Fingerstyle Foundations: The PIMAMI Arpeggio
Today, let’s take a look at one of the most important–and fantastic!–arpeggios you can play on the guitar.
The PIMAMI arpeggio.
Where the PIMA arpeggio stops, the PIMAMI arpeggio continues. You go from your thumb through the index and middle fingers to the ring finger, and then you bring things back toward the bass by playing the middle and then index fingers once again.
Even though we’re only adding in two extra fingers on top of the PIMA arpeggio we already played, this PIMAMI arpeggio is much, much more challenging from the standpoint of getting the fingers to move smoothly and freely.
It all comes down to that crucial moment when your ring finger plays and your middle and index fingers have to kick back out to get ready to play their notes the second time around.
Check out this video for a full demonstration and explanation:
No matter how many times I tell you to take this slowly and really work on making these movements smooth, relaxed and fluid, you are probably going to underestimate the challenge posed by this PIMAMI arpeggio.
And that’s okay.
The fact is that you can always come back and re-work this arpeggio down the road. And the fact is that you’re going to want to–this arpeggio is a fantastic accompaniment pattern you can use whenever you play music on the guitar (in 3/4 time).
I play the arpeggio practically every day. I use it all over the place. Even at its most simple and straightforward, it sounds fantastic.
So get to it! Use that metronome and work this arpeggio until it become second nature. Your guitar playing will thank you forevermore.
