Arpeggio

Arpeggio

Description

A musical improv warm up from Phil Lunn.

An arpeggio can also be called a ‘broken chord’, and it’s where we sing the notes of a chord sequentially, rather than all together. Think of the piano underneath “Unchained Melody”, “Everybody Hurts”, or “Walking in Memphis”. It’s hard to describe in writing! The first four notes of “I Could Have Danced… all night” are an arpeggio of a major chord.

We stand in a circle and together sing an major arpeggio up the octave and down the octave, all together, with “ah”s. We then pass it around the circle, one note at a time. Every time we complete the pattern, we do it all together once, before starting again with the next person.

Teaching Purpose

This is quite challenging, and unless everyone has a great musical ear then it will take a long time to do it correctly (and that may never happen). Regardless of how much success we achieve, it’s an excellent way to really, really, really, focus on what we’re hearing from our partners.

Categories

Warm Ups

Musical Improv

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