Tips for sweep picking?

[stevehollx]

Ive read a bunch of stuff ont he net for sweep picking...but nothin really seems to be ample on the technique of sweep picking.

 

I bought a book on arpeggios,a nd I practice them. I try and practice them for at least 15 minutes a day. ITs been like a couple months, and my sweeping is still horrible. Notes ring into other notes, and it doesn't have that "sweeping sound." I've tried to work around it, and alternate pick arpeggios, but there is no way I can alternate pick some of the stuff I want to do this fast.

I usually try and just keep one note per stirng runs out of my licks because Im aware of this big weakness in my playing. My 3 note per string runs are fast, but I just cant nail sweep picking. I love the sound of sweeped arpeggios, and I really need to nail this technique. It really frustrated me tonight when I tried to sit down and learn the sweeps after the runs in the intro to RacerX's "Scarified."

 

Is it supposed to be a slow learning curve for sweep picking? Are there any tips anyone can give? I know to lift off each finger before I fret the next note. I've also read to slightly palm mute a little...and sometimes this helps but still everything is very very incosistent. It seems like maybe my right hand is moving too fast for my left hand and strummin before my left hand is letting off the notes? Should I be doing this super slow? It seems like the slower I go, the less fluid the right hand "sweeps." Gah.

[WattsUrizen]

I've been working on sweeping for a while too. Here's some things that I found useful to keep in mind:

 

1: Lean the pick in the direction you are sweeping. So if you are sweeping down, the top part of the pick (closest to your hand) should lean towards the floor. Conversely (but similarly) if you are sweeping upwards, the top part of the pick should lean towards the ceiling. This way your weight is already moving in the right direction.

 

2: Take it one note at a time. If you are having trouble with notes ringing into eachother, forget about the one continuous motion for a bit and just concentrate on each note. For example, in a downwards sweep, pick the first note and sweep down to the next string, but don't actually sound it. What I mean is, after you pick the first note, you move to the next note, but don't actually strike it. Then when it comes to the next note there are three distinct things that happen, and perhaps it is here you are having problems.

 

a) One finger of the left hand lifts up.

b) Another finger of the left hand frets the note

c) The pick strikes the string.

 

My advice is to play VERY slowly and make sure that each of these three things happens at exactly the same time. It's also very important that until the time where these three things happen at once, the last note you played is still ringing. What you want to concentrate on is having a continuous tone and melody, without big gaps of silence or transition time. You want to speed up transition time, by maximising the amount of time a note sounds.

 

Once you get this going well, slowly speed up. Once you start getting to moderate speeds you will notice your sweeping movement become one continuous motion, as opposed to the discrete 'jumpy' single-string-sweeps that you will hear by practising slowly.

 

The point about going slow is that you will make sure that your left hand and right hand are consistent with eachother, which is the hardest thing about sweeping. The tendency is to have the right hand move much faster than the left, so what you get is just a muted rake, rather than a distinct arpeggio.

 

I'd also advise you to work on left hand finger independence exercises. The 3rd and 4th fingers are notorious for being lazy, so if you get these working well, you will find that your left hand will keep up with your right hand much better. The exercises that I posted earlier are here

 

Hope that helps.

[Neilsonite]

I've also been working on sweeping for a while, and I think Anomandaris' ideas are spot on. I just had a couple of things to add...

First, I think it helps to think about pushing through to the next string while sweeping down, and pulling back from the last string while sweeping up. I know this is related to Anomandaris' point about leaning the pick into the stroke, but I find _thinking_ about pushing vs pulling really helps. (By the way, I don't mean pushing and pulling hard - the stroke should still be light and relaxed.

Second, I find that practicing economy picking (which contains mini-sweeps, for example by doing three-note-per string scales down-up-down-down-up-down on the way up and up-down-up-up-down-up on the way back) can help isolate that push vs pull used in sweeping, and help with the timing.

Hope this helps,

Neilsonite

[da_witch]

Before you start sweeping and you want to do it technically right, you need to check if your right hand technic in general is good.

This means you have to check if you are playing from your wrist and not your whole arm. This is very important when it comes down to sweeping or shredding stuff..

When you start sweeping and you want to get the feel of the sweeping technic I would advise NOT to start with scales or arpeggio

[TheFishSeller]

A couple of tips:

1. Practice playing one string and landing your pick on the next, but don't actually play it. This'll ensure that you push through thoroughly, and all the strings ring out equally.

2. With the left hand, just practice fretting, lifting off and putting down the next finger - no picking, just fretting. It doesn't matter about hearing it, just practice silently.

3. Practice everything with a metronome. It'll bore you to death, but it's worth it.

4. Buy "Speed Picking" by Frank Gambale. Once you can do the exercises in that (they're at varying degrees of difficulty), be proud of yourself. Also, get the Yngwie tutorial video on Arpeggios - he may be cheesy and 80's, but his sweeping technique is the best out there.

 

Hope that helps