2 Hand Arpeggios

In this lesson we will study a technique that I use quite often in my playing style. This technique uses both hands to create arpeggiated chords over the range of both the bass and melody side of the Stick. The sound resembles a finger picking guitar sound.

First we begin with a simple 8 note arpeggio. Play the notes in FIG 1 evenly as steady 8th notes. The trick is to get both hands to articulate with a steady tempo and attack. You want the sound to be as unified as possible with the 2 hands. This means you don't want to sound like a bass and guitar, but rather one instrument where all the notes have the same timbre. Hold the notes down as long as possible for sustain.

Now let's try a 16 note arpeggio. This exercise can be played as 2 measures of 8th notes or 1 measure of 16th notes. Play only as fast as you can keep the tempo even.

You can repeat this pattern for any chord. The example we have been using is for G. Here is an example for the C chord.