You'll recall that a chord is comprised of three or more notes played at the same time. An arpeggio is another way of playing a chord — but rather than playing all the notes at once, an “arpeggiated” chord is played by playing the notes in the chord one at a time in sequential order. Arpeggios can be played in either ascending or descending order of notes, meaning you can start with the lowest note and move up through the notes of the chord, or you can start with the highest note and move down. You can play an example of a series of C-major triad arpeggios simply by blowing holes 1 through 10 one at a time.

Practicing arpeggios is useful for improving your dexterity on the harmonica, and arpeggios also provide a good place to start when looking for notes to use in a solo over a chord.

FIGURE 6-7: Arpeggio

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Chapter 7 will explore harmonica tablature, the easy-to-read special musical notation that was created just for harmonica.