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Sweep Picking Guitar Lesson
If you're salivating at the mouth because you desperately want to learn how pull off theawesome technique known as sweep picking, then you've come to the right place.It is here where I will show you how to get started, the RIGHT way. We'll start small,grow big, and conquer mountains together – ready?
WHAT IS SWEEP PICKING?
Sweep picking is a more economical way to play a series of notes, either fast or slow, but keep in mind that sweep picking can also help a guitar player produce notes at veryfast rates of speed.Sweep picking is used with arpeggios, which is when a musician plays the notes of achord, one by one, either ascending or descending. As long as it has at least three notes,it is technically an arpeggio, but this doesn't really matter, because you can apply thesweep approach to just two strings, which would be economy picking.Economy picking is very similar to sweep picking and they both use the same approach.Lets say that you wish to play a B minor chord, and that you are going to play it like anarpeggio, picking out one note at a time, ascending. Instead of using alternate pickinglike you would for repeating patterns, and guitar runs, it would be more beneficial to usesweep picking.When sweep picking is used, the guitar player brushes through the strings with onlydown strokes for ascending, and up strokes for descending, but there is a trick to it.
HOW TO SWEEP PICK
Sweep picking is one of the most highly desired techniques to master out their in theworld of guitar, and for good reason. Sweep picking is a highly economical way to playnotes, but it also can bring a great deal of variety to your playing.
PRACTICING SWEEP PICKING
Sweep picking is not the easiest technique to master that is available to a guitar player.Sweep picking can be very frustrating when first starting out, because it requires themost amount of control probably over all guitar techniques.That being said, let's take a look at how we can practice sweep picking in a way that willdeliver results.You've got two hands that are working together in a way that they never have before.The right hand which is going to handle all of your picking must perform with absolute precision and grace, while the fretting hand must also act with this same kind of accuracy. So, let's break it down.
THE PICKING HAND
Sweep picking uses only down strokes to ascend through strings and up strokes todescend through strings, and yes you can indeed add hammer ons and pulls offs in keyareas.However, when I say picking, I'm not talking about picking movement. Sweep picking islike a controlled strum, or a string rake.This means that you cannot strum all the strings at once, or else it would sound like achord, but at the same time you cannot pick the strings out in the way that you would pick notes with alternate picking, or any other kind of picking.So what do we do then? Think of your picking hand as dead weight. It also helps toimagine that there is a string that is controlling your picking hand. This string iscontrolled by a mechanism, perhaps a small motor, that releases the string, and therefor your hand with perfect timing and control.
The same goes for descending. The string is raised and your picking hand has no say soin the matter. It simply moves with the timing and control of the string.The idea is to let the pick fall through the strings as it wants to, eliminating how your hand wants to control it. Let the weight of your hand push the guitar pick through eachstring, but do not use any tension to actually push the string. The weight of your handalone is enough.
THE FRETTING HAND
The fretting hand can be equally tricky, because you cannot hold down all of the notes atonce, or else the sweep will ring together as a chord.You have to master the coordination of lifting your fingers up and placing them uponnew notes, just as the picking hand brushes through the correct string.
THE METHOD OF PRACTICE
This isn't exactly the only way to get started practicing sweep picking, but this methodhas worked for many guitar players.Assuming that you practice consistently every day for at least a small amount of time, itwill probably take you about a week or two to get down the basic coordination. Keep inmind that when I talk about the basic coordination, I'm not talking about being able to breeze through a guitar sweep pattern at insane speeds.Getting the coordination down is step one, working on speed development is step two.Focus on step one for now.For a week or so, only practice with isolated hands. What I mean is practice the pickinghand independently of the fretting hand. Experiment with getting the pick to brushthrough the strings OPEN. Leave the fretting hand out.Set aside time to work on the fretting hand with a small pattern. I will provide you withone in just a second.Get your fretting hand use to lifting up and moving the fingers around into new positions. Remember, you're going to have to do one finger at a time. You shouldn't havemore than one finger on the fretboard at any moment in time with this particular sweep pattern that I am about to show you.
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