Ethan bases his weekly workout patterns this month on arpeggio patterns derived from familiar fiddle tunes: “Soldier’s Joy,” “St. Anne’s Reel,” and “Fisher’s Hornpipe.” As with the lesson on scale patterns based on tunes, you’ll learn to play the derived arpeggio patterns for chords starting on each degree of the tune’s scale. The resulting exercises will build finger dexterity and help open doors for improvisation. The first set of arpeggios are built on a phrase from “Soldier’s Joy” in the key of D. Ethan starts each arpeggio on the fifth of the chord—an A note for the tonic chord, for example.
