In music, an arpeggio is a chord where the notes are played or sung in succession rather than simultaneously. |
| An arpeggio passage from Bach's Jesu, Joy of Men's Desiring  |
An arpeggio is a group of notes which are lively played one after the other, either going up or going down. The notes all belong to one chord. The chord may, for example, be a simple chord with the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale in it (this is called a "tonic chord"). An arpeggio in the key of C major going up two octaves would be the notes (C,E,G,C,E,G,C). An arpeggio is similar to a broken chord, but a broken chord keeps rising in groups of three or four notes, each group starting a little higher. Students of musical instruments learn how to play scales and arpeggios. They are often a requirement for music examinations. |
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