Thought I'd open a discussion about a topic rarely talked about here; Arpeggios.
Often people will post asking about which scales to use for surf, and how to compose songs, but nobody ever seems to mention arpeggios. Most classic surf tunes are built from arpeggios, not scales, for example: Squad Car, Midnight Run, Baja and most anything else by the Astronauts, Walk Don't Run, Spudnik(Surf Rider), and loads of others. There are of course songs built from scales, for example Miserlou, but if you really want to inject some melody into your music arpeggios are the way to go. In general scales tones should be used to connect and embellish arpeggios. Although they seem intimidating at first, there aren't really that many shapes and there are tons of books on the subject. It's an understandable knee-jerk reaction to think that arpeggios are for shredders or jazz guys, but a thorough study of arpeggios provides a greater understanding of the fingerboard, a better understanding of harmony, improved compositional skills, speed and dexterity.

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I have noticed over the years that many of the more memorable surf tunes have been composed using arpeggios for the main melodic line. A modern favorite of mine is Satan's Pilgrims Badge of Honor (an Am arpeggio.) I've tried a few times to write like that, but more often than not, I have to go the melodic scale route.

Ryan
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Danny Snyder

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Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

I thought I would give this thread a bump to help start some more musical dialogue after all the tank/pedal nonsense that has been flying.

WARNING: MUSIC THEORY CONTENT!

The great thing about an arpeggio is that the flavor changes completely as you respell, or invert the notes.

For instance, take a C Major Arpeggio, C-E-G. This position is called root position, with the chord root in the bass. Now respell it so that the lowest note is E, so it is E-G-C. The arpeggio is now in first inversion, with the third of the chord in the bass. Now respell it so that the lowest note is G, so it is G-C-E. The arpeggio is now in second inversion, with the fifth of the chord in the bass.

Here is a good arpeggio exercise, taking a major arpeggio through the inversions.

C-E-G-C, E-G-C-E, G-C-E-G, C-E-G-C, then reverse it. Take this through all 12 major and minor keys.

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Last edited: Jun 12, 2012 08:35:28

Here is a study of some arpeggios in context, using the main melody of Mr. Moto.

The numbers below the notes represent what degree within each scale the note is.

The first statement, simply outlines a d minor arpeggio, with a G used as a "passing tone." The 3rd measure is a Bb7 arpeggio (forgive the typo below the 4th note, it should read 3, not 2). The G's are still passing tones, not part of the arpeggio. The 5th measure has an A7 arpeggio, but omits the 3rd of the chord.

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Last edited: Jun 12, 2012 11:00:25

JStern wrote:

I thought I would give this thread a bump to help start some more musical dialogue after all the tank/pedal nonsense that has been flying.

WARNING: MUSIC THEORY CONTENT!

The great thing about an arpeggio is that the flavor changes completely as you respell, or invert the notes.

For instance, take a C Major Arpeggio, C-E-G. This position is called root position, with the chord root in the bass. Now respell it so that the lowest note is E, so it is E-G-C. The arpeggio is now in first inversion, with the third of the chord in the bass. Now respell it so that the lowest note is G, so it is G-C-E. The arpeggio is now in second inversion, with the fifth of the chord in the bass.

Here is a good arpeggio exercise, taking a major arpeggio through the inversions.

C-E-G-C, E-G-C-E, G-C-E-G, C-E-G-C, then reverse it. Take this through all 12 major and minor keys.

The inversion of arpeggios is the most crucial thing in surf music...imho.
The ending of 'Surf Rider', 'Squad Car' and even the MOAM Song 'Configuration 9' are just a few examples how these inversions work and how to use them:

Am
-0- -5- -8-- -12- -17-
-1- -5- -10- -13- -17-
-2- -5- -9-- -14- -17-

- - ----

It is oh so simple and improves your playing so much. Learn these patterns and you can play along to every song and sound like you know what you're doing

The Hicadoolas

Last edited: Jun 12, 2012 11:59:59

Ive never thought of the ending to Surf Rider as being arps or inversions of arps but simply Am in 5 different positions. I can see im missing the point now ( i think).

.

Last edited: Mar 01, 2020 08:11:47

You are right, Surfocaster. These are not arpeggios, please forget what I wrote Simple inversions, not arps.

The Hicadoolas

Big_Ryan wrote:

we need more threads like this one

Yeah, to explain the thread itself!!

How many of us compose tunes but do so without any knowledge of the theory behind it? Personaly i really enjoy theory. I recently did a tune after looking through my book of scales for something surfy sounding and came across the phrygian scale and wrote a tune based on that alone. Now I have a bit of a feel for that scale which is useful to know. My next mission is to write a tune which incorporates tritones, purely for the purpose of learning.