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Yet another Newbie Sweep Question


vangkm

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Posted

Ok, I've read a lot of sweep threads, yet not one really explained the mechanics of it well.

 

I have Petrucci's Wild Stringdom book where he explains it a little. Mute each string after you pick it, alrighty, well here's my question - When sweeping from arpeggio to arpeggio (chord to chord), do I only fret the note when I play it? What I am doing now it not fretting the chord, but fretting it right when I hit that note in the sweep. I know it'll probably get increasingly hard to time that as I start to sweep faster and faster, but so far it's what's been working for me.

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Posted
Originally posted by vangkm

What I am doing now it not fretting the chord, but fretting it right when I hit that note in the sweep. I know it'll probably get increasingly hard to time that as I start to sweep faster and faster, but so far it's what's been working for me.



That's the way to do it, it does get increasingly hard as you go faster, that's why sweep picking is one of the more difficult techniques to master. :thu:

www.chadcoggin.com has some good sweep video's demonstrating exercises and technique if you are interested.

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Posted

Your description was a little vague for me. Each note should be pressed and released. At any one time, only one note should be heard. This is hardest when doing barre shapped arpeggios becasue you have to learn a way to roll the barre. I personally allow a tiny overflow becasue when played fast, its near impossible to hear it. Also, because I started off sloppy not knowing any better and its VERY hard for me to change old habits. I personally leave out a lot of the nit picking details like how much pick, how much arm movement, etc, because I think thats all part of whats the most comfortable for the player.

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Posted

typedeaF, let's see if I can clear this up. To play a sweep, you first hold a chord shape. At the moment my fingers touch the strings using this shape, but the notes are not fretted until the pick hits it, then the finger goes back to just touching the the string. Think pistons in a car.

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Posted

I dont think thats how I would describe it. It sounds like you are holding a chord shape but not yet applying the pressure. That is not correct. Look at these clips and tell me how you would describe the way I am playing them. Like I stated before, only barre shapes should even appear to be ...held. The faster you play, the more it LOOKS like a chord because the fingers move so quickly? I dont know.

http://music.mp3lizard.com/typedeaf/

Focus hard on no notes bleeding over and find a way to do barre shaped arps w/o really barring the strings.

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Posted

It obviously doesn't matter whether your left hand fingers are already "in position" or "chord shape". You have the right idea.

I mean, you may be playing a bunch of notes before and after the sweep so your hand may be in transition before or after the sweep and not just holding some shape.

I don't know about the Petrucci thing, but you may be sweeping 3-6 notes, so you don't necessarily think of it as jumping between chords. There may be random crap before & after.

Btw, wikipedia.org (AS ALWAYS!) explains it.

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Posted

Originally posted by vangkm

typedeaF, let's see if I can clear this up. To play a sweep, you first hold a chord shape. At the moment my fingers touch the strings using this shape, but the notes are not fretted until the pick hits it, then the finger goes back to just touching the the string. Think pistons in a car.

 

 

Alot of common appegio shapes used in sweep picking cannot be held as a chord bar.... consider

 

---------------8-12---

-----------10----------

---------9-------------

-----10-----------------

-12---------------------

-------------------------

 

(Hope i tabbed that right, no guitar here).

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Posted

Originally posted by fatfat

It obviously doesn't matter whether your left hand fingers are already "in position" or "chord shape". You have the right idea.


I mean, you may be playing a bunch of notes before and after the sweep so your hand may be in transition before or after the sweep and not just holding some shape.


I don't know about the Petrucci thing, but you may be sweeping 3-6 notes, so you don't necessarily think of it as jumping between chords. There may be random crap before & after.


Btw,

 

 

Normally I would agree that however you want to play it is fine, but I think the way he is wording it, he will never get the technique down ...or if he does, hes going about it in a very difficult way. He talks about holding the shape while lightly touching the strings until the are plucked. That's just not the normal or easy way people sweep, and as Knotty also pointed out, its near impossible for many shapes. The muting should probably come from the meat of the pick hand, rather than holding the chord shape imho.

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Posted

Originally posted by typedeaF



Normally I would agree that however you want to play it is fine, but I think the way he is wording it, he will never get the technique down ...or if he does, hes going about it in a very difficult way. He talks about holding the shape while lightly touching the strings until the are plucked. That's just not the normal or easy way people sweep, and as Knotty also pointed out, its near impossible for many shapes. The muting should probably come from the meat of the pick hand, rather than holding the chord shape imho.

 

 

So you don't mute with the fretting hand, but the picking hand? I'll try that out.

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Posted

Originally posted by vangkm



So you don't mute with the fretting hand, but the picking hand? I'll try that out.

 

 

I am definately not the cleanest player. Maybe my opinion isnt the best to take. However, it sounds to me like you are holding the chord shape the entire sweep? Thats the main part that i think will kill you on speed. There was another thread here weeks ago about muting with the fret hand, but in a different context. When playing the E and A barre shaped arpeggio's you have to find a way to mute those barred notes. For me, on a 3 string barre like across GBE on a Emin arp at the 12th fret, I barre the GBE, when I play the G I roll my finger back off the G so that my finger tip now mostly on the B and E, when i play the B, I shift the pressure on my finger tip to deaden the B and then play the E. Going back down, I do the shift in pressure "rolling". It sounds very complicated, but its the most natural way I found to do it. Playing barred notes in arpeggios is VERY hard for these reasons. Thats the only time I use my fret hand to mute the strings afaik. Hope that helps. Otherwise, I completely dont hold a chord shape before or after.

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Posted
Originally posted by typedeaF



Normally I would agree that however you want to play it is fine, but I think the way he is wording it, he will never get the technique down



Yes, I agree that I would not put all my fingers into position the way he was doing it. What I was trying to get at is that it was a bad idea because it's unlikely he would be playing only sweeps (unless he's working on the intro to Smoke & Mirrors, etc ;) ).

When I said he had the right idea, I was referring to what sweeping actually was. Maybe that was a bit ambiguous.

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Posted

I should clarify even more then. What I do is hold the shape of the arpeggio or chord of the sweep. As I play the note, my fretting finger of that note releases pressure, mutes the string, then moves on. I'm not holding the shape throughout the entire sweep, my fretting fingers do move.

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