So I have decided to take up sweep picking. The problem is I don't know any good scales or exercises. What has worked for you? Please post good scales/exercises. Right now I'm working on making this clearer... e---------12-15-12-------- b-------13--------13------ g-----12------------12---- d-------------------------- a-------------------------- E-------------------------- that's all I really got besides 14-13-12 sweep on the g-b-e desperate help is needed.
Practice using a clean tone. Do it slowly for now and every note you play you lift your finger after but still keep it on the string as to mute the note you just played when you continue onto the next note, this is what stops the notes running together and sounding like a chord. It's going to be a while before you can get fast sweeps sounding articulated and nice, start out slow man. Ok you mentioned the 14 13 12 (A minor) sweep, this is probably the best to start out practicing. Try starting out with the downstroke letting each note sound for 1 beat like duh duh duh then repeat using an upstroke going back the way you came. The sweeping motion will come when your fretting hand technique is ready.
this kid sounds very young, but his sweeppicking lessons are pretty good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L04NxvtHdnU
e-----------------13h17p13-------------- b--------------15-----------15---------- g-----------14-----------------14------- d--------15-----------------------15---- a-----17-----------------------------17- E---------------------------------------
e---------------15h18p15---------------- b------------17-----------17------------- g---------18-----------------18---------- d------17-----------------------17------- a---15-----------------------------15---- E-----------------------------------------
those are two of my favorites, get to where you can do them fast and clean; clean having two meanings.... get to where they arent choppy, and, get to where you can turn your gain off and play them on a clean channel without mistakes. Why? gain and distortion mask mistakes, if you can play it perfect clean, it sounds less choppy distorted and overdriven. There are so0o0o many sweep shapes its ridiculous. Basic A minor arpeggios are your best start; personally i have only perfected about 5 sweep shapes. Its the hardest skill ever imo also, this guy is a good thing to show you for 2 reasons. He is super fast, super good, dont get me wrong, but his sweeps are JUST fast, they sound nasty. they are unclean; if he were to play these in a clean channel on his amp you would hear that he is actually messing up quite a bit. from a guitarist to a non guitarist, ti sounds amazing, but to other talented guitarists, they will know u are a gain whore and that you suck, lol. Anyway, he does show some REALLLLY nice shapes in this vid, so you can at least learn from that. Now i dont know what genre you play, but these minor arpeggios can apply to all sorts of genres with some tweaking. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAOr6SYGAyw&feature=related (also, he doesnt tell you til half way through, but he is down tuned, so dont think your out of tune necessarily. (downtuning does make sweeping a LOT easier btw. The loosened tension from detuning helps to learn and build up good muscle memory in your hands and good stretching of the fingazzz)
Try small arpeggios first. Take this for example: e-------19p15-----------15h19---- b--------------17---17----------- g-----------------16------------- d-------------------------------- a-------------------------------- E-------------------------------- That's how I started, once you've got that down at 190bps or so you can start doing 4 string arpeggios etc... There's a lot of tutorials/guides on ultimate guitar if you'd like a real walkthrough.
I first started by doing tiny 3 sweeps, and eventually just improvised this to get a feel for sweeping into a hammer/pull section and comfortably resuming the sweep on the outside way. Nice to get used to imo. h= hammer on / p = pull off .. Obviously e---------------15h17p15h19p15----------- b------------16-----------------16-------- g---------17-----------------------17----- d------15-----------------------------15-- a----------------------------------------- E-----------------------------------------
I practice sweep picking not by scales but by songs, a song that I use alot of sweeping for is a song called Tamacun by Rodrigo y Gabriella e|---7-10-8-7h8-7-----------------------------------------------------------| B|--9----------10----------------12-15-13-12--------------------------------| G|-9---------------------------13------------14-13-10-----------------------| D|------------------------12-14----------------------14-12-10---------------| A|-------------------11-14------------------------------------14------------| E|----------------12--------------------------------------------------------| thats part of the tab. Look the song up on youtube crazy fast but epic song.
Sweep picking isn't that hard,just practise slowly,dont bother using distortion until you have perfected your sweep. Incorporate tapping/Slides later,practise your scales and arpeggios for 1-2 hours a day. When I started to sweep pick,i would practise for long hours on it+ theory
start with a C major arpeggio e---------------12-15-12---------------- b------------13-----------13------------- g---------12-----------------12---------- d------14-----------------------14------- a---15-----------------------------15---- E---------------------------------------- make sure to use ur palm to mute all the notes you have already played the sweeping is easy to learn but the palm muting is harder and makes it sound much cleaner also, use a clean sound at first EDIT:WOW I NOTICED THIS THREAD IS REALLY OLD.
Start with e------------------------------------------------------------12----------------- b------------------------------------13------------------13----13------------- g------------------12------------12----12-----------12-----------12---------- d------14-----14-----14-----14-----------14----14------------------14------ a---15----15-------------15------------------15-------------------------15--- E---------------------------------------- Just practice that, once you get the general Motion down, then you can eventually progress from 3 string sweeps to a 5 string, It will take a lot of time but eventually you'll get it, This was how I was taught by my guitar teacher when I wanted to learn e---------------12-15-12---------------- b------------13-----------13------------- g---------12-----------------12---------- d------14-----------------------14------- a---15-----------------------------15---- E----------------------------------------
