Sweeping beyond the basic boxes

[FwuffyBunny]

OK, so, I've come to realize lately that I'm stuck in the same sweeping patterns. You know, your typical major, minor and diminished boxes and their variations. My question to you guys is: Any idea on how to step outside the boundaries on this? I've been looking up some other sweeps and right now am working on this Yngwie number from Deja Vu:

------------------9-5------------------------------------------------
----------------7-----7----------------------------------------------
--------------6---------6--------------------------------------------
--------4-6-7------------7\6-3---------------------------------------
-------4-------------------------------------------------------------
-2-4-5---------------------------------------------------------------

And while I know it's just some harmonic minor stuff, I've found that it's really helping me work on accuracy. Now I gotta ask: what kinda stuff should I look at to expand my sweeping variety? 7th's? add9's? Or something totally different all together?

[jaxadam]

Something totally different altogether. I was always into sweeping, but the one thing I really like to do is take an arpeggio shape, and play it differently. Like for example play three ascending notes of the arpeggio, then go to the second note, and play three more, working your way up. something like this:

-----------------6---6-9-9-6---6-------------------
-----------7---7---7---------7---7---7-------------
-----6---6---6---------------------6---6--6--------
---8---8---------------------------------8--8------
-9--------------------------------------------9----

And try all different types of phrasings with all different shapes, and even throw some extra notes in there. Like instead of going to the 9 on the high e, try the 7.

But I hardly ever just sweep an arpeggio, I'll maybe sweep part of it, and add a few notes in here or there and maybe do some kind of weird descending or ascending pattern, or maybe some string skipping. I found it much more musical than just trying to learn a new pattern to mechanically sweep.

[Oracle13]

Originally Posted by jaxadam

something like this:

-----------------6---6-9-9-6---6-------------------
-----------7---7---7---------7---7---7-------------
-----6---6---6---------------------6---6--6--------
---8---8---------------------------------8--8------
-9--------------------------------------------9----

Umm ... I think my head just exploded.

[IbanezFreak777]

throw everything out the door, and make up your own sweeps...

[Ad_Astra]

----------------12-16-12--------------------
-------------14-----------14--------------------
----------13-----------------13------------
-------16-----------------------16---------
----14-----------------------------14----
-12-----------------------------------12--------

[MattyCakes]

yea check out mattias eklundhs website. he has some interesting arpeggio shapes as well as ways to apply them. also i do a lot of 2-1-2 forms.

-----------------------------------------------------10-14---
---------------------------------------10--------12---------------
--------------------------11-------12-----11-14----------
----------11-14-------12----11-14-----------------
--------12-------10-14-------------------------
-10-14------------------------------------------

this technique allows for an easy way to play over changes

those chords are dM9 GM9 A7/C# Bm7/f#

[FwuffyBunny]

Briliant. Thanks guys. I'm gonna try the ideas and see what I can do with it. That Yngwie sweep was fine for about a day and a half and then it was just kinda dull. Much appreciated.

[MFB]

Last night I was messing around and screwed up MattyCakes formation right there and did a box-y pattern on my new seven. Ended up being :

12-------------------------------------------------------------12--------------------
---13-10------------------------------------------------13-10-----------------------
---------12------------------------------------------12------------------------------
------------14-10-----------------------------14-10---------------------------------
------------------12-----------------------12----------------------------------------
---------------------15-10----------15-10-------------------------------------------
---------------------------12-17-12-------------------------------------------------

Pattern is :

B D F A C E G A D E A E D A G E C A F D B

The best way to play it I've found is to either pull off to the 10th each time (descending) or if you're ascending, then hammer each note after each 10th

[guitarnoize]

Check out Ysrafel's book called Sweep Picking Mastery:

http://ysrafel.com/products.html

Chock full of sweep goodness

[Oscar Ortega]

I have this book. It's all about arpeggios, tabbed out and with sound files. It goes from the very easy to some really complex stuff! I recommend it!

Also, I would suggest harmonizing scales as you will find a bunch of arpeggios within a scale...add more notes (7th, 9th, ect) for added color.

good luck!

[Petie]

Here's a lesson from my site which uses a pretty standard box pattern but makes it more interesting with some tapping.

http://iheartguitar.blogspot.com/200...p-and-tap.html

(Lemmie know if the audio files aren't working, I've had some problems with the site my files are hosted on).

[MFB]

They worked fine for me. Pretty cool sounding technique, for that I'd say 120bpm might be the magic speed. 100 seemed a little slow and 140 seemed a bit too much, but thats just me.

[FwuffyBunny]

Awesome. I think I will be grabbing this book.

[callen3615]

sweeping makes my head hurt! those are cool examples tho

[chicks]

do the 1 ,3 sweeping that means picking 1 note on say the low e and the 3 on the a and repeat the pattern into octaves , it sounds really fluent if you get it right