Hey, I'm not too sure if this is in the right place, but I thought it fitted here better than any of the other sections, so...

I quit guitar for about 8 months recently, and now Im trying to get myself back into it, improve my speed/technicality etc... despite having not practiced anything for os long. My main question is about sweep picking, Ive seen some tutorials about it, but I still cant get my head (or my fingers ) around it. Is there any way you lot could attempt to explain it ?

Also, any tips on general scales or techniques to help get my speed up.. I listen to both black and power metal mainly, but stick to stuff like rhapsody or helloween as far as aiming to improve myself goes, as its far more challenging than most black metal tracks.

i can give you some tips for sweeping, practice..ok lame one.

try making the movement for sweeping very slowly, try to master the movement, and the timing needed for both hands to hit the notes at the right time and releasing them at the right time so they wont ring out.

try the sweep patterns slowly, master the patters so u can make that pattern literaly with your eyes closed.

its kinda hard to explain, cuz sweeping is a feeling u have to have, if one hand is a bit faster than the other, it doesnt sound right, so u need to practice this shit alot, keep doing it, memmorize it etc.

and after a while ull see that speed comes automaticaly, the better u know the movement, the faster u can sweep i think.


and for he speed playing in general, just practice scales, up and down, left and right, weird patters inside scales, just mess around with it, the better u know the pattern of the scale, the easier it willl get to race around in a scale.

and also, u might aswell practice alternate puicking ALOT, this will improve your speed also (it worked for me), im not sure if u know what alternate picking is, its basicaly ALWAYS play up stroke down stroke up down up down, keep doing the up down stroke no matter if ur going to skip a string or whatever.

sry my xplaining isnt verry good.

----------3-------------
--------4---5-----------
-2-4-5--------5-4-2----
u d u d u d u d u
d= downstrok
u= upstroke

a smal example of alternate pickign exercise, u can make these kinda things up yourself i guess.

anyway hope this helps ya a bit.

ow and btw, theres a whole thread on sweeping and scales in the guitar section, its a sticky so its on top somewhere, u should be able to find more hints and tips here

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Well, I guess here's the way I approached it. One of the most important parts of sweeping is your right hand technique, believe it or not. Start of by slightly muting all six strings with your left hand, and practice just the up and down sweeping motion, keeping the pick parallel to the strings at all times. Hold your pick a little looser than when just picking. You should begin to hear the strings sound like a swept run. Work slowly at first, hand synchronization is the single most important aspect to sweep picking.

To start, start with some simple 3 string arpeggios:
Am Arpeggio
E|----7-------|
B|--8---7-8---|
G|9---------9-|
D|------------|
A|------------|
E|-------------|

Diminished Arpeggio
E|----6-9-6------|
B|--8--------8---|
G|9------------9-|
D|---------------|
A|---------------|
E|---------------|

Here's the most common 5 string arpeggio

E|---------6-9-6-------|
B|-------7-------7-----|
G|-----6-----------6---|
D|---8---------------8-|
A|-9-------------------|
E|----------------------

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Yes, wrong forum. Look in the Official scales and sweeps thread in the guitar forum.

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I've moved this to the Guitar Forum.

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alot of peaple think sweeps are easier if you pick closer to the neck, but i find it alot easier if you do it near the bridge with a reall light palm mute... hope this helps some

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when i first started sweeping, i thought about it as if i was strumming a chord, but instead of doing the strumming motion you slide down each string much slower ( till you get the hang of it) while fingering each note...thats how i picked it up

Remember to take things slow. Speed will come with practice.

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Practice slow and WITHOUT distortion.

I disagree with you somewhat. He should dime the distortion, but it shouldn't be on zero either. Because you need at least some distortion to make the sweep not sound like crap. I'd say distortion at 4 or 5 but certainly not 10. And practice with the bridge pickup, because the neck pickup makes the sweep sound smoother without having to have good technique, therefore meanign you are cheating.

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Ya, thats how I do it. Yngwie Malmsteen style!!

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i can sweep fine without distorion..... everyones sweeps sound like crap at first, distortion or not. it actually would help more to learn them without distortion first so you know your doing it right and not developing bad habbits.

oh yeah... and the whole "cheating" thing is total bullshit. if it sounds better, do it!

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I can sweep fine without distortion as well. I'm just saying its easier to learn with a tiny bit (not dimed) distortion than completely clean. You can still catch your mistakes as long as the distortion isn't dimed. And I disagree with you, neck pickup is easier, and doesn't sound as good as sweeping with the bridge pickup. The bridge pickup makes it sound much tighter. Lets see, Yngwie, Vai, Satch, Laiho, Wylde, etc. all sweep with their bridge pickup for the most part.

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Right on. Jon Levasseur uses (well, used...) the neck pick up for most of his solos and his sweeps sounded awesome.

At the end of the day, bad technique can be spotted a mile off by a trained ear irrespective of which pickup you use.

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If you use distortion you have to play it even cleaner than without distortion.
Thats why I would practice it without distortion first.

When I first began to learn to sweep i first practised the pickstrokes over and over. Then i began just fingering totally random patterns slowly all around the fretboard (this sounds like shit but it gets your hands co-ordinated).
I think that making sure you use all your fingers and all your strings is pretty important when first beginning. Sure you could practise 3 strings sweeps over and over, but when it comes time to start learning 6 string sweeps you will probably find it quite hard to find control of your extra fingers.

Its been mentioned before, just learn a sweep pattern you like, memorise it, then just keep playing it. Memorise a few to keep you practising and interested.

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i have been trying to play 3 string sweeps but as soon as i get a little bit faster i get pull offs everytime any tips to prevent that ?

Palm mute a little?Though i dont fully understand the question.

Work on developing the mechanic of removing your finger as you play the note. A good way is to practice staccato of that note, playing it by depressing the string with the fretting finger then using finger control to slowly and clearly release the string in a fashion where your finger actually mutes the note as oppose to totally leaving the string resulting in a pull off.

Practicing the mechanics of playing natural harmonics and letting them ring, then playing them as a staccato is a good excercise to help with this

good answer.

you should check out my sweeps made easy thread. nothin special. just somthing to get you started.

Its not that difficult to find the "guitar forum" and see at the top a thread about sweeping. Post all further questions/comments there.

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