Why do i suck so much at sweeps?

[BeyondAntares]

I've been there and I'm still trying to improve as well.

My method was to take good sweeping patterns and practice them very very very slow.

Don't speed up immiediatly but to really focus on proper muting and right - left hand timing.


Some good songs that helped my sweeping.

1. Smoke and Mirrors by Symphony x. (5 string sweep paterns)
2. Yngwie malmsteens - too young to die, too drunk to live. ( 3 string sweep patterns)
3. Jason Beckers - Perpetual Burn ( 4 string sweep)
4. Dead Night warrior solo (both)- children of Bodom (4/5/6 string sweeps)
5. Bed of razors - children of Bodom (5 string sweeps)
6. Eugene's bag of tricks (5 intro sweeps) - Steve vai (6 string sweep patterns - odd patterns that aren't too common)

I know these are difficult but these are key songs to master sweeping by. Learn them slow - it's not a race and you're only competition is yourself.

The trick is to play along the guitar pro tabs at a very slow speed for weeks. Play on a clean channel on your amp and make sure that every note not only rings our cleanly but every note rings out for the same amount of time as the last one.

This is the key. The messiest part in sweeps are when notes get missed or don't ring out evenly.

The right hand should have the pick loosely held and there should be a smooth strumming like motion down and up the strings. On your left hand - be sure to hold down each note for the same amount of time.

The moment the pick strums past that note - lift up your fretting finger to deaden the string. The right should also move into place to deaden the string further. Practice this technique with some gain / on a distorted channel slow.

This will sound horrendous but is key to playing cleanly.

Listen to some classic malmsteen crica 1984/1985 and Theordore ziras to hear how proper sweeping should be done.

 

[heilarkyguitar]

I know if you don't use 4 fingers with sweeps, cover 5 strings would be , not good.

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

Like everyone said, it takes practice, cant expect to be Loomis overnight.
Tips:
1. Practice slow first. Once you have the motions down cold, slowly increase speed watching to ensure sound technique and clarity.
2. Dont let the notes bleed. Some people will sacrifice good techinique for speed. They let the notes bleed together so they can play fast = Garbage
3. Use proper muting to ensure the strings not being played dont ring. Use thumb muting for the best results. That being said, make sure to allow all notes that are played to ring for the same length of time; don't choke off the notes to soon or it will sound amateur
4. Get used to play all the different inversions of the basic arpeggio shapes. Each inversion has its own sound and frethand challenges (rolling)
5. Never speed up your sweeping before you can cleanly play the arpeggio
6. 2 hand sync is the key to flawless techniue. That being said, when performing hammers or pulls in the arp, you need to keep your pick hand sweeping while the h or pull is occurring. What I mean is that if your pick hand stops dead while waiting for your fret hand to perform the hammer on or pull off, this will kill your momentum and throw off your 2 hand sync. Your pick should be moving in the direction of the next string you are to play while the articulation is occurring; trust me on this, this is KEY.
7. Come up with different arpeggio etudes to apply the technique and begin sounding musical. If you dont like to create your own play someone else's. The key to learning anything new is to apply what you are learing to a real world context. A good example is the major/minor sweep section just after the killer diminished arps in the solo section of This Godless Endeavor by Nevermore. Loomis is a beast, btw

Follow this quick tips, and I assure you, and your sweep picking will get much better.

 

[failshredder]

Don't remember if I posted in this thread yet, so here goes my totally unorthodox advice:

NO EFFECTS, but use your bridge pickup and turn up your gain. You will sound like shit for a while, I don't care. Once you sound good and clean with a lot of distortion and the bridge pickup, you'll sound good with any other tone.

 

[bonethug]

Don't remember if I posted in this thread yet, so here goes my totally unorthodox advice:

NO EFFECTS, but use your bridge pickup and turn up your gain. You will sound like shit for a while, I don't care. Once you sound good and clean with a lot of distortion and the bridge pickup, you'll sound good with any other tone.

Tone may be a problem with me. Since I live in japan I seriously have to watch how loud I am, i cant fit anything but a POS fender practice amp in my room and I live on the 8th floor of my building... so its hard for me to get gear in and out.

 

[Konfyouzd]

Don't remember if I posted in this thread yet, so here goes my totally unorthodox advice:

NO EFFECTS, but use your bridge pickup and turn up your gain. You will sound like shit for a while, I don't care. Once you sound good and clean with a lot of distortion and the bridge pickup, you'll sound good with any other tone.

The person that taught me to sweep gave me this EXACT same advice...

 

[SirMyghin]

The person that taught me to sweep gave me this EXACT same advice...

It is good advice too, as when sweeping muting rules to game, so you want your gain to throw that in your face.

 

[somniumaeternum]

Not to repeat a lot of the usual advice (muting, metronome, fluidity, etc.) I'll add a different perspective.

I try to combine sweeping and theory practice together. It helps because it allows you to practice sweeping physical movement without it being the focus.

For example, if you use a chordal approach to sweeping you can derive patterns to match chord inversions starting on the same string. A great exercise to learn fretboard visualizaion, chord theory, inversions, arpeggios, etc. And the entire time you're sweeping but since you're engaging your mind on other aspects it's not as frustrating at times (and, you know, you practice theory too )

 

[somniumaeternum]

I noticed that a lot of fast sweep artist tend to use this pattern, it's faster and as said, you will learn it quicker.

I'm still sticking to the harder version and there is only a little progress visible, I hope it's gonna be worth it in the long run

Actually, the "easier" version is derived from the 6th string shape. If you finger it with the 3rd finger it feels almost like a position shift if you do the entire 6 or 7 string version.

What I would suggest to learn the 6 / 7 string shapes so you can figure out where the mini arpeggios are coming from. No point in practicing the same shape in different ways depending on if you're doing a full arp or just a 5 or 3 string version. This way, you practice once and you can do both things.

(I do practice both fingerings actually but it's more for a finger exercise than to play an arpeggio; in the end, when you're on the spot to play it live you should do it the easiest and best way possible)

 

[Anchor_the_TBoz]

Before you get into technical detail about what exactly your hands should be doing - here are some general tips.
1. Slow Down. Muscle Memory is developed at whatever speed you are playing. Once your fingers are falling into place without you thinking about it, thats when you can begin to speed up and push yourself beyond your abilities.
2. Use a metronome, this will help with number 1 and make your sweeps more consistent and fluid
2. Turn Down the gain and reverb on your amp, this will help you hear the individual notes clearer.
4. Remember that sweep picking is an advanced technique, there is a steep learning curve at the beginning, its going to take a lot of practise!

WRONG!!!! you need MORE gain. then you wont notice how bad it sounds. drown it out in reverb and impress all of your friend. no S.

metronomes help SO much when it comes to just about anything. a riff you cant get up to speed, or a solo. just get all the notes right and slow it down to half and work your way back up till its fast and, more importantly, CLEAN.

nobody is above slowing it down. it can actually make things more difficult to play (good learning tool) cause your body just wants to go faster by reflex. controlling your impulses and shaping them into whatever you want is what will set you above the cut.

 

[Pengu]

Like what whilstmyguitardjentlyweep said, slow down your playing and then when you have it nailed on a certain speed, speed up your metronome, then when you have got that one down just repeat.
USE A METRONOME I cannot stress that enough! and definitely turn your gain down! I am disagreeing with the "turn your gain up" on this one.
I started learning sweeping with the D major and D minor scale.

D Minor.


---------13h17p13---------||
-------15--------15-------||
-----14------------14-----||
---15----------------15---||
-17--------------------17-||
--------------------------||

And D Major.

---------14h17p14---------||
-------15--------15-------||
-----14------------14-----||
---16----------------16---||
-17--------------------17-||
--------------------------||

Hope this helps, and good luck

 

[WFD]

sweep picking and two hands technique are my favorite.. im going to read it all and post a video of my actual Level of technique. i think im having articulations mistakes and one or 2 fingers that always manage to make the sweep dirty. q: /
the third finger specifically.

 

[Oxidation_Shed]

One thing that definitely helped for me, that everywhere seemed to neglect to mention was my left hand position. What I mean is: when I first started sweeping I was still playing with my thumb over the top of the neck in classic "rock solo" style. This was fine for slower sweeps but, when I cranked up the metronome, everything began to fall apart. It might not be applicable as not every body has as poor hand position as I do but making sure my left hand is in the "classical" position, with my thumb on the back of the neck, helped an awful lot to improve my sweeps in a relatively short amount of time. Though I did have to go back an pretty much relearn how to do it.
The right hand as well - if you're like me and have two fingers and a thumb on the pick (possibly to do with me being a lefty playing a right handed guitar, but James from Metallica does a similar thing) - make sure you sweep with only one finger and your thumb on the pick. I have no idea why, but that seemed to help me. Though I still do everything else with two fingers.

 

[pstol]

Metronome. Don't pick.