For piano students, arpeggios come as the next step within the technical work after the study of scales.
For piano teachers, is the sign that their students are ready for the challenge; But for the listener, the effect is always “mesmerizing”.
But regardless of who you are, the fact is that “Nevertheless and as opposed to scales -which are organized step-wise-, arpeggios showcase interleaved notes positioned in several combinations of intervals.” as I state in my article published on WKMT Blog; that is what they make them more complex technique-wise for any piano player.
Among the types of arpeggios, which are chords (you can explore the topic of harmony to understand this concept) we count with:
Mayor, Minor, Augmented and diminished triadic arpeggios (this means they display three notes) Each one has a unique sound and characteristic, and also a structure.
After these foundational three-note arpeggios, we can add the more complex ones, the seventh chord-arpeggios, which are no more than the addition of an extra note above the highest of the triadic ones.
We have the dominant seventh, the minor seventh, the Mayor Seventh, the half-diminished, the fully diminished, the minor-mayor arpeggios and within the family of the augmented chords, the augmented sevenths with the mayor and minor sevenths.
All these offer immense possibilities for the performers, and it is commonly used among jazz pianists.
When do we use the arpeggios?
EVERYWHERE!
In classical pieces (most commonly under the pattern of the “Alberti Bass”), in ballads (especially in the accompaniments), Jazz, Pop (Adele used the most famous example with her song “Someone like you”), Rock. All styles use this!
From the technical point of view, “When we exercise the arpeggios technique using finger movement, it is fundamental that we exercise “articulation”. The latter means we have to try and flex up, and down the fingers, so they reach the maximum “relaxed” height. “
If you want to learn all about it, click on the link aforementioned as “arpeggios” and enjoy the full details.