As guitarists we are consistently working on our soloing skills with the pentatonic scale, the blues scale, various modes and more, but one sound we should definitely get very acquainted with is the Dominant 6/7 arpeggio.
How is the Dominant 6/7 arpeggio formulated? It is constructed by building a chord as follows: root, major third, perfect fifth, major sixth and lastly minor seventh. For a G6/7 the notes you get are: G B D E F. For a C6/7 the notes you get are: C E G A Bb. Why learn this arpeggio? Because the sound is so strong, it is found in virtually almost every American style of music. Whether it is blues, country, funk, jam band rock, jazz and fusion, this tonality is utilized by professional musicians to the max due to the fact that it sounds so good! How would I practice this? Well I would learn all the first 6 examples and from there I would use them on the first eight bars of the G blues.
Please be mindful of knowing that the G7 licks must be played over the G7, and the C7 licks must be played over the C7. If your ear is real strong and you’re a slick blues player you can even make them overlap, but it’s kind of tricky at first.
The first example is showing a typical blues lick that works in a variety of different situations using part of this arpeggio. The second example is a theme and variation of the first example, so you can do a call and response over a G blues progression. The third example, as well as the fourth example, are used over a C7 chord which is the 4 chord in a G blues progression. These two ideas were also designed to work as a call and response if you wish to use them that way. The fifth example is using the arpeggio in a lower register of the guitar, once again this time defining the G7 chord in a G blues progression. The sixth example is using the arpeggio in a lower register of the guitar as well, this time defining the C7, or as we already mentioned earlier the 4 chord of a G blues progression. I left the last four bars open for you to do anything you’d like, so that means you can go pentatonic, or you can use the blues scale, go modal, or you can throw in some licks in the end. Heck, if you’re like me you might even throw in the kitchen sink.