Sweep picking...Teach me how

[Scottcrud]

Yes, as the title implies, teach me the E-A-Z-Y method of sweep picking. Been playing thrash, hardcore, death, punk metal fro 25 years, and never learned how to sweep pick.

[jettster]

Yes, as the title implies, teach me the E-A-Z-Y method of sweep picking. Been playing thrash, hardcore, death, punk metal fro 25 years, and never learned how to sweep pick.

Are you looking for specific shapes / patterns to be sweeped or infomation about the technique?

Really sweep picking is very similar to strumming a chord with more focus on the articulation of each individual note. Muting plays a huge part in making the sweeps sound clean. I don't really sweep pick too much these days but, if you are looking for patterns in tab or something, I could tab out a bunch of exercises that I used to use. 5-string stuff.

I tend to gravitate towards three string arppegios cause it seemed difficult to make big sweeps sound musical, always kind of sounds like "let me throw this in there". lol

[jwhitcomb3]

No help here. I had alternating up-down picking drilled into me hard in the 70s and failed in my attempts to break out of it.

[tbonesullivan]

My teacher gave me a few 4 string exercises. the first starts out with your first finger on the first fret of the first string (E#), 2nd finger on 2 fret of 2nd string (C#), 3rd on 3rd fret of 3rd (A#) string, and 4th on 4th fret of 4th string. (F#). This gives you a major 7 chord.

What you do then is in one motion from the bottom pick each string. It helps if after picking the first string you let the pick "land" on the next string before picking it. Once you pick the 1st string, move the whole thing up 1 fret, and then "sweep" in the reverse direction starting with 1st finder on 2nd fret and do the same thing until you hit the 4th string.

Then move it up again and go "down". Keep doing this all the way up and then back down the fretboard. you'll learn how to mute the strings (it takes getting used to) and to avoid "picking" each string. This is the basis of sweep picking.

This leads to "economy picking" which is a mixture of alternate and sweep picking that minimizes motion. I have a version of flight of the bumblebee to work on that helps me with that. It really does take a while to get used to it.

[svl]

Here's a great video example-

[Scottcrud]

Thanks guys, the youtube video guy is pretty good. Sweeping down is pretty easy for me, but sweeping up is pretty much a bitch!

[savethematches]

Good thread! I hope you don't mind if I jump in the fray with a related question.

I've been working on sweep picking for a long time and have had moderate success at best. I've got the basic technique and can do a decent three string sweep of the D chord shape and an sometimes decent sweep of the four string F chord shape.

Where do I go from here? I'm not sure how to incorporate the technique into a solo without just running the arpeggios up and down repetitively. Any tips on this?

[jettster]

One of my buds has a video describing some variations of basic sweep picking by adding some tapped notes. You can also incorporate some slides leading up to the sweep, that makes for a huge sounding sweep. Like him, I also tend to hammer on most of the descending notes, seems to make it easier if you are not working in a specific position.

As far as incorporating them in a musical way, that's something worth experimenting with. I think it's easier to make it sound more musical if you are not just in one position sweeping back and forth. I'll tend to do a downward sweep, leading up to something else, like a descending or ascending type run.

Video

He also has some other cool videos

http://www.chadcoggin.com/video.htm

[zorrow]

I cannot recommend enough Kevin Dillard's books "Intellishred" and "Arpeggio Madness".

BTW, Kevin is an HFC'er, so if he's around and reading this he might give you a couple of advices here.

[Siaip Ciuvas]

I cannot recommend enough Kevin Dillard's books "Intellishred" and "Arpeggio Madness".

BTW, Kevin is an HFC'er, so if he's around and reading this he might give you a couple of advices here.

+1

his nick here is JackButler, write him and I'm sure he will give you a tip or two.

[specialk]

For whatever reason, Kevin/Jack is no longer a member here. I don't believe you can email him through this board.

[Scottcrud]

I've got Kevins original Intellishred, typed book, sent as a bunch of copied papers. I guess I need to give it another look.

[tommy p]

E#?

[geoff_hartwell]

E#?

Yes, that's correct. In the key of F#, E# is the major 7th note, a half step lower than the octave F#. Please note that an F major seven chord is spelled F-A-C-E (see above and compare to F#maj7).

Although 'E#' is the enharmonic equivalent of the pitch 'F', it is necessary to use different LETTER names for each scale tone. You can't have a note called 'F' and another called 'F#' in the same scale. That's why you sometimes run into B# or Cb, and cool stuff like double-sharps and double-flats.

For example - in G# minor usually the seventh scale degree is F# - if one uses G# Harmonic minor (as opposed to Natural Minor) the seventh note would be F## (F double-sharp) not 'G'.

Kooky.

Geoff

[tommy p]

I wish I could say I've learned something today, but I won't be able to keep that straight.

I worked with a keyboard player that would call the notes out relative to the key or scale of what we were playing so he obviously knew the proper way to do it as you've explained. I asked him to just always call Gb F# and A# Bb to keep me straight. All the other notes that would have 2 names depending on sharp or flat I'm OK on. Kooky indeed.