Practicing arpeggios and scales in contrary motion on the guitar has many beneficial aspects. Derived from a relatively simple and natural piano concept it becomes more challenging when tried to be applied to the five strings instrument. This approach will open up a vision of music and the instrument very often overlooked and when used sparingly and with taste it will enrich your solos and comping. It is also a useful tool for arranging passages of melodies that will create interesting musical effects.
With a little bit of practice and guidelines, you should be able to think in contrary motion fluently and smoothly before you know it.
I recommend three steps for gaining this peculiar skill on the guitar related to the triads:
Practice accurately the four arpeggio types with proper fingerings from each string and different combinations of intervals using one tone.
Practice the four types of triads in all tones.
Apply the concept to standards chords progression, use them in your impro, and be creative.
Practice the correct fingering
Even though there are different possibilities of playing the arpeggios and all hands are different, it is important at this stage to find and use fingerings that suit the left hand the best and to use the same ones so that the brain will memorize faster and will not get confused by using different ones all the time. On the Pdf, I tried to find fingerings for the left hand that feel good and that with a bit of practice will be able to be played at a fast tempo without strain.
I recommend starting at a slow tempo, repeating single fragments of the same line, and reaching a skill level where you can play each line three-four times in a row without interruption and without looking necessary at the board. As a direction for the left hand, try to turn the hand as little as possible and maintain the same wrist angle. Execute and think of each line as one single movement without interruption. Introduce dynamics when you feel more confident.
The arpeggios are starting from each string. When the arpeggio is approached from higher strings, the left hand will move to the right opening it up smoothly, when approached from the lower strings the hand will move towards the left. Starting with a central string works the best, but it is important to practice them all over. We are trying to build up an improvisation skill so that in practical situations we will be able to play them, when we feel it, wherever we are.
In the Pdf all the combinations of intervals are covered.
One situation would be when starting from a single note per string and from all the degrees of the arpeggio. A perfect octave is reached after four notes and from there back to the single note.
The other situation would be when we start from an adjacent interval so that the other remaining combinations will be covered.
We try to stay on the key of G as far as the limitation of the board allows it. The diminished arpeggios are probably the most challenging due to the big jump of a tritone. The augmented one has the advantage to be symmetrical, so when one is done the others repeat the same structure and fingering.
Be patient, take your time, and when you master this step move to the next one.
Practice all tones
Each type of arpeggios has to be played from all tones. I suggest doing so by following the cycle of fourth and focusing on one type of triad at once so that you can track the process and start from where you left off every time. Here is where you can start to use different fingering according to the limit of the instrument or by the use of open strings. Here you should not necessarily play fast. Go at your pace and use this step as a powerful tool to master the visualization of the board and your triads knowledge. It might take hours or days to reach a point where you can perform one cycle in a row, but when the job is done you should be able to execute it in a few minutes without effort.
To play all tones for each type will not take longer than ten minutes when done without interruption, and that is the goal you want to reach. It requires your full attention and focus for that time of practice. The good news is that when you practice and learn one well the next will be faster to execute. Practice one to practice them all!
It could also be beneficial to sing one line (especially the lower one), accurately singing octave jumps to stay in your voice range. Singing or humming is a powerful tool for internalizing music faster and at a deeper level.
This is a long process, again, take your time and enjoy the practice, you are acquiring a new way of playing that will be part of your musical DNA!
Applications
Here is where the real fun starts. Take a standard you like and follow the chords using contrary motions for each chord symbol.
You will play fragments of the arpeggios using your own taste and transform the interval to fit the flow of the changes.
When you feel confident with triads you may start to be freer and more creative adding sevenths or nine to the triads. The point is that once you will have a solid foundation of the triads you can add other colors according to your taste and feel of the moment and create small melodies lines or chromaticism that will connect two different intervals. You can move the lower as well as the upper voice to connect different reaching points.
That’s the moment to be creative and to follow your taste.
You can use the device for harmonizing part of the themes, especially when triadic melody movements are spotted.
You don’t have to necessarily follow the triads of the changes, you might use triads as substitutions, like for example C major triads over a Fmaj7#11, E Major over G7, A minor over Cmaj7, etc.…
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