio note. Then we play the lower auxiliary followed by the arpeggio note a second time. We then repeat the whole 4 step process around each of the other arpeggio notes:

Upper Auxiliary
A
D
F
A
D

Arpeggio Note
G
C
E
G
C

Lower Auxiliary
F#
B
D#
F
B

Arpeggio Note
G
C
E
G
C

Here's what the finished item sounds like when played slowly:

C Major Arpeggio with Upper and Lower Auxiliary Notes - Slow

Well done if you've followed everything so far in this lesson. All that remains is for you to speed up the pattern. Here's a reminder of what it sounds like up to speed:

C Major Arpeggio with Upper and Lower Auxiliary Notes - Fast

Well, that's the end of another lesson. Why not take a second to rate the lesson using the form below? We get to see the average scores for individual lessons, and this feedback helps us to try and improve things for you and for other people. Thanks!

Tony Oreshko

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