1st. I was never taught theory, Althought im a pretty good guitarist able to play Defeated Sanity, Cenotaph (turkey), and MAlignancy songs, but I'VE NEVER GOTTEN MY SWEEPING APPREGGIOS DOWN! I've tried so many times and never got them to sound so clean like u would hear on Necrophagist or Necrotic Disgorgement songs, and not just that; when I try to experiment with different appregios and shit I feel like my fingers are going retarded and I end up fucking up.

Also, can someone explain what are polyrhythms and does anyone know any good techniques, exercises, or tricks in order to get sweep appreggios sounding better, tighter, accurate, and cleaner?

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People learn different ways for appregios. I know some people who start with 6 string sweeps before they learn anything else, and other way around. Personally i started with that second mini-solo in hanger 18, and just grinded with that untill i got it down. Then i tried a 4 string, then 5 string...actually my 6 string isnt great, but hey, im stilll learning.

a polyrhythms is just a series of different rhythems, with hugly different speeds, not too sure if that answers your question, anddd i could be wrong

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a polyrhythm is two different time signatures at once as far as i know. see the ending of opeth's deliverance

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That breakdown at the end is a polyrhythm? I love that ending... it jams!

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IMO!! theres onlu i advice for sweeping... PRACTICE!!!!

ive been trying to sweep properly since i started playing guitar 3,5 years ago, practice practice, also, try learn solos or songs with sweeps inem, and DONT try to pley them fast, become one with the whole sweeping motion and the timing first before you start to speed things up, the more easy and flawless the whole motion goes, the cleaner ull be able to sweep in the end. also, sweep on the bridge pu (sweeping on the neck pu will sound easier and cleaner, so the cleaner u can sweep on the bridge pu, the better it wil sound when u play some arps on the neck pu), all these things will help u get better at sweeping.

mayeb it aslo has to do with talent in a way, some peeple might be able to learn sweeping realy clean and fast in a short time, where others wil take years to get there.

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Here's some advice I offered in another sweeping thread, this is pretty much how I practice anything and get it up to speed in a short amount of time:



K13M though does have a very good point on natural ability on certain guitar skills as far as I am concerned. I need to practice my sweeps like at least 30 minutes a day or they will go down the shitter. In the way I desribed above it took me like 3/4 a year to get super-clean. Sweeping is one of the skills that took me the longest to 'get'. However, stuff like cross-picking has never been a problem.

I did get very discouraged at times, I think we all do when trying to get this stuff down, but if you practice smart enough and hard enough you can learn anything on guitar.

EDIT : As for your polyrhythm question, the simplest example would be the following time signatures - 3/4, 5/4, 7/4.

Here's a link to an article Steve Vai wrote years ago about the subject of polyrhythms: http://www.vai.com/LittleBlackDots/tempomental.html

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I started off with the small 3 string minor and diminished sweeps, then moved up to five, then six, making sure i was playing clean as possible, the key is to start slow and focus on perfection

I've found that larger--6 string sweeps--sweeps are faster to learn than 2 or 3 string sweeps. Learn the longer sweeps first. Also, don't "sweep" the pick when you first start. Start with picking individual notes as fast as your fingers allow, then after that is taken care of sweep normal.

This isn't advanced either, and could have gone in the many other threads on sweeps.

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That's the key for everything.

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Use a metronome!

-----------------9-h-12------9---------------------
--------------10----------------10-----------------
------------9----------------------9---------------
--------11---------------------------11------------
----12----------------------------------12---------
----------------------------------------------------
.......*................................*
* = the beep on the metronome

Start at about 60 bpm and just practise your balls off
Dminished sweeps certainly help. At first make sure that there is no string buzz between the strings otherwise you will never get the sweeps down. Make sure each note is clean (which is why you start at such a slow bpm). I read somewhere that Petrucci always starts at 80bpm practising something before making it faster.

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