What's the difference between arpeggio and broken chord?

Question

I always thought of them as synonyms, but googling around found that some people see them as different, with the distinctions changing depending on who you ask. Is there a formal distinction between them? If so, what's the difference?

Answer 1

The way that I understand it, the main difference between a broken chord and an arpeggio is that a broken chord is playing different sections of the chord at slightly different times, and an arpeggio is playing one note of the chord at a time, usually in some sort of sequence or repetitive pattern.

For example, if I have a 7th chord and I play the first two notes (the root & the third) and then play the second two notes (the fifth & the seventh) slightly after, this is a broken chord.

For an arpeggio I would start on one single note of my chord, and could cycle up or down through the notes of the chord to create the arpeggio effect.

They're very similar, but the difference mainly lies in the harmonic texture that each technique produces.

Answer 2

I want to say that an arpeggio is a harmonic gesture played melodically, and a broken chord is a melodic line that happens to outline the harmony. But I've also seen it merely used as a formal versus informal phrasing. My recommendation would be to check a dictionary for certain, but using either would be fairly clear within any conversation.