Why do i suck so much at sweeps?

[bonethug]

been playing 9-10 years now, been trying to get my sweeps in as a new thing to master. I've realized that i suck.... What am I doing wrong gentlemen?

 

[Ghost40]

I feel your pain. I've been Playing almost 22 years and still have yet to master them. I can 3 strings pretty well, but anything more sounds a sloppy. I did notice however, that the use of a metronome has greatly improved my speed on just about everything.

 

[whilstmyguitardjentlyweep]

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!

 

[nostealbucket]

The metronome is your friend!!!!

 

[OrsusMetal]

There are a lot of variables in picking and getting your pick to flow evenly across the strings with minimal resistance. Pick angle and height are two things that come into play like no other.

1. Don't hover your hand, keep it in contact with the strings. You want to be able to mute as well as create a plane for your hand to keep a constant pick level.

2. Don't dig into the strings. The more pick surface that hits the strings will cause more resistance against the pick, causing you to fall out of time. Use less pick and try to see if gripping harder works better for you or if a lighter grip on the pick gets the sound you want. Keep in mind, a tighter grip will cause the pick to stiffen up and give a tad more resistance. A lighter grip will allow the pick to flow over the string a little easier.

3. Play slowly, with a metronome. You will be able to focus on the notes you are trying to play as well as your technique at a slower speed. Speeding up before you are ready for it will only keep you in the same boat you are already in. You already know you can't pull this technique off, being impatient and speeding up before you are ready for it won't help anything.

It can be difficult at first to focus on all the things, but not nearly impossible. A lot of people give up because sweep picking is a lot to take in at first. Also, a lot of people that want to learn how to do it want to learn the most difficult patterns first, most of the time. Remember, sweep picking is just a directional form of picking. Almost exactly like strumming, just with more control and muting involved.

See if any of this information helps you out. If you need more, I might see if I can type out an instructional on it. Don't get discouraged. You'll get it. It just takes some focus and discipline. Also, remember to watch what you are doing. See if you can try to analyze your playing and find the problems. If you can find the problems, people can give you some better advice. Once you learn how to find the problems, you can usually start figuring out how to fix them as well.

I hope this was helpful.

 

[Solodini]

One thing which I have found to help, although I have no idea why, is to play a pattern picking it the opposite direction you would sweep i.e. all upstrokes instead of downstrokes and vice versa. This followed by what the others have said works for me.

It probably just gets the fretting hand used to moving through the patterns without allowing yourself to focus on the proper right hand part yet and overwhelm yourself.

 

[Maniacal]

How long have you been working on sweeping?

What exactly do you practice?

 

[Goatchrist]

Very good tips! I'm practicing for a while now, made progress and I'm happy with myself.

But can you give me some advice how exactly you guys use the metronome?
When do you notice it is time to get faster? How many BPM to start?

 

[Solodini]

Set it as slow as necessary to be consistent and smooth. If you're playing quavers then have the click to crotchets so that you have enough leeway on your metronome to get as fast as you're aiming for.

Practise at that tempo until you can steadily play a pattern at least 6 times perfectly in a row. I advise 6 times because, as we judge things decimally, people often become complacent once they perfect 5. 6 just gives that extra bit of security. Move up a very small amount after that (~5bpm). If you make a mistake in one pass then your perfect count is back down to zero. If you keep making the same mistake repeatedly then slow the tempo back down.

 

[Fiction]

play a pattern picking it the opposite direction you would sweep i.e. all upstrokes instead of downstrokes and vice versa.

This sounds interesting, i'll have to give it a try tomorrow.

--

I'm no expert on sweeping, i've got my 5 string sweeps sounding alright and don't think i'll venture to 6 just yet, I still get some muddy notes in the middle, which I think is an issue that you see most when people are playing 5 string sweeps.

I learnt my 3 swing sweeps, playing 1-2 hours- a day to a metronome for about 2 days, and I mean I had been playing dodgy sweeps for months before that so I had the basics I had just never actually sat down and actually checked out my technique, but than when I went onto learning 4 string sweeps I was finding them really hard to grasp even though I could get my 3 strings clean at 208bpm, which is as fast as the metronome I was using went.

I gave up on 4, and went straight to learning 5 string sweeps because I wanted to actually learn sweeping for the solo in selkies, and I found that actually fairly easy to grasp, spent ages getting it up to speed and can play it at full speed cleanly now, but at the start once I was at full speed I was missing out on a fair lot of middle notes, on the G & D String, so definitely as you progress make sure you're playing cleanly throughout your sweeps.

But as has been mentioned definitely metronome, and learn a few shapes just basically and then dive into songs you actually want to learn sweeping for, its the best incentive to do something, because YOU want to.

 

[chaos_reborn]

ive been thru this phase too.......

but the key is to practice 3 string sweeps first.....and try getting each and every note on the sweep cleanly....

it helps more if u can write a small solo sort of piece using only the 3 string sweeps....and then play it over and over again gradually increasing ur speed....and keep adding strings to that progression...works best...

 

[7StringedBeast]

Patience. Determination. Exhaustion.

Oh, and a metronome/BT.

 

[celticelk]

I hear you, man. I'm in my mid-30s and have been playing on and off for about half my life, and just recently decided that I'd like to try developing some facility with sweeping. I'm not a fast player by anyone's definition (my lead playing is more Sonny Sharrock or Bill Frisell-like), so this is new territory for me. As others have recommended, I'm starting slowly with 3-string sweeps on the top strings, choosing one major triad and its relative minor and playing all the inversions. It's slow going. I find the inversions that require barring to be the most difficult, particularly the three-string bar on the first-inversion minor triad. I'm also doing some five-string major and minor triads, and experimenting with a Lydian shape that has some internal hammers and a straight-up minor triad on top, just to see some other applications of the technique so that I don't get too frustrated, but the 3-string sweeps are the core of my practice right now. One other thing that is probably helping: my main guitar is a 25.5" tele, and I'm soon to purchase a 26.5" Schecter 8-string, but I'm doing all my daily practice on a 27.75" Epiphone baritone Les Paul, on the theory that building up my muscle memory on a longer scale with heavier strings will make sweeping on the other instruments that much easier. Practicing on an acoustic might also be a good way to go for the same effect. Good luck!

 

[Solodini]

I definitely second practising on an acoustic. Acoustic guitars are much less forgiving even than a clean electric. You need to put much more work in to making things sound even on an acoustic, as well as looking out for resonance you may not have noticed otherwise. That'll definitely help you play cleanly.

If you can do that then you won't need a dampener around the neck.

 

[mountainjam]

Full sweeps take years to master.

 

[Tomo009]

Took me over 12 months of practicing specifically 5 string sweeps to basically get it at ALL. I'm still pretty bad but I can get up to about 180-200 somewhat cleanly after a heap of warming up. I can't do 3 string sweeps at all, I find them significantly harder.

 

[ShadyDavey]

Two massively important factors in sweeping - left hand accuracy/note isolation and muting. If you don't have those two fundamental aspects down cleanly your sweeps will always sound like a cat trying to shit through a sewn-up anus.

Muting: Be sure that you mute appropriately in order to keep the notes seperate. I was a huge fan of Frank Gambale and always used the tip of whichever finger was playing to mute the adjacent string below, as well as all the strings above the one I was playing. Combined with the palm of the right hand on the rest of the strings below it meant that not only could I play with a lot of gain and remain clean, it also allowed me to move my right hand a little more in order to keep the angle between wrist and pick more comfortable whilst picking on the higher strings (again, might just be a personal preference but wedging my wrist in one spot and keeping it there felt decidedly alien).

Left-hand accuracy isn't a huge issue except for the rolling barre, and you'll simply have to practice that slowly in order to isolate the notes correctly. Combined with some synchronisation and muting you should be good to go....

(bear in mind all the above advice about cleaner/less effected tones and metronomes).

 

[bonethug]

How long have you been working on sweeping?

What exactly do you practice?

I've been practicing it for about 3 months now, every time i pick up my guitar (everyday) i try it for about 5-10 until i get to frustrated. Mostly 3 strings and im getting decent, but it sounds muddy and cant do it perfectly every time nor can i do it very fast.

 

[bonethug]

Two massively important factors in sweeping - left hand accuracy/note isolation and muting. If you don't have those two fundamental aspects down cleanly your sweeps will always sound like a cat trying to shit through a sewn-up anus.

Muting: Be sure that you mute appropriately in order to keep the notes seperate. I was a huge fan of Frank Gambale and always used the tip of whichever finger was playing to mute the adjacent string below, as well as all the strings above the one I was playing. Combined with the palm of the right hand on the rest of the strings below it meant that not only could I play with a lot of gain and remain clean, it also allowed me to move my right hand a little more in order to keep the angle between wrist and pick more comfortable whilst picking on the higher strings (again, might just be a personal preference but wedging my wrist in one spot and keeping it there felt decidedly alien).


Left-hand accuracy isn't a huge issue except for the rolling barre, and you'll simply have to practice that slowly in order to isolate the notes correctly. Combined with some synchronisation and muting you should be good to go....

(bear in mind all the above advice about cleaner/less effected tones and metronomes).

the muting does seam to be my biggest problem. my sweeps always end up coming out like chords with some random sewn cat anus squeals in there. This is some great advice from all you guys thanks for your help I'm gonna dust off my metronome and see if we cant get this down a little better

 

[Tomo009]

I've been practicing it for about 3 months now, every time i pick up my guitar (everyday) i try it for about 5-10 until i get to frustrated. Mostly 3 strings and im getting decent, but it sounds muddy and cant do it perfectly every time nor can i do it very fast.

You have a loooong way yet, just keep at it. There isn't a shortcut that I know of, it's a really awkward and counter-intuitive motion to synchronize.