Most classical guitar pieces are either in arpeggio style or in contrapuntal style, so learning these styles is important. Arpeggio style pieces are based around chords, with the notes within them plucked individually instead of being strummed together. This guitar lesson will give you the basic knowledge you need to play arpeggio style classical songs.

Arpeggio style is relatively simple, because it used traditional open guitar chords and the finger-picking styles discussed in previous lessons. The main difficulty you may have is performing rest-stroke accents on some notes and free strokes for the rest. If you do have trouble, try playing the entire piece using free strokes before adding in the rest strokes.

Arpeggio style pieces are based around chords, so you can fret the full chords with your fretting hand. Even if all of the notes aren’t played, this makes it easier for your muscle memory, and also makes it easier to come up with variations on the piece. This exercise starts with an A minor, then moves to a D minor, then back to A minor before finishing on E major. You can make up your own songs by using a similar picking style and different chords. Remember to perform a rest stroke on any notes marked with an accent arrow (>).
> > > > > >
e —————–0————-0————-0———|
B ————1————-1————-1———–1 |
G ——-2————-2————-2————2—- |
D ——————————————————– |
A –0—————————————————–|
E ———————————————————|
p i m a i m a i m a i m p (e.t.c.)
> > > > > >
e —————–0————-0————-0———|
B ————1————-1————-1———–1-|
G ——-2————-2————-2————-2— |
D ——————————————————– |
A –0—————————————————–|
E ———————————————————|