> Which musical term indicates the notes of a chord played one after another,rather than all at once?And the answer: Arpeggio.Instead of writing three or more notes of a chord to sound at the same time, acomposer writes each of the notes separately, to be played one at a time. Famousexamples of the arpeggio include the beginning of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata,and the chorus of "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" by the Beatles.The word arpeggio comes from the Italian word arpeggiare, which means "to playon a harp." This is most likely due to the fact that arpeggios are essentialelements in the repertoire of harp players. Arpeggiation is especially helpfulon instruments such as the harp because it allows the player to play andarticulate each chord tone up and down the strings. In some instruments, arpeggios are the primary mode of playing chord tones.Banjo players, for one, use arpeggiated forms of chords in most styles ofplaying, however, it can be most prominently heard in bluegrass music. Inbluegrass, a banjo roll is a pattern played by the banjo that uses a repeatingeighth-note arpeggio. The vast majority of bluegrass tunes are made up of theseroll patterns. The patterns are often chopped and changed to suit each song, butcan always ultimately be traced back to a few core ideas. Arpeggios are not common in just bluegrass, though. Arpeggios are applicable invarious music genres such as pop, European classical music, metal, rock, blues,and jazz, to name a few. However, the use of arpeggios within different stylesvaries widely. In jazz and blues, arpeggiation is used more frequently as asoloing technique rather than melodic accompaniment. Listen to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata below to get a feel for arpeggiation inaction.