Try This Finger-Busting Arpeggio Exercise for Bass Guitar

If you already practice scales by harmonizing them with arpeggios, here’s a simple way to make that exercise much more challenging.

Instead of playing each arpeggio straight up or alternating ascending and descending, change the order of just two notes.

Instead of:

1 – ♭3 – 5 – 7

Play:

1 – 5 – ♭3 – 7

That small change forces you to cross strings throughout the arpeggio, making this a great exercise for finger independence, coordination, and clean string crossing on bass or guitar.

How the Finger-Buster Arpeggio Exercise Works

Start with a scale harmonized in seventh chords. This is also a great way to start using arpeggios in your bass fills. In the video above, I’m using the Harmonic Minor scale.

Rather than playing each seventh arpeggio in its normal order:

1 – ♭3 – 5 – 7

Switch the order of the two middle chord tones:

1 – 5 – ♭3 – 7

The exact intervals will change depending on the chord. For example, a major seventh arpeggio would change from:

1 – 3 – 5 – 7

to:

1 – 5 – 3 – 7

A dominant seventh arpeggio would change from:

1 – 3 – 5 – ♭7

to:

1 – 5 – 3 – ♭7

I think you get the idea.

To recap: The rule stays the same: take each seventh arpeggio from the harmonized scale and switch the order of the middle two notes.

Then continue that pattern through every scale degree.

Why This Is a Great String-Crossing Exercise

Reordering the chord tones creates larger interval movement and forces you to cross strings more frequently.

That makes the exercise useful for developing:

• Finger independence and coordination
• Clean string crossing
• Accuracy between strings
• Synchronization between both hands
• Familiarity with seventh arpeggios in less predictable patterns

String crossing is one of the simplest ways to challenge your technique, and one of the hardest things to play cleanly at speed!

Start Slowly

Don’t worry about playing this exercise fast at first.

Changing the order of the arpeggio breaks the familiar pattern your fingers and mind may already know. You might have to slow down and think about where each note is going. In the video above, my brain is working overtime!

That’s part of the exercise.

Start at a tempo where you can play every string crossing cleanly. Once the pattern becomes comfortable, gradually increase the tempo.

Try It With Other Scales

I’m demonstrating the exercise with the Harmonic Minor scale, but the same idea works with other harmonized scales.

Try it with:

• Major
• Melodic Minor
• Harmonic Minor

You can eventually apply the same concept to any scale you can harmonize into seventh chords.

Get the Complete Finger Buster Exercise

You can work this chord scale exercise out yourself in every key, but that’s a lot of arpeggios to calculate and write out.

So I did it for you.

The Finger Buster: Chord Scale Arpeggio Exercises includes the complete exercise for:

• Major
• Melodic Minor
• Harmonic Minor
• All 12 keys
• Ascending and Descending
• Bass clef

That’s 72 complete exercises, with standard notation and TAB, ready to practice.