Harmonic Minor Arpeggios on Guitar

What are harmonic minor arpeggios?

The seven chords of the scale played note by note,
so a melody can outline the harmony.

An arpeggio plays the notes of a chord one at a time. Harmonic minor has seven chords, so it has seven arpeggios, and each one picks out three or four notes of the scale: the ones that sound strongest over that chord.

The player above plays every arpeggio from its root, up and back down, in the neck region you choose or along the whole neck. The note playing lights in crimson; the rest of the scale stays faded behind it.

Harmonic minor triad arpeggios on guitar

Three notes per arpeggio:
Am, Bdim, C+, Dm, E, F and G#dim.

Start with the triads. In A they are Am (A C E), Bdim (B D F), C+ (C E G#), Dm (D F A), E (E G# B), F (F A C) and G#dim (G# B D).

Listen to the difference between Am and E. They share only one note, E, and the move from G# in the E arpeggio to A in the Am arpeggio is the cadence of the whole scale. Play them one after the other until that move sounds like home.

Harmonic minor seventh arpeggios on guitar

Add the 7th for four-note arpeggios
with a richer, more classical colour.

Switch the player to Sevenths for Am(maj7), Bm7b5, Cmaj7#5, Dm7, E7, Fmaj7 and G#dim7. The Am(maj7) arpeggio has both the root and the leading tone, A and G#, a half step apart; it sounds dark and suspended.

G#dim7, G# B D F, is the favourite arpeggio of neoclassical players: four notes a minor third apart, the same shape every three frets. Over E7 it gives the b9 sound of the V chord.

Vertical harmonic minor arpeggios in the five neck regions

Up and down across the strings in one hand position,
from the lowest root in the region to the highest.

In Region view each arpeggio stays inside one region of five frets. It starts on the lowest root of the chord inside the region and climbs to the highest, on whatever string it falls, then comes back down. This keeps the hand still and shows where every chord sits inside the scale shape.

Learn the Am and E arpeggios in region 3, frets 5 to 9, first: that is where A sits on the 6th string, and where most neoclassical licks in A begin.

Horizontal harmonic minor arpeggios along the neck

Along the strings, two notes per string,
for lines that travel up the fretboard.

In Full neck view each arpeggio starts on its root on the 6th, 5th or 4th string and climbs with two notes per string, up to two octaves or fret 15. This is how sweep-picked arpeggios are usually played in neoclassical metal.

Choose Root 5th string and play Am, then E, then Am again: the shapes move a fret or two between chords, and the hand learns to shift without losing the pulse.

How to improvise with harmonic minor arpeggios

Play the arpeggio of the chord you hear,
then connect it to the next with a scale step.

Over a progression, play the arpeggio of each chord as it comes: Am over Am, Dm over Dm, E or G#dim over E. Then join the arpeggios with one or two scale notes, and end each phrase on a chord tone.

The clearest target is G# over the V chord, rising to A on the i. Make it the last note of your phrase over E7 and the first note over Am, and the solo will follow the harmony.

How to practise harmonic minor arpeggios on guitar

Slowly, one region at a time,
then the V and i arpeggios in turn.

Start at 70 BPM with the player. Play each arpeggio up and down in one region, then move to the next region. When the shapes feel easy, play Am and E7 in a loop, then Am, Dm, E7, Am.

Practise the diminished arpeggio on its own: G# B D F, then the same shape three frets higher. It trains the fourth finger and gives you a fast way across the neck.