Improvisation XI - "Everything Happens to Me" Part 2

everythingHappens_fMaj.jpg

Months ago, when I using this arpeggio exercise on the standard “Like Someone in Love” I altered the key of the song rather than change fret range. That is what I’ve done here as well. Rather than move out of the 7th-10th fret range, this month’s arpeggio exercise features “Everything Happens to Me” in F major with tritone substitutions on every dominant chord that would resolve to its associated tonic.

The rules of this arpeggio exercise are:

  1. Arpeggiate the chords of a song in 8th notes within a five-fret range of the guitar.

  2. Starting on the lowest available chord tone in that range (in this case, D, the fifth of a G minor 7 chord) and arpeggiate upward. Change directions only when the next chord tone falls outside of the five-fret range.

While the purpose of this exercise is to improvise according to the above rule, some may find it helpful to read through a reference exercise. You can find one chorus written out here and watch me perform it here.