The Doors to Sweeping Have Been Opened!

[MelodyMan]

So sweeping always kind of scared me and any time I started to try I sucked so I sort of gave up on it. But tonight I randomly started trying some sweep picking exercises and all of a sudden I got it!! I was flying through those arps! I finally got the timing of both hands in sync and figured out how to roll my left hand across the strings. Needless to say I sat for about an hour noodling around with different triad figures for sweep picking.

Now let me say, I always admired people who could sweep pick, but a lot of people get sucked into the "all I do is sweep up and down the neck all the time" and I HATE that, but this is definitely one technique I would like to incorporate tastefully into my playing.

Anyway, I just thought I would share my breakthrough, "light bulb" moment!

[sers]

Congratulations!!! Carry On!!!

[Eggy]

It's all good MelodyMan. Congrats, it's cool when the pieces finaly seem to fit together.

I might only use a couple of sweeps in a 75minute gig but they're just something nice to have in your chops to bust out whenever the vibe calls for it.

Ben

[Dee]

Yeah! Go MelodyMan! I like me some sweeps.

[lemongrass]

Cool!
I've been working on sweeping over the last couple of days - I'm really struggling to keep it clean and precise sounding with higher gain sounds... I think I need to improve the coordination of my LH & RH muting. It's a lot harder than it looks.

Have you come across any good online demos/tips?

John

[screamndemon69]

I saw a cool video about sweeping that broke it down into picking directions and which way to pick is what makes sweeping more effective and efficiently faster.

[Rekuss]

Originally Posted by lemongrass

Have you come across any good online demos/tips?

John

+1

This is one technique I really need to improve. I've kinda got it, but needs a bit more work.

Well done though, it's great when you know you've improved.

[twooos]

go for it

[Dee]

Originally Posted by Rekuss

This is one technique I really need to improve. I've kinda got it, but needs a bit more work.

Here's a simple sweep arpeggio that kinda helped my picking hand to coordinate with the fretboard hand to get the timing right. This should really have an A added by tapping the 20th fret on the high E string after the 12th fret hammer-on, but to simplify the exercise and help you get the basic feel for it I'll post this one because I still find it useful for warm-ups. There are a few repeated notes in there, but no matter, this is merely an exercise for co-ordination. Do this in a circular motion and keep repeating until you have the flow nailed.

Audio clip is here.

This is nothing too special, it's just an exercise, remember.

^ - downstroke
v = upstroke
h = hammer-on
p = pull-off


E ----------------^-8----12-h----12-v----8-p----------------------------

B ------------^-10---------------------------10-v------------------------

G ---------^-9-----------------------------------9-v---------------------

D -----^-10----------------------------------------10-v------------------

A -^-12-----------------------------------------------12-v---------------

E ------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Ferrous Lepidoptera]

Cool. I can sorta halfass do one or two different little sweeping things, but it's by no means something I've integrated into my playing -- it's just sort of a little stunt for me at this point.

Once, I was at guitar center playing something or other, and some kid was watching me, he was maybe 12 years old. He asked me, "Can you shred?" Well, I was thinking to myself, "what was I just doing?" And of course my cynical side kicks in, "playing guitar rather badly, actually."
But the kid kept asking me, "Can you shred? Can you shred?"

Finally, somehow, it dawned on me that this kid thought that "shredding" was some very specific guitar playing technique. He mentioned he had some "awesome tape" (kids still trade tapes?) of some local guy that his friend had given him -- "Rusty Cooley?" I guessed. "Yeah, that's the guy!" So I did my little stunt arpeggio and that seemed to satisfy this kid that I could indeed "shred," at least a little bit. Heh.

I wish I really could shred, but I suck.

[mi2tom]

Shredding is cool and fun!

[Rekuss]

Hey thanks Dee, I use a similar pattern already but I think I've just gotta put my arse into gear, if you know what I mean.

Thanks though

[Dee]

Cool, good luck man! That particular pattern helped me quite a bit with coordination, but as I said, just basic stuff.

[spacestation]

Great!!! Sweeping is so cool and I've been working on it sense I first heard Yngwie (still gives me a thrill) but I dont make it an every solo sort of trick, just here and there kinda like salt and pepper a little goes a long way. But, just to let you know I'm deffinaly not the best there is at it. No really Its a hard thing to master and I'm still working on it. I find the more I'm warmed up the better I can get it down. I do use sweeps as a warm up exercise but I really would be embarssed if anybody heard me. ah shucks!!!

[southpaw_lefty]

Well done!

Years ago I resigned to the fact that sweeping is something I'm just never going to be able to do well.