Practicing Arpeggios with the Circle of Fifths
With the guitar there are limitless ways we can go about practicing things like scales, chords, and arpeggios. Something I’ve found fun is to incorporate other music elements or concepts as a way to guide a practice session. One such method is by using the circle of fifths to provide structure to practicing arpeggios.
Circle of 5ths
The circle of fifths is a circle of notes, that when navigating clockwise through the circle, each subsequent note is a fifth from the starting note.
The circle contains two rings, with the outer ring representing major and the inner ring representing the relative minor.
View my circle of fifths lesson for more information on it and how it’s useful. For this lesson, we’re just concerned with the notes of the circle guiding the arpeggio practice. We’re exclusively going to be working with the outer ring (major arpeggios), but this same concept can be applied to the inner circle as well to practice minor arpeggios.
Using the outer circle we get the following major arpeggios:
C – G – D – A – E – B – G♭ – D♭ – A♭ – E♭ – B♭ – F
Let’s map these notes to the fretboard
Pattern of 5ths on the Fretboard
If we map the Circle of 5ths to the fretboard, we can find a distinct pattern of notes shared across the top three string groupings.
We can apply arpeggios using these note patterns to give us some structure to practicing arpeggios. Additionally, you can learn the circle of fifths in the process.
For String groups 4 & 5 and 5 & 6, we’ll start the exercise from the top of the circle with C major. For the sake of keeping everything starting at the same position, we’ll start with F when playing arpeggios using the string grouping of 3 & 4.
This really is trivial as you can start anywhere on the fretboard and anywhere on the circle of fifths.
Positional Arpeggios Using CAGED Shapes
We can base our arpeggio shapes from the root notes for a given string. In pretty much all cases you’ll find more than one arpeggio pattern can be used. Which pattern you use is up to you and I’d recommend alternating them just to make sure you cover all your bases.
For this lesson, we’re just going to be using the following shapes:
If you’re not familiar with these arpeggio shapes, check out my major and minor arpeggios lesson.
Arpeggios from the Circle of 5ths Patterns on Strings 5 & 6
For the arpeggios played from strings 5 and 6, we’re going to be using two arpeggio patterns.
The E shape arpeggio will be used for root notes on the 6th string and A shape from arpeggios starting on the 5th string.
E Shape Arpeggio
A Shape Arpeggio
Now we can take these arpeggio patterns and apply them to the circle of 5ths pattern found on strings 5 and 6, starting with C major on the 3rd fret of string 5.
Note that the tab only works through the A major arpeggio. Use it as a reference to continue the exercise through the F major arpeggio.
Arpeggios from the Circle of 5ths Patterns on Strings 4 & 5
For strings 4 and 5, we’re going to use the following arpeggio shapes.
A Shape Arpeggio
D Shape Arpeggio
Now let’s take these patterns and apply them to the circle of 5ths sequence for strings 4 and 5.
We’ll start with the C major arpeggio from the 5th string root and work up the fretboard. Again, the tab establishes the sequence, but doesn’t work through the entire progression.
Arpeggios from the Circle of 5ths Patterns on Strings 3 & 4
For strings 4 and 5, we’re going to use the following arpeggio shapes.
D Shape Arpeggio
G Shape Arpeggio
Let’s apply these patterns to the circle of 5ths sequence for strings 3 and 4.
For this exercise we’ll start with the F major arpeggio and work through the D major arpeggio to establish the sequence.
Arpeggio Variations
To vary the exercise and make it flow a little more fluidly, you can use 3- and 4- note arpeggios and vary how you play them. For instance, the example below uses 3-note arpeggios played ascending only.
Extended Arpeggios
We can also apply this exercise to extended arpeggios, or those that span more than a single position on the fretboard. Let’s take a look at an example using extended arpeggios patterns for strings 5 and 6.
Applied to the circle of fifths pattern we get the following:
Additional Patterns
Below are additional extended arpeggio patterns you can utilize to play across the other string groupings (strings 4 & 5 and strings 3 &4).
You should work through these additional extended patterns as you would the positional arpeggios from above. This will allow you to add more variety to the exercise and expose you to additional arpeggio forms.
Wrap up
Utilizing the circle of fifths is a great way to structure your arpeggio practice. It provides clear direction for practicing arpeggios all over the fretboard, both positionally and through the use of extended arpeggios. It also provides structure for both major and minor arpeggio practice. The exercises this concept provides extends way beyond the examples in this lesson, so be creative and expand on these exercises to get even more out of the concept.
Supplemental content for this lesson is available on Patreon.
Get notified of new lessons!
Get The Book of Scales when you sign up for lesson updates.
The Improvisation Framework
Unlock Your Improvisation Skills!
The Improvisation Framework is a powerful method to simplify the improvisation process and easily improvise anywhere on the guitar.
