Hi guys, as you may not know I am in a band now and i am trying to learn how to sweep pick because its just so badass.

Does anyone have any tips on sweep picking?

Romance_us

Seychelles1806 Posts

July 20 2008 22:43 GMT

Practice very, very slowly and build your way up. Make sure each note is very clear and you are getting the precise sound that you want. Remember that it is not picking each individual string, it is a sweeping motion like you are strumming a chord.

Sewi

Germany1697 Posts

July 20 2008 22:58 GMT

You can find some very helpfull videos about sweep picking on youtube.

h3r1n6

Iceland2039 Posts

July 20 2008 23:31 GMT

There are a couple of guides on ultimate guitar for it too:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/search.php?s=sweep picking&w=lessons

ulszz

Jamaica1787 Posts

July 21 2008 00:07 GMT

it is badass gl!

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 21 2008 01:12 GMT

Ill upload a video when i learn how to do it. thanks your right youtube is the best!

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

July 21 2008 01:24 GMT

i suggest starting off sweeping small 3 string triads, usually major or minor, and then when your better you can progress towards bigger sweeps. start slowly, focus on moving ur picking hand at a consistent, slow pace (using a metronome helps), and concentrate on removing ur fretting finger as soon as you get to the next string. some people i know also use their picking hand to mute the strings after they play it, but its up to you, i dont need to mute them but i guess its just individual technique.

as i said before, try easy triads on the g b and high e strings, with only a straight sweep up or down, then progress up to longer sweeps, then add in hammers, taps, alternate picking strokes w/e. try to steer clear of dim7 chords for now, some of them are annoying because they span 5 frets, but you could always transpose them to different locations if you really wanted to. i suggest starting off with easy stuff like majors

pm me if u want some more info or some ptb's with some basic exercises

OH also i suggest watching players like frank gambale, a talented fusion guitarist. muhammad from necrophagist sweeps alot in his leads, theres some easy ones in the epitaph that you could try at a slower pace

Try this site http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/arpeggio.php , type in the root, pattern and intervals of the chord you want to sweep and itll generate it for you

himurakenshin

Canada1845 Posts

July 21 2008 20:00 GMT

key thing is to roll your fingers
you will get what i mean

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 21 2008 21:04 GMT

what im trying to learn is this "chord" i guess you could say

---------------------12--17-12-----------------------
-------------------15------------15-------------------
-----------------14-----------------14--------------
---------------15----------------------15----------
--------12--17--------------------------12-17----
------------------------------------------------------

What im trying to do is pick the first 12 then sweep 17, 15, 14, 15, 12 then pick 17 and go back up and pick the last 17 to end it.

should i just slowly practice 15,14, 15 or like 17, 15, 14?

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

July 21 2008 23:10 GMT

#10

id say start on the d note (on the a string) first, and practise sweeping through to the e on the high e string. after you get accustomed to sweeping u can try picking in a few notes or hammering in a few or whatever. if you really want, upstroke the the first A then sweep down the rest

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 22 2008 00:03 GMT

#11

Ok so i just practiced
--------------------------12-12---------
-----------------------15--------15-------
--------------------14---------------14------
-----------------15----------------------15---
-------------17-----------------------------17-
--------------------------------------------------

over and over and over and over and over.

I can do it semi fast, but i an still just* pick it faster so i have alot of work to go. --;

DvDYaR

United States2 Posts

July 22 2008 00:10 GMT

#12

3 notes at a time until you get the perfect is the ideal thing to do, or atleast where you're going to change the movement/pattern that you're doing.

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

July 22 2008 03:52 GMT

#13

try some simple stuff triads ( 1 3 5), or some more jazzy chords like major sevenths ( 1 3 5 7), but try not to involve other techniques. also, instead of practising the reverse motion, just practise sweeping down chords first until you have decent control, then try sweeping up, then put them together etc.

if you are constructing them from scales, try some of the modes such as the lydian (major scale with a #4, pleasant sounding) or maybe harmonic minor (i think yngwie uses it alot)

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 22 2008 04:20 GMT

#14

Hmm, im playing in drop C (CGCFAD) if that means anything different. So its a good idea to just sweep down for awhile before even trying to come back up?

I almost have it ill post a video soon.

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

July 22 2008 04:32 GMT

#15

it depends, since that tuning doesnt stay consistent (2 tones for the 6th string and 11/2 for the others), it might make the patterns of ur sweeps annoying. also, figuring out some of the more difficult chords can be harder (for me) if im not in standard tuning EADGBE.

u can sweep down and up, but try to do one, stop, then do the other, otherwise itll be much harder to get

btw are you playing with a metronome? anyways, sweeping gets alot easier once you have that timing right, there are a few different patterns that can be used to play pretty much all maj and min chords (u can shift them around the frets a few times to get different intervals of the scale), stuff like dim chords have fairly easy fingerings

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 22 2008 04:47 GMT

#16

I need to get a metronome. for now i jsut sort of play it out in my head what i want the pace to be.

What i want to be able to do is go down one chord then up a different one then do 2 more so its like a quad set of sweeps lol. Ill just keep trying to get the motion down i guess. thanks guys

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

July 22 2008 04:59 GMT

#17

heres a metronome http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/metronome.php just set the bpm and all done, plus it accents the first beat so you know where you are at

just a question what style are you playing anyway?

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 22 2008 05:10 GMT

#18

Melodic death metal actually. See "all shall perish" or "winds of plague" as an example of what i want to play.

ah sweet online metronome! thanks man

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

July 22 2008 05:32 GMT

#19

yeah man screw buying one, online are just as good

cant say im really interested in them but GL

also i dont know if your into this sort of stuff or not, but you can transcribe / look at tabs of some coltrane songs, in some of his more bop songs theres arpeggiated chords that can be swept

boesthius

United States11637 Posts

July 22 2008 07:28 GMT

#20

--- Nuked ---

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 23 2008 05:28 GMT

#21

On July 22 2008 14:32 JohnColtrane wrote:
yeah man screw buying one, online are just as good

cant say im really interested in them but GL

also i dont know if your into this sort of stuff or not, but you can transcribe / look at tabs of some coltrane songs, in some of his more bop songs theres arpeggiated chords that can be swept

Let me get the technique down then ill bust into the dif chords haha. thanks alot though good advice from all!! I had to work from 1130 to 7 today then went bowling and then it was too late to play so i couldnt record anything. tomorrow im jamming with my band so maybe ill try some stuff then.

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

July 24 2008 10:39 GMT

#22

alright man sweet, what guitar are you using for this?

btw if u are gonna be detuning, you may as well buy a cheap 7 string, like an ibanez universe or an rg7321. that way you are still tuned 5 semitones down, but u also have that high E string still (BEADGBE). i think going any lower than that is really going to sound stupid and fuck with the bassist

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

July 30 2008 05:07 GMT

#23

Yea i need to get a real guitar for metal, my guitar now is my dad's (its a real stratocaster, the 900 dollar one. its for jazz and blues i would say). I have been working on the weeping i think it is going well lol. i dont quite have the speed down though.

Drop C is what i like to play in, but drop B is cool too. I also play in drop D sometimes..

I need to find a good way to record guitars (Mbox2 i found is good but it costs 300 bucks so i have to save.)

for now i am just making music electronically with Reason and my keyboard which acts as a synthesizer.

HeavOnEarth

United States7087 Posts

July 31 2008 03:25 GMT

#24

never tried drop B before O.o
let's keep this blog going!

can u guys elaborate on how u finger/ where do u place your thumb on higher frets, mine just kinda dangles wherever; without any specific location

Hypnosis

United States2061 Posts

August 05 2008 06:12 GMT

#25

uhh im pretty sure you dont use your thumb to sweep pick. You can mute the strings with it i guess... Mine just goes like hovering above the frets..

Oh yea guys check this out:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=7340213

listen to "The Butcher". amazing sweeps in that song.

and All Shall Perishes new song "Never Again" has sick sweeps.

myspace.com/allshallperish

I can sweep faster than i can pic both ways now!!!! Almost got it!