Augmented Arpeggios

An augmented arpeggio is made up of the root, major third and sharp (augmented) fifth. Many jazz and rock guitar players use the augmented arpeggio to create some really frightening licks. Shawn lane and Buckethead are two rock guitarists who make frequent and exceptional use of the augmented sound. One of Shawn Lanes signature licks was a jaw dropping wide stretch augmented passage, which he played all the time.

The wide interval nature of the of the augmented arpeggio means it is very tricky to play but the unusual and beautiful nature make it worth practicing. Using these arpeggios in your solos will really help you stand out from the crowd as few guitarists make use of or fully understand the wonderful things you can do with the augmented sound. In this lesson we will look at the basic shapes and then move on to some of the scary sounds you can achieve using the augmented arpeggio.

Example 1

This example shows the arpeggio shape in its most simple form

Example 2

This is a really nice but very difficult sweep-picking lick. You can carry on moving this shape up the neck in major thirds for some interesting effects or use tapping to extend the augmented arpeggio.

Example 3

In this example you can see a jaw dropping augmented stretch shape being moved across all six strings. The stretch in this example is insane so make sure you warm up properly before even attempting this. Shawn lane would usually stretch and use legato or alternate picking to work through this shape but other guitarists like Buckethead use tapping to make it easier to play. Mess around with the shape and see if you can get your head round it the alien like sound it produces. The faster you play through this shape the better. Listen to Shawn Lane to hear how he uses this frighteningly tricky augmented arpeggio shape.

Well thats it for this lesson. Good luck, practice slowly and try using some of these crazy sounds in your own music.