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How to Master Arpeggios for Jazz Violin, Cello, & Viola
A common problem for bowed string players is the inability to quickly apply harmony on our instruments. If we wish to be able to improvise over chord progressions, we benefit by the ability to quickly recall and express chords within the songs we perform.
While triads can be expressed via double stops and/or triple stops, 7th chords can be played on our instruments more easily via arpeggios.
An important key to becoming harmonically proficient is in HOW we practice arpeggios.
Classical arpeggio books teach fingering strategy, but they do not help us go “the next step” of applying harmony.
My workbook explains how to practice 7th chord arpeggios and provides notation in all keys for violin, viola, and cello.
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This practice is useful beyond Jazz. The harmonic foundation you’ll gain from the exercises will help you improvise, compose, and arrange in almost any musical style. Likewise, it will help you when playing unaccompanied, in duo, trio, quartet, as well as when using a loop pedal.
(For a comprehensive book devoted to harmony on bowed string instruments, see also the Violin Harmony Handbook.)
Knowing root position arpeggios is not the same as “knowing” the arpeggio.
To improvise over a chord progression without stopping to think about it, we must be able to instantly recall arpeggios in all their inversions. The lack of ability to do this is a major block to applying harmony on violin, viola, or cello.
The good news is that this is a relatively straightforward skill anyone can gain via the right exercises.
Video: 3 ways to practice for harmonic proficiency
Accomplished jazz and improvising musicians often have access to a mental map of chordal and scalar relationships. “Arpeggios for Jazz Violin, Cello, and Viola”, the workbook, can help accelerate the learning process and reduce the time needed to gain this mental map.
Get the arpeggios under your fingers using the workbook .
Together, the exercises along with organized notation will help you learn arpeggios faster so you can improvise, arrange, and/or accompany in many styles and tunes.
Happy Practicing!
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- Expand your vocabulary and ultimately improvise with greater comfort and ease.
- Internalize jazz arpeggios and improve your harmonic fluency.
- Contains all commonly used seventh chords are transcribed in all inversions in all twelve keys.
- Skill Level: All levels. Exercises lie within first position on the violin and viola.
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