How do You Practice Sweeps?

[Necky379]

so after years of trying to figure out sweep picking it finally clicked 2 weeks ago. my sweeping isnt perfect but its getting good. my problem is practicing it. i only have 1 shape right now. some major 5 string sweep thing.
pretty much my first 5 attemps suck
then they start improving
then they're perfect
then i stop
i repeat this process. for maybe 5 mins tops and then the real problem starts. i think it's my fret hand getting tired but after the 5 mins i cant pull off anything even close. my hand tenses up and i get super frustrated. i feel like i cant improve my technique because after 5 mins im toast. im not even sure if its my hand getting tired but im about 90% sure.
how do you guys practice your sweeps? do you have a process or do you just bang out some sweeps and move on? is there anyway i can build up more left hand stamina?
ive never had this happen with anything before. i can usually play the fastest riffs or songs i know for a long ass time before my hands get tired but as as soon as i start sweeping my hands just puss out on me.

[Empryrean]

Your hand completely gets tired or do you just start to lag behind your picking hand?(like not fretting fast enough)

[Necky379]

yeah it falls behind. my left hand tenses up, feels stiff. i loose all my left hand accuracy.

[Waelstrum]

Slow it down to half or even quarter speed, practice the crap out of it until you can do it perfect every time then speed up a little. Rinse and repeat, it will take ages, but you should get it right eventually. This helps get that one thing right, but also builds stamina in both hands. The main thing to remember is that if it hurts, you're doing it wrong. You could try and tough it out, but in the long run that just makes things worse. By slowing the sweeps down, you have time to pay attention to every detail of the movement of your hands, and it lets you fix things that seem like tiny problems when it's slow but become big as you speed up.

[Empryrean]

I don't really remember how I started to get a little better, but just make sure you're not just practicing speed; but, also accuracy. Keep both hands in sync when practicing, take a break every now and then, don't overwhelm yourself.

[Necky379]

so practice slow and fast? mostly slow? i realize this cant be learned over night but im really motivated because of the progess ive made so far. if ive got another 2 years of practicing to get it perfect than that's fine. i just want to make SURE im not wasting my time by practicing it wrong.

[All_¥our_Bass]

accuracy > speed

when practicing sweeps.

[xiphoscesar]

i practice my sweeps without distortion and when i hit the gain they come out real clean

[Necky379]

ive just been doing it unplugged

[Bloody_Inferno]

Originally Posted by All_¥our_Bass

accuracy > speed

when practicing sweeps.

Pretty much. If anything, Speed IS the byproduct of accuracy.

Just like alternate picking, start slow, plus a metronome helps a lot to develop your precision. At a slow speed, you can look ahead on the fretboard so both your hands are in sync together.

I practice unplugged as well, and occassionally on clean. You don't wan't distortion to mask bad articulation and technique.

[Abstract_Logic]

I typically by habit sweep in triplets, so I find it easy to practice each respective shape with 3 notes at a time.

E.g. a 1 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 5 kinda pattern

[Necky379]

thanks for the tips. if anyone has anything to add keep it coming.

[matty2fatty]

what I found has been working is two things:
1) practice slowly till you get it right (with a metronome, can't stress this enough), then try to play it about 10bpm faster than you can handle it. Then, back off a bit to somewhere in between and it seems like I can play it better than I could originally

2)play lots of different shapes, some easy ones and some hard ones. I started practicing sweeps by trying to learn the intro to My Will Be Done by Unearth (which has tapping thrown in, which is another story) for months, pretty much playing only that. I wasn't making any progress at all so gave up and moved on to other stuff (I'm currently massacring the arpeggios from The Glass Prison). The other day I went back and tried to play Unearth again and noticed a huge improvement, both in speed and accuracy.


I guess overall it's sort of like anything else, you're not going to get better overnight. I've been playing sweeps for about a year and still think I suck, but I know for sure I'm better than when I started.

Good luck!

[jimmyshred]

1) practice slowly till you get it right (with a metronome, can't stress this enough), then try to play it about 10bpm faster than you can handle it. Then, back off a bit to somewhere in between and it seems like I can play it better than I could originally

This works a little bit better once you have the technique down imo.
As long as you can sweep really slowly and relatively clean try doing something like this.

Sweeping takes ages to get good at or even decent at but dont give up, its one of those things that all of a sudden just works.

[SchecterWhore]

When I have problems syncing up my hands, I go slower and pick harder, so that my left hand is forced to play the right note, lest it sound like complete shit. Also, try doing the arpeggios without the pick; just hammer on every note.

Some shapes:

A minor

e-----------8-h12-p8
b--------10-----------10
G------9----------------9
D---10-------------------10
A-12------------------------12
E-

Some diminished chord

Three string-

e---------8-h11-p8
b------10----------10
G-8-h11--------------11-p8
D-
A-
E-


Five string-

e-----------------8-h11-p8
b--------------10----------10
G--------8-11---------------11-8
D----10---------------------------10
A-12---------------------------------12
E-

Augmented

e------8-h10-p8
b-----9----------9
G---9-------------9
D-7-----------------7
A-
E-

[EdgeC]

Dont forget to relax and breathe.

So many people concentrate so hard they tense up and forget to breathe properly.

The tenser you are the faster your fingers fatigue and if your not breathing properly they wont get any oxygen which makes the muscle weaken.

Try lifting weights or excercsing without breathing and you'll see my point.

May seem simple and not a technique thing but it will help on the long run.

[Necky379]

again thanks for the replies.

im only working on one shape right now. it has a hammer on at the end. but you guys are saying practice multiple shapes in one session? i figured on mastering this one shape before moving on.

just an update, last night i tried the whole "practice slow and fast" aproach that was suggested. it worked great. i was able to go at it for about a half hour instead of 5 mins. it was a way more productive practice session and i feel like i regained the presicion i lost from trying to force my tired hands the night before.

[JesseTheMachine]

Originally Posted by EdgeC

Dont forget to relax and breathe.

So many people concentrate so hard they tense up and forget to breathe properly.

The tenser you are the faster your fingers fatigue and if your not breathing properly they wont get any oxygen which makes the muscle weaken.

Try lifting weights or excercsing without breathing and you'll see my point.

May seem simple and not a technique thing but it will help on the long run.

This. You're probably tensing your left hand without knowing it.

Something I'd always do is to practice each arpeggio shape by only alternate picking them. That way I was really in my comfort zone and I could just focus on accuracy and relaxation in my left hand.

Also, practice more than one shape man! Throwing the other shapes in there keeps your fingers on their toes, so to speak, and I find it really helps you to understand the feeling of relaxation you need to get to.

[oremus91]

I find that by practicing only one shape it's hard for my hand to adapt to other shapes because I over-practiced the one. Keep it diverse!

[Necky379]

i made this thread last week i think, i dont remember. but anyway since then ive progressed a lot but practicing both fast and slow, and but using different shapes. night and day difference so THANKS to all you guys.


next issue

if im playing clean or unplugged my sweeps sound decent
distortion on bridge pickup=mess
distortion on neck pickup=decent

i realize i have to clean up my sweeps, they're still not perfect, but is this normal?
i think what im going to do is plug in and set the volume super low (so i dont drive everyone in the house nuts playing the same shit over and over), and practice slowly on the bridge pickup so i can isolate whatever my problem is. surprisingly im not frustrated anymore because im making it work now. its borderline impressive, i just have to fine tune it.

[jimmyshred]

Practice clean or with very little distortion imo.
I can sweep relatively fast and pretty cleanly and I only every practice clean.
Use a metronome too,
What I do is Ill pick an arpeggio and play it for 5 minutes but for the first minute, Ill play it for two notes per click, the second minute, 3 notes per click and then the third minute is 4 notes per click.
Then just work your way back down to two notes per click.
It might sound boring and it actually is but I have to say that it works very well.
I hope thats clear.

[Ryan-ZenGtr-]

I know I might get flak for this... BUT...

No one like to listen to sweep picking.

I practice sweeps all the time, but when playing I use them as a flurry into a melody or what not. It's horrible when people outline chord progressions with them, or otherwise. A dude came round my house to have a jam and his sweep picking was insane. Technically, he was excellent. His style was tech death metal, his unique flavour was diminished sweeps played in strange places in the bar. Hideous sound. Think Necrophagist, which inspired him. He must have practiced for years to deliberately make the most heinous sound a competent guitarist can make short of an anal probe with a live guitar lead plugged into a burning 100watt marshall...

"On stage, I have 27 Marshall cabinets with 24 marshall heads. Not all plugged in of course, but I have them if I want them..." Yngwie J. Malmsteen

If you still want to practice, check out Petrucci's Rock Discipline, and outline chord sequences with arpeggios VERY V~ERY ~VERY slowly... Argh! Tip: You have to learn ALL the shapes if you want to use this technique seriously... URGH!

Tapped arpeggios are much easier, across the same string... Check out Nuno Bettencourt on Extreme's "He Man Woman Hater" from a million years ago. Much better.

[Necky379]

Originally Posted by Ryan-ZenGtr-

I know I might get flak for this... BUT...

No one like to listen to sweep picking.

I practice sweeps all the time, but when playing I use them as a flurry into a melody or what not. It's horrible when people outline chord progressions with them, or otherwise. A dude came round my house to have a jam and his sweep picking was insane. Technically, he was excellent. His style was tech death metal, his unique flavour was diminished sweeps played in strange places in the bar. Hideous sound. Think Necrophagist, which inspired him. He must have practiced for years to deliberately make the most heinous sound a competent guitarist can make short of an anal probe with a live guitar lead plugged into a burning 100watt marshall...

"On stage, I have 27 Marshall cabinets with 24 marshall heads. Not all plugged in of course, but I have them if I want them..." Yngwie J. Malmsteen

If you still want to practice, check out Petrucci's Rock Discipline, and outline chord sequences with arpeggios VERY V~ERY ~VERY slowly... Argh! Tip: You have to learn ALL the shapes if you want to use this technique seriously... URGH!

Tapped arpeggios are much easier, across the same string... Check out Nuno Bettencourt on Extreme's "He Man Woman Hater" from a million years ago. Much better.

not gonna give you flak


personally i enjoy listening to sweep picking. i also have a respect for the technique considering the amount of time ive put into it.

i dont have a band and in reality the only people who will ever hear me play are friends and family. so for me its more of a personal challenge than blowing people away with a technique they may not want to hear.

i enjoy writing music and playing guitar and if thats all i get out of it, fine. i didnt make this thread to discuss whether or not sweep picking is pleasant to listen to, that's opinion. i just wanna sweep bro!!!! hahaha

anyway talk to your necrophagist inspired friend how he practices then come back and let me know

[DeathMetalDean]

I put whatever sweep I'm practicing onto tuxguitar and put it at a slow tempo, having it looped and +1% tempo everytime it loops

[Bloody_Inferno]

Sweeping almost if not always sounds better on the Neck pickup IMO. As far as clarity is concerned, as well as it just sounds sweeter.

Also agreed with learing He Man Woman Hater... then Get the Funk Out, or anything Nuno Bettencourt does.