I just don't understand the difference between arpeggios!
If a C Major arpeggio is C E G C, what is a C Major broken chord? Is it playing the notes in thirds, like CE then GC? Please help, I'm so very confused

Broken chords are the same notes as arpeggios but may not be in the same order and don't have to complete the octave.
A common version of broken chords for exams is (in C major) C E G; E G C: G C E then back down to the C.. that's ascending.
Your hand moves up the piano each time.
There are other patters, usually there is an example in the syllabus or you might prefer to get the scales book for the grade if this is for an exam.

Does an arpeggio only apply to triads? You can break any chord but does an 'arpeggio' have to be CGE etc? never been sure about this!

Don't quote me on this but I'd have thought that the apreggio has to have the notes in the 'right' order and complete the octave(CEGC).
Though some instruments have to play arpeggios for an octave and a 5th or something I think.

Maybe i should stop now and wait for someone who knows what they are talking about....

For oboe/flute and no doubt other instruments some arpeggios are done as a 12th - sticking to C as the example that would be

C-E-G-C'-E'-G'-G'-E'-C'-G-E-C-C

You play the middle and end notes twice to make the rhythm work.

I don't know the answer to any of the other questions, sorry.

The broken chord is just an easy form of arpeggio. When you start to learn piano, putting the thumb under (as required for arpeggios) is quite tricky, so in the early stages you can just learn the notes involved, and play them as a broken chord by moving the whole hand as sbhoa says. It's easiest to learn putting the thumb under on scales first, as the stretch isn't so great. Once the whole thumb under thing is mastered, arpeggios are introduced.

In instruments other than piano it's unlikely that you'd ever meet broken chords because it's no easier to play a broken chord than a true arpeggio.

there's two different examples in the piano syllabus

here

grade 1 piano broken chords

and here

grade 2 piano broken chords

I always thought that ANY chord could be arpeggiated - not just triads. It just means playing the notes in sequence rather than all at the same time.

I find broken my grade 2 broken chords fiendishly hard yet the arpeggios easy!! Is it meant to be the other way round?

I think that though they may be technically 'easier' to play they do require more understanding of how the chord is constructed. Seeing the shapes of the inversions is not always easy for a relative beginner

What do you find so difficult? There are three notes, repeated one after the other! OK, you start on the next one up each time, but it's just FACF, ACFA, CFAC, all easily within reach of the fingers. The difficult thing about arpeggios on piano is getting them really smooth with the big stretch from 3rd finger on C to thumb on F.

me too.

I think it's because arpeggios are always going up... and then always coming down. On the piano the finger pattern is easy to remember
(eg C maj RH 2 octaves: 1 2 3 1 2 3 5 3 2 1 3 2 1)

for broken chords there is downward movement even when the general movement is upwards (and vice versa). also the finger pattern is different depending on which inversion you're in
(eg C maj RH 1 octave : 1 2 3 5, 1 2 4 5, 1 2 4 5, 1 2 3 5.... etc)

Start off by playing each inversion as a block chord to get used to the hand shapes.
This will help to show the 'natural' fingering for each one. Remember that when you invert chords the big gap is in a different place.

I think the fingering pattern on the Grade 2 arpeggios is identical through out so it doesn't matter which arpeggio I do, my fingers just fall into the correct place, where as I clearly don't know my chords well enough and the fingering changes so it just throws me. Its taken me weeks just to do the F major broken chord whereas I could do each new arpeggio almost after a few attempts and smoothly and fast! What one person finds difficult another finds easy. ... we seem to have stolen the thread!




I had better go and learn the chords and inversions etc. sounds like it will help me.