An arpeggio is just notes out of the chord — any chord. You can draw an arpeggio from any chord you’ve got under your fingers, and once you see how that works, it opens up a whole different approach to your blues soloing.
Most folks think of arpeggios as that bass-note-plus-fingerpicking pattern — root note on the low string, then picking through the third, second, and first strings. That’s one of the most common arpeggio patterns out there, and it works over every chord you know. Alternate the bass note and you’ve got yourself a solid fingerpicking foundation.
But there’s another side to arpeggios that gets really interesting for blues and rock — using smaller chord shapes, called triads, as single-note riffs.
The Moveable Minor Triad
One of the most useful shapes you’ll ever learn is the minor triad played across the top three strings. Take B minor as your starting point:
Third finger on the 4th fret of the third string, second finger on the 3rd fret of the second string, first finger on the 2nd fret of the first string. Three notes — root, minor third, and fifth — and the whole shape slides up and down the neck to give you every minor chord there is.
Move it up to the 12th position and you’ve got A minor:
That A minor triad at the 14th/13th/12th frets is exactly where Eric Clapton builds his solo on “All Your Love” with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. He slides up to that position and picks through those three notes — A, C, E — across the third, second, and first strings.
How Clapton Picks the Arpeggio
The picking pattern goes: third string, second string, third string, first string. That’s your first phrase. Then it starts again from the root — third, second, third, first, third — for the second phrase. Two groups, and that’s the complete arpeggio riff.
Here’s something that might surprise you. Those same three notes — A, C, E — are the first three notes of Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption,” just played in reverse and tapped instead of picked. Van Halen has said Clapton was one of his biggest influences. Same arpeggio, completely different technique, decades apart.
Moving the Shape With the Chords
Because this triad shape is moveable, you can follow your chord changes with it. In “All Your Love” (key of A minor), Clapton shifts between the A minor triad and D minor triad as the chords change underneath. Same shape, different fret — that’s the beauty of it.
You’ll find this approach outside of blues too. Mark Knopfler uses a similar rake-picking technique with minor triads in Dire Straits. Same D minor shape, just a different rhythmic feel. And the U2 classic “Sunday Bloody Sunday” uses B minor, D major, and G major all on the top three strings — peel one finger off at a time and you’ve got smooth chord changes from a single starting shape.
Where to Go From Here
Once you’ve got this triad under your fingers, start moving it chromatically — slide it up or down one fret at a time and listen to how those chromatic passing tones sound against your bass note. That’s territory where blues gets really expressive.
If you’re still getting comfortable with your pentatonic scale positions, work on those first. Arpeggios make more sense once you can see how the chord tones sit inside the scale shapes you already know.