Sweep picking is kicking my ass...
- Thread starter Dead Winter
- Start date
Kellan
Custom User Title
As cliche as this is going to sound, practice practice practice.
I was doing COB sweeps before I was doing Nevermore sweeps, personally. Easier stuff.
Really pay attention to your technique and your timing/chops and be extremely diligent in making sure every note is clear and precise. Start slow, and DO NOT speed up until you've got a certain tempo as clean as possible.
I've cleaned up my technique quite a bit, but I started going too fast for the sake of doing it; and it sounded like shit.
It's hard not to try to get it up to speed, but you'll be a lot happier when you get up to speed and it's completely clean.
PS: metronome. get it, use it, live it. without one, your sweeping technique is basically doomed.
I was doing COB sweeps before I was doing Nevermore sweeps, personally. Easier stuff.
Really pay attention to your technique and your timing/chops and be extremely diligent in making sure every note is clear and precise. Start slow, and DO NOT speed up until you've got a certain tempo as clean as possible.
I've cleaned up my technique quite a bit, but I started going too fast for the sake of doing it; and it sounded like shit.
It's hard not to try to get it up to speed, but you'll be a lot happier when you get up to speed and it's completely clean.
PS: metronome. get it, use it, live it. without one, your sweeping technique is basically doomed.
start with 3 string shapes
stay away from 2 string sweeps, they form bad habits in not lifthing the index finger
so here we go minor shape on the top 3string
e-----------15h19p15
b-------17------------17
g----16-------------------16
e minor arp starting with a B (a d minor starting with an A in my tunnign, d standard) i will post more when i come back from dinner.
stay away from 2 string sweeps, they form bad habits in not lifthing the index finger
so here we go minor shape on the top 3string
e-----------15h19p15
b-------17------------17
g----16-------------------16
e minor arp starting with a B (a d minor starting with an A in my tunnign, d standard) i will post more when i come back from dinner.
yeah yeah bla bla bla.
ALWAYS PRACTICE SWEEPING ON DISTORSION, but not abussive distorsion. if you don't ractice it with distorsion you won't get any idea how to mute the strings while sweeping.
also, cheat on sweeping by using more legatto. most guys pick twice the high e string in the shape i posted above. Steve Smyth doesn't, he picks only once (guitar one lesson). So get legatto chops a little togheter. and yeah start slow. And make sure you are not picking every note, just letting your right hand fall to the next one in sync with the left hand. Don't do unncessary moves with either hand and start slow. And do the shape over and over again all over the neck (as low as you can get because of the strech, i can't go lower than 3h7p3 ( i have tiny hands too).
here is a major shape:
e-------14h17p17
b---15------------15
g14--------------------14.
D major arp starting with an A note in standard tunning (c major in d standard,m that is how i tune.
and the diminished shape is just minor thirds like thi
e---------------12h15p12
b-----------14------------14
g---12h15 ---------------------15p12. all minor thirds. You can apply the same principle to major third, but i don;nt know how that is called.
the diminished shape is the bitchiest, cause you have to use your ring finger after your pinkie. good luck
Krigloch the Furious
Pants full of poo
Anvil
Brain Bubbled
- Jun 2, 2004
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i find it easier than some alt picking. i'm sexy like that
otherwise a cool fact.
you take the major shape i posted and move it one string down so it is on the D, G and B strings and boom. diminished shape, starting with a flatted fifth and then 2 minor thirds. you can add another minor third like iether this:
B---------14h17p14
G-----15-------------15
D--14----------------------14
or like with the extra minor third added
B------------14h17p14
G---------15-------------15
D--14h17---------------------17p14
the latter being a little harder because it involves somewhat slowing your sweep for a sec to let the hammer on get there on time.
this things sound really cool (diminished) but because you don't use the high E make sure you mute it with the pinky of your picking hand.
satan is mighty in romania!
Ryan VH
Go Forth And Die!
ShadowsWithin
Member
once you have these under your belt do etudes in a key from these. then move on to 4 or 5 strings arps (i can't do them 
), and eventualy 5 string arps with sneaky tapped notes
), and eventualy 5 string arps with sneaky tapped notes
ShadowsWithin
Member
You guys are awesome. Thanks a lot.
I'm basically a strong rhythm player that throws leads in here and there, but lately I'm trying to build up that aspect of my playing, as I feel I've done pretty much what I want with rhythm. Alternate picking really is no problem for me...I've got the right hand chops. I've deprived my left hand for too long, however. I'm mainly more into slower, more melodic solos like Gilmour, but I realized that rather than just forgoing it completely, I must at least learn the shredding techniques and after that I can pick and choose what I want to play.
It's coming along a lot faster than I thought, though. It makes me think I shoulda done this about three years ago. Nah, the riffs are where it's at...riffs and beautiful solos. I give myself a year and I should be sweeping perfectly by then.
I'm basically a strong rhythm player that throws leads in here and there, but lately I'm trying to build up that aspect of my playing, as I feel I've done pretty much what I want with rhythm. Alternate picking really is no problem for me...I've got the right hand chops. I've deprived my left hand for too long, however. I'm mainly more into slower, more melodic solos like Gilmour, but I realized that rather than just forgoing it completely, I must at least learn the shredding techniques and after that I can pick and choose what I want to play.
It's coming along a lot faster than I thought, though. It makes me think I shoulda done this about three years ago. Nah, the riffs are where it's at...riffs and beautiful solos. I give myself a year and I should be sweeping perfectly by then.
get rock discipline. it will make you feel that you suck very much, that is how it makes me feel since i basically have like no other technique than sweeping, tapping and a little legatto.
can you do the minor shape on 3 strings ok at decent speed?
MajestikMøøse
Membrum virile
hahaha. this almost seems like a completely unrelated afterthought to the post.
derek
Grey Eminence
This really isnt an absolute at all though. I learned how to sweep playing through the clean channel of an acient practice amp sitting in my room for hours on end. Its easy enough to practice muting through any sort of setting.
Noumenon
Obsidian Productions
uhm, no, not to the untrained ear. with distortion you'll really hear when two notes are sounding at the same time. So be nice to yourself and use distortion for sweeped arps. Legato on the other hand, use clean, much harder 
unfourtanately yes, and those are called gypsies. not like i'm racist against gypsies, but they fuck shit up. I fi were the president of romania i would bring back vlad tepes (the impaler) and impale everyone who would commit a minor offence other than underage drinking and possesion of weed. That would work very well, it worked 500 years ago, but now, the whinny human rights cunts of the EU would invade if you would so such a thing. One year of impalling would take care of criminality, traffic jams in constanta, and decrease the cost of living, thus everyone that is honest and nice would be much happier. My father is dealing with the same problem, he is building his new business, and a lot of things dissapeared from the construction site so he had to hire private security protection services to guard the construction site 24/7. some shit is fucked up.
otherwise, negura bunget is from romania, which automatically makes romania mighty.
sorry for the useless post, conclusion is practice sweeping and legatto, sweeping on distorsion and legatto on clean or a dirtier clean as noumeon recommended.
hey dead winter,
also when practicing arps don't try to necesarily do a lets say 8th note rhythm or triplet or whatever, but try to get an arpegio per beat with the notes in the arpegio spaced out evenly. for example if you take this arp:
e-----------15h19p15
b-----17--------------------17
g-16----------------------------------16
you will see that there are 7 notes in this arp, which means you would have to a seven notes per beat rhytm to sound on key on top of a progresion that has a separate chord each beat. so try practicing one arp every 2 beats, one arp/beat, 2 arps per beat, triplet arps etc and you will be loomis in 2 years of dedication to this shit, (loomis doesn't sweep only)
here is an arp sequence i came up inspired by metallica's motorbreath progression in the riff
in E minor
Em-Em-CM-CM-DM-DM-Bm-Bm
Em=e minor arp
C, DM=c, d major arps. Do this, it is fun, fun with a metronome too (if you like torturing yourself too, but it is worth it).
have fun
also when practicing arps don't try to necesarily do a lets say 8th note rhythm or triplet or whatever, but try to get an arpegio per beat with the notes in the arpegio spaced out evenly. for example if you take this arp:
e-----------15h19p15
b-----17--------------------17
g-16----------------------------------16
you will see that there are 7 notes in this arp, which means you would have to a seven notes per beat rhytm to sound on key on top of a progresion that has a separate chord each beat. so try practicing one arp every 2 beats, one arp/beat, 2 arps per beat, triplet arps etc and you will be loomis in 2 years of dedication to this shit, (loomis doesn't sweep only)
here is an arp sequence i came up inspired by metallica's motorbreath progression in the riff
in E minor
Em-Em-CM-CM-DM-DM-Bm-Bm
Em=e minor arp
C, DM=c, d major arps. Do this, it is fun, fun with a metronome too (if you like torturing yourself too, but it is worth it).
have fun
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