# How do You Practice Sweeps?



## Necky379 (Jan 12, 2010)

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.


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## Empryrean (Jan 12, 2010)

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


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## Necky379 (Jan 12, 2010)

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


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## Waelstrum (Jan 12, 2010)

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.


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## Empryrean (Jan 12, 2010)

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.


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## Necky379 (Jan 12, 2010)

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.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Jan 12, 2010)

accuracy > speed

when practicing sweeps.


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## xiphoscesar (Jan 12, 2010)

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


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## Necky379 (Jan 12, 2010)

ive just been doing it unplugged


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## Bloody_Inferno (Jan 12, 2010)

All_¥our_Bass;1813081 said:


> 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.


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## Abstract_Logic (Jan 12, 2010)

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


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## Necky379 (Jan 12, 2010)

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


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## matty2fatty (Jan 12, 2010)

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!


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## jimmyshred (Jan 12, 2010)

> 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.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jan 13, 2010)

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-
```


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## EdgeC (Jan 13, 2010)

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.


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## Necky379 (Jan 13, 2010)

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.


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## JesseTheMachine (Jan 13, 2010)

EdgeC said:


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



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.


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## oremus91 (Jan 19, 2010)

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!


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## Necky379 (Jan 19, 2010)

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.


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## jimmyshred (Jan 20, 2010)

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.


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## Ryan-ZenGtr- (Jan 20, 2010)

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.


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## Necky379 (Jan 20, 2010)

Ryan-ZenGtr- said:


> I know I might get flak for this... BUT...
> 
> No one like to listen to sweep picking.
> 
> ...





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


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## DeathMetalDean (Jan 20, 2010)

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


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## Bloody_Inferno (Jan 21, 2010)

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.


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## Harry (Jan 21, 2010)

I've never agreed with the whole "practice on the clean setting" thing.
If your intention is to play with it distortion, practice it with gain.
A thing that happens to a lot of guitarists in the studio is that they come in thinking they have had their parts nailed down, but they tell the engineer that they haven't had an amp to practice with/only practiced with the clean channel.
It goes without saying all the muting technique errors as well as bad picking technique come to light VERY quickly in a situation.
It's a myth that distortion hides your mistakes, because if anything, it serves to magnify muting errors and bad fingerings a lot.

If the part is meant to be played clean, practice it clean.
If it's meant to be played with mild over drive, practice with mild over drive.
If it's meant to be played with high gain, practice with high gain.


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## Harry (Jan 21, 2010)

Ryan-ZenGtr- said:


> I know I might get flak for this... BUT...
> 
> No one like to listen to sweep picking.



Which doesn't explain why the Selkies : The Endless Obsession guitar solo is a favorite among Between the Buried and Me fans


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jan 21, 2010)

Harry said:


> I've never agreed with the whole "practice on the clean setting" thing.
> If your intention is to play with it distortion, practice it with gain.
> A thing that happens to a lot of guitarists in the studio is that they come in thinking they have had their parts nailed down, but they tell the engineer that they haven't had an amp to practice with/only practiced with the clean channel.
> It goes without saying all the muting technique errors as well as bad picking technique come to light VERY quickly in a situation.
> ...



Bingo. Gain picks up a *LOT* of your playing. If you're just running sweeps, practice with gain, clean, and any permutation thereof.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Jan 21, 2010)

Ryan-ZenGtr- said:


> 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...


You basically described Onset Of Putrefactionmetal to a tee-diminished arps and sweeping wherever it can possibly fit in. 

I love to do that too (on bass even), but usually as a 2nps arp. rather than as a sweep-and nowhere as fast obviously, since I'm not that terribly great at sweeping.

I have to be careful not to do it too much since it'll get old, but it's such a fun thing to play.


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## Bloody_Inferno (Jan 21, 2010)

> You don't wan't distortion to mask bad articulation and technique.



After saying this initially, I've forgotten that important part that Harry has raised... you're gonna have to practice with gain anyway. 

That would be the next step. You nail it down clean, but once you pile the gain, every little nuance is heard. String noise, feedback and whatever your mistakes are magnified. 

So to practice with gain, you'll have to add the additional parts to your mindset like left and right hand muting and positioning your fingers to make sure you're playing is as clean as possible without all the excess noise. 

With all of this, sweeping is incredibly hard. It took me ages to get it right.


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## petereanima (Jan 21, 2010)

i envy you all...because i still havent managed to get into sweeping. i mean, i _think_ i know how it _should_ work...but everytime i say to myself "get on it, try and practice!" - i quit after 5-10 minutes, because i think that i'm doing something entirely wrong.


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## AK DRAGON (Jan 21, 2010)

With one of these






I practice sweeps on a clean setting (to weed out mistakes) with a metronome and various chord progressions


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## Harry (Jan 21, 2010)

Honestly, I never really progressed further than 5 string sweeps. There's been some crazy bastards out there doing 6 string sweeps (Rusty Cooley, and probably Jason Becker) and hell some guys are doing 7 or 8 string sweeps (but I ain't got more than 7 strings anyway) but I got content with just 5 string sweeps at the most although I do go about 50/50 between 3 and 5 string sweeps.

I find with some guys like Francesco Fareri, they sweep so fucking fast it totally loses the musical value behind it.
It ends up being a blur of notes, which to me misses the essence of what sweep picking is about which is being able to hear the melody in the arpeggio.
And anyway at the speed Fareri tries to do it at, he's pretty sloppy to be honest and I'd rather hear slower, accurately executed sweeps over fast, sloppy, unmusical ones any day of the week.

Between the Buried and Me is a favorite example of mine of modern day musical sweep picking. They never try to play beyond their physical limits, they just do at the speed they can do it at, which while not as fast as Cooley or Fareri, I think sounds more musical and melodic.
I actually quit sweep picking for ages, from early 2007 to mid 2008, but I wanted to relearn it again but I didn't want to do exercises.
So instead I set about learning BTBAM sweeps, just playing them slow at fast and then speeding it up so I could play along with the songs, which proved to be more fun for me than just doing it to a click with nothing else going on.
It also brought the results I wanted too, so I'm happy


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## Necky379 (Jan 21, 2010)

yeah im not looking to do fareri sweeps. i agree, there is a point where its too fast and becomes no longer musical.
ive actually gotten pretty good at sweeps since i started this thread. right now im practicing working it into lead passages and breaking up rhythm parts with sweeps. my newest challenge is going from playing normally and jumping into a sweep. i still have to clean things up a bit but i got so much better from this thread.


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## Harry (Jan 21, 2010)

If you've never seen this, I highly recommend it, I reckon you'll find it interesting.
You can apply this to any "Speed" technique. It actually worked for me too


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## FrancescoFareri (Feb 22, 2010)

hello,
i can advice you to start with 3 string sweep in a simple position so you can take a look to the noise and to play the strings correctly. try to put your right hand on the bridge like a soft palm muting, when you find the correct position that the strings sounds good and sounds clean "fix" your hand there, now think on your left hand the important thing is when you pull-off a note the string must not sound there but it must sound only when you pick it, so pay attention when you pull-off the note. now try the coordination between the two hands, right hand is still "fixed" on the bridge in the position you found before and start to pick down from the G string (if you play 3 strings sweep) and in the same time left hand pull-off the notes.
play it very very slow so the movement will be correct, but of course you can't listen the real "sweep" sound of you pattern, but you must wait a bit for it. try few time and when everything sound correctly try to play a bit faster and only thanks to the picking the sweep sound will be.
i hope it can help in some way

ciao
Francesco


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## atimoc (Feb 22, 2010)

Check out this video by Rusty Cooley, it has an interesting method for determining whether you should work on your right or your left hand.


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## 6o66er (Feb 22, 2010)

atimoc said:


> Check out this video by Rusty Cooley, it has an interesting method for determining whether you should work on your right or your left hand.




This...just helped me IMMENSELY!

Thank you!


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## Gilbucci (Feb 22, 2010)

Harry said:


> If you've never seen this, I highly recommend it, I reckon you'll find it interesting.
> You can apply this to any "Speed" technique. It actually worked for me too



I recommend that, as well. That is exactly how I developed my technique.


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## Necky379 (Feb 23, 2010)

i thought this thread was dead 

now the last few posts (serious thanks guys) have raised another question. after reading fransesco's post and watching the cooley vid it sounds like they're saying i'm supposed to be lightly palm muting while sweeping. this may be a completely obvious and dumb question but i have been using zero palm muting this entire time and i'm getting real close to getting it to sound right, is this what i'm missing? i assumed i just needed more practice to clean things up but maybe i need some palm. i dont want to start practicing sweeps while palm muting if im not supposed to palm mute. ill just wait for somebody to set me straight with this before i start adding palm.


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## FWB (Feb 23, 2010)

In my opinion, precise palm muting is crucial while sweep picking. That said, there's a lot of guitarists that excel using all different sorts of techniques, so maybe it's not required per se, but I think it helps immensely.

The biggest advantage it gives in my mind, is that when ascending barre'd sweep patterns there is no longer any need to roll on the way up. All you have to do is let your palm come in contact with the string after it's been picked, and before you pick the next string. This sounds complex, but I find it far easier then rolling a barre upwards. You'd still have to roll descending of course.

In addition, palm muting the strings already picked in the arpeggio helps clean them up even when no barre is involved. The same principle is applied; of letting the palm touch the string before the next string is picked.


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## Necky379 (Feb 23, 2010)

^ thats interesting. sounds tough to syncronize all that but hell ive come this far and i dont want to do this half ass'd.

i'l give it a shot thanks!


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## CooleyJr (Feb 23, 2010)

A wise man once told me, while you sweep young one.. hesitate not, for slop will follow.


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## Necky379 (Feb 26, 2010)

i just found this and it helped me out a lot with technique. i started muting with my right thumb and my sweeps have cleaned up 33.759%. 

7 Common Problems With Learning Sweep Picking | Guitar Columns @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com

there's some real good tips there. the one that helped me was:
02. Paying attention to muting of the strings 

This is a very common problem that makes itself especially evident with sweep picking. What do I mean by this? Well, the main goal of sweep picking is to only have one note of the arpeggio sounding at any one time with the other notes being completely muted (this is the only way to get the arpeggios to sound clean and precise when playing with a lot of gain and distortion). There are two main ways of going about this: either to use the palm of your hand to mute the strings you are not playing (this method is the most common and is used by players such as Rusty Cooley, Michael Romeo and Yngwie Malmsteen) and to use the thumb of the picking hand to do the same thing (this method is used by virtuosos such as George Bellas and Tom Hess) The main point here is to pay attention to how effective your muting technique is (regardless of which of the two methods you choose to use) and evaluate its effectiveness by Listening to how clean your playing actually is when you play slow and when you play fast. The best way to do this is to either record yourself or to ask for honest and unbiased feedback from your teacher about your playing. If your playing is not as clean as you would like it to be, then I highly recommend paying careful attention to the way you mute the strings and perhaps change your technique a bit if necessary to fix that problem. 


it addresses the main problems i was having lately. sweeps sounding shitty with distortion, and proper right hand muting. i like how they give you two options for right hand muting, palm and thumb. im all about the thumb myself but it sounds like you guys prefer palm. hopefully this is helpful to anyone else that stumbles on this thread looking for help.


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## ShadyDavey (Feb 26, 2010)

I'll re-quote myself from a thread a year or so back as I'm lazy and don't want to type it all again 

Don't be fooled into thinking one methodology of sweep picking represents the pinnacle - one of the very best things I found for sweep picking was experimenting with when and where I wanted to use upstrokes and downstrokes - its not as straightforward as it might seem.

E--------12-15-12
B-------13-------13
G-----14-----------14

Now, with that simple Am arpeggio there are a few different ways to approach the picking. 

First would be Down, Down, Down, Up, Pulloff, Up, Down. The problem here is that you move from an upstroke to a downstroke by bringing your hand up over the G string - its one motion too many. 

Second is to do Up, Down, Down, Up, Down, Up, Up giving you the same amount of notes with less right hand movement.

You could even go Down, Down, Down, Hammeron, Pulloff, Up, Up but I personally never liked that feeling of seperation between the hand movement and the notes (just a personal foilble - its definately a popular approach).

I can't remember the exact excercises I got shown but essentially they covered the second technique extensively (when Shawn Baxter taught at GIT in London he was massively into sweep picking in that style - I've seen Guthrie Govan do that as well).

The most basic permutation was to only play a single triad arpeggio in ascending form over three strings(Up, Down, Down) followed by descending (Down, Up, Up) before adding on the Octave and using the second variation from the Am example - you can then add a fourth and fifth or sixth string as appropriate (here's the time to practice that barring/rolling technique with your finger) The key to start with is to absolutely minimise the amount of movement the left hand makes until such time as you can pick it cleanly and quickly. 

Couple of other things that I remember made a big difference for me:

Muting: Be sure that you mute appropriately in order to keep the notes seperate. I was a huge fan of Frank Gambale and always used the tip of whichever finger was playing to mute the adjacent string below, as well as all the strings above the one I was playing. Combined with the palm of the right hand on the rest of the strings below it meant that not only could I play with a lot of gain and remain clean, it also allowed me to move my right hand a little more in order to keep the angle between wrist and pick more comfortable whilst picking on the higher strings (again, might just be a personal preference but wedging my wrist in one spot and keeping it there felt decidedly alien).

Metronome - start off slowly as usual and build up your speed as I'm sure your familiar with. Whenever you reach a speed you feel comfortable at, but beyond which your technique falls apart don't stop. Instead, set the metronome a couple of clicks even higher and attempt to play the lick. Shawn Lane was an advocate of that technique simply to change your mindset a little. Mr Baxter went on to compare it to training for an athletic event - to get the very best performance you have to push your capabilities (in a safe manner) beyond your percieved limitations. When you go back to your "safe" tempo you'll find the lick feels significantly easier.

Last thoughts - Kill two birds with one stone and as you practice the arpeggios (especially as you start with triads) work through the string groups and inversions on each set of strings to get the shapes and sounds firmly lodged in your mind. After you know (for example) the Am over the whole neck you can start practicing "stacks" across the neck (yep, 4, 5, 6 string arpeggio's) as well as movement between positions with the emphasis on breaking out of the traditional shapes and incorporating slides/taps/legato to ascend the neck......and as much as I hate to say it in a topic on sweep picking; sometimes the best arpeggios are those which mix techniques and note groupings in order to generate a less predictable sound than we're used to hearing with the atypical sweeping.

If you can, try and find the "Guitar Gym" lessons from the UK's Guitar Techniques magazine - they had an absolute load of sweep-picking development licks from Shaun Baxter which helped me out a lot at the time.


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## XIEmperorIX (Feb 28, 2010)

Necky379 said:


> i just found this and it helped me out a lot with technique. i started muting with my right thumb and my sweeps have cleaned up 33.759%. .




lol going through this thread I just realized i've been using my right thumb to mute strings for years and just never noticed it


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## Necky379 (Feb 28, 2010)

it's funny because i was doing great with my thumb but decided to have a go at using palm and i think i might actually like it better now. so far so good dont know if im going back to thumb or not.


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## XIEmperorIX (Feb 28, 2010)

Yeah i'll try giving the palm thing a shot myself and see how that goes.


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## Necky379 (Mar 1, 2010)

just went back to thumb  i was getting this scraping noise from my rough ass hand sliding downward with my sweep palm mute. i got to play around with it some more. im loosing speed now too because i have to concentrate on muting, hopefully ill get it faster again.


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## xtrustisyoursx (Mar 1, 2010)

I never use right handed/finger muting at all when sweeping. I've always muting during sweeps with only left fingers. I read a Vai lesson about sweeping and he talks about how you basically hold down the string with your fretting finger just long enough for the pick to sound the note, then let up on the string while still touching it, thereby muting that string.


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## synrgy (Mar 1, 2010)

Can't speak for anyone else, but this is basically my process:

Step 1: Find one or two sweeps to practice
Step 2: Start playing them very slowly
Step 3: Give up in frustration after several hours of failing to play them any faster than like 40bpm.


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## Necky379 (Mar 1, 2010)

xtrustisyoursx said:


> I never use right handed/finger muting at all when sweeping. I've always muting during sweeps with only left fingers. I read a Vai lesson about sweeping and he talks about how you basically hold down the string with your fretting finger just long enough for the pick to sound the note, then let up on the string while still touching it, thereby muting that string.



really? cuz to be honest im not diggin the whole right hand mute. it's slowing me down.


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## Ricky_Gallows (Mar 1, 2010)

I once heard someone heckled Z.wylde about his lack of sweeps...than he swept like crazy and told the heckler that he "leaves the sweeping to them women"....

true or not...i "lol'd".

anyways i learned sweeps by learning various 3 string sweeps in multiple positions on the fretboard at a moderate bpm slowy increasing the bpm than ading a string.

learning how to roll ur finger on a "barred" sweep was the hardest thing for me (i have tiny hands)

good luck dude.


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## SpaceDock (Mar 1, 2010)

I found that paying attention to my hand shape more than the tab shape was most important in developing a lick. Sometimes a tab can make you pick a hand position that is not condusive to what you are trying do....if that makes sense. Additionally a MELODIC phrase is way better than a bigger phrase, because it can be used more often in actual songs.


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## Necky379 (Mar 1, 2010)

Ricky_Gallows said:


> I once heard someone heckled Z.wylde about his lack of sweeps...than he swept like crazy and told the heckler that he "leaves the sweeping to them women"....
> 
> true or not...i "lol'd".
> 
> ...



 zakk is the man


anyone else sweep without any right hand muting though?


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## Ricky_Gallows (Mar 1, 2010)

Necky379 said:


> zakk is the man
> 
> 
> anyone else sweep without any right hand muting though?



*being left handed* I mute with my fretting hand and do as the dude stated above (i hit the note release and my fretting hand mutes).

works well for me.


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## avenger (Mar 9, 2010)

Necky379 said:


> zakk is the man
> 
> 
> anyone else sweep without any right hand muting though?


 I think i use my left hand to mute the strings more then my right hand. TBH I never really thought about it I just practice practice practice and found what worked for me to get a good clean sweep. I still have to work on my speed but asfar as getting them clean that has been coming along nicely using my left hand and abit of palm muting at the same time.

Also clean sweeps sound better then fast sloppy sweeps so I wouldn't worry about speed that will come with time. I would be more concerned about accuracy and keeping things clean.

Good luck on the sweep adventures, I am about two weeks into a rigorous practice schedule on sweeps. It goes something like, sweep, smoke, sweep, smoke, sweep over the coruse of a few hours. Give yourself a break if your hand gets tired. You will build up hand strength in no time if you keep at it.


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## jymellis (Mar 9, 2010)

im in the same boat guys. only difference is i used to be able to sweep pretty good. my 10 year siesta killed it though. im learnng again but not nearly as quickly as i did when i was a kid. i have been using a metronome and increasing speed also. one thing i am doing iss i will do one shape 2 times then another smilar (either the minor to the major or revesed) 2 times. then back to the other. it keeps me on my toes and keeps my hand from getting used to the same shape over and over. also. doing the exact same sweep on other frets is a good idea. when you go to say higher frets your fingers will have to squeez into a smaller space (as you already know lol). and it will change what your used to when sweeping, which is good. heres the video i have been using to get back into the sweep of things  i like these shapes in the video because there arent many shapes he does with hamer ons or pull offs. the last thing i want to do is throw another technique in there when im trying to learn another lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mbx03mP5eg


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## right_to_rage (Mar 9, 2010)

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is accenting. By the time you get a firm handle on at least playing some shapes cleanly you should practice with a metronome hitting accents on the beat making the sweeping more defined sounding. Further more this helps develop some dynamic control over the technique.
You can see Frank Gambale accenting in this hilarious 'workout' video, while talking:


Very nice.

For more advanced playing (not a stage I am at yet) you should hone in and really listen to your notes and the way the pick hits the string. After you've mastered the finger rolling, and the note separation start to get into the nitty gritty of getting good tone out of your sweeping lines. It's the difference between playing the right notes, and playing the notes expressively with feeling. Get comfortable with the movements, because anyone can sweep pick, but it is truly challenging to make it sound beautiful.

Another from Gambale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmOUyDp_Fjc


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