Broken thirds, and the dominant-seventh arpeggio

Two more patterns that sit between a scale and a plain arpeggio. They turn up constantly in real music and they're standard practice material.

Broken thirds

Play the scale, but in 3rds instead of steps: ^1–^3, ^2–^4, ^3–^5, and so on up. It's the halfway house — bigger than a step, smaller than an arpeggio's leaps.

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G major in broken 3rds: G–B, A–C, B–D, C–E … Each pair is a 3rd; each new pair starts one scale step higher. It drills the ear for the 3rd and the fingers for the little back-and-forth.

The dominant-seventh arpeggio

The plain V arpeggio of G major is D–F♯–A. Add the 7th (C, which is ^4 of the key) and you have the V7 arpeggio — the broken form of the chord that drives every cadence.

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The V7 arpeggio of G major: D–F♯–A–C. The F♯ and C are a tritone apart — the tension inside the chord. Play it, then resolve to a G: the whole shape wants to fall home.

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The V7 arpeggio resolving: after the C, the F♯ (leading tone) has climbed to G and the C has fallen to B — both notes of the tonic chord. That resolution is why you practise this shape.

Try it

Try

Play the V7 arpeggio (D–F♯–A–C) slowly, then play a G. Do it several times. Then play just the two tension notes — F♯ and C — as a rolled double stop, and resolve them: F♯ up to G, C down to B. You're isolating the engine of a cadence.

The usual mistake

Skipping broken thirds because they feel fussy, or never practising the V7 arpeggio because it's "just a chord." Broken thirds are the single best drill for even, in-tune 2nd-finger placement, and the V7 arpeggio is the shape your hand needs to make at nearly every cadence in the repertoire ahead. Both earn their place in the routine.