Guitar Lesson: Improvising Over II V I With The Arpeggio Fingerings | Los Angeles or Skype Guitar Lessons with Vreny

Improvising Over II V I With The Arpeggio Fingerings

II V I, as you may or may not know, is THE most heavily used chord progression in jazz.

If you can improvise really well over this progression, you are a huge step closer to becoming really good at jazz improvisation.
A great exercise to get better at soloing over II V I’s: is soloing with arpeggios, combining the closest possible arpeggio fingering for each of the 3 chords.

This would of course require that you know the fingerings first.
You can learn them here:

In the key of C:

II V I = ||: Dm | G | C | C :||

The notes in a C chord are: C E G
The notes in a Dm chord are: D F A
The notes in a G chord are: G B D

In the above 2 links showing the fingerings for the C major triad and the A minor triad:

Move all three C major arpeggio fingerings up 7 frets to make them G arpeggios. In other words:
1. Move the root position fingering from C on the 8th fret to G on the 3rd/15th fret.
2. Move the 1st Inversion fingering from E on the 12th fret to B on the 7th/19th fret.
3. Move the 2nd Inversion fingering from G on the 3rd fret to D on the 10th fret.
Move all three Am arpeggio fingerings up 5 frets to make them Dm arpeggios. In other words:
1. Move the root position fingering from A on the 5th fret to D on the 10th fret.
2. Move the 1st Inversion fingering from C on the 8th fret to F on the 1st/13th fret.
3. Move the 2nd Inversion fingering from E on the 12th fret to A on the 5th/17th fret.

Practice that really well first so you have all Dm and G arpeggios down.

Once you’ve gotten the Dm and G arpeggios pretty well memorized, you are ready for the drill I wanted to cover in this blog.

You will improvise over the II V I progression in the key of C, combining the closest fingerings for each chord.
Here are those fingering combinations:

Dm from the root, G from the 5th, C from the 3rd
Dm from the 3rd, G from the root, C from the 5th
Dm from the 5th, G from the 3rd, C from the root

This is a really good exercise in soloing over chords with chord tones while moving your hand around the guitar neck as little as possible.

Only moving the notes that need to move from chord to chord, is called “voice leading”.
When you voice-lead, you smoothly move from 1 chord into the next, and your melodic phrases sound connected over the chord changes.

Following video showcases the above:

Hit me up anytime at vreny@zotzinmusic.com if you would like me to send you backing tracks for any of the above chord progressions, if you have any questions, or if you would like to book a lesson.
You’re on your way to becoming a great guitar player.
Have fun! 🙂

Conclusion

Hit me up anytime at vreny@zotzinmusic.com if you have any questions, or if you would like to book a lesson.

These free lessons are cool, but you will never experience the progress, joy, and results that my students experience in lessons when you’re learning by yourself from blogs and videos.

That is why people take lessons: way better results and progress, much more complete information, exposed to way more creative ideas than you can get from a blog or YouTube video.
There is only so much that self-study can accomplish.

If you want to see amazing results and progress in your guitar playing, buy your first lesson here and get started ASAP.