Sweep Picking

[rigor-mortis]

I guess I can say I'm pretty decent at most sweep picking shapes but I can't touch a sweep when it has two notes on the same fret, adjacent strings.
Ex:
E---------8-12-8
B-------10
G-----10
D---10
A-12

I've seen a bunch of people say to lift your finger or roll it or something....can anyone confirm/explain this? I'm trying to learn the Endless War solo by Nother heres the tab in GP3 if you wanna see it.
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/n/norther/endless_war_guitar_pro.htm

[Infected]

you have to roll your finger yeah. i actually learned sweeping from a herman li video ages ago (Lol) and he vaguely hints on this.

erm i'll come back to this terribly shit explaination

[Alpha~Omega]

I try the little part you posted. I try to let the tip of my finger or upper part of my finger stay on the D string and when moving to the next, let it slide down. like a barre chord, but moving the finger down while making it roll a little bit. my finger nail on the D/10 is kinda parallel to the string but on the B its more pointing to the fret below/11. I think its more easy to do this in a downward sweep than upward , got more problems there. like
E8
B 10
G 10
D 10
A 12
hope my explanation helps a little.

[Shred The Ganja]

You have to roll your finger like everyone else said but sometimes even then 2 notes ring out at onnce.....make sure you are using your palm to mute strings individually after they are picked.

[Endless]

With boring practice before and after jam sessions, you should eventually be able to roll without having any stray notes on your hands. Just write some licks that tackle the issue (AlphaOmega's would work), and after some work your technique should start to improve. For the actual rolling itself, I use not only the tip of my finger but the farther down the finger, too. There are a fucking ridiculous amount of sweeping videos on the net (almost too many) so just check out various ones and figure out what works for you. After you've gotten the fretting hand down, work on your picking hand and apply some muting.

[rigor-mortis]

thanks..I guess. I'll keep practicing hopefully soon it'll get nice and clean.

[Ouroboros]

You have to roll your finger like everyone else said but sometimes even then 2 notes ring out at onnce.....make sure you are using your palm to mute strings individually after they are picked.

I would say you get better note pronunciation when you avoid palm muting notes when sweeping. So, in order to eliminate notes ringing out, you really have to practice naturally muting with just your fretting fingers.

To rigor-mortis, just work on down sweeping barred formations extremely slow, so you start to get the feel of how you need to perform the roll aspect of it. Once you understand what you need to do, practice it over and over just as slow, this will help it become a part of your muscle memory. Since it is a very unusual motion for your fingers to do, make sure to do it SLOW. Once the motions start to become second nature to you, bring up the tempo of it (with a metronome of course), until you can start nailing it at speed.

Do the same thing and use the same amount of patience to nail the upwards motions of those barred sweeps.

I still find sweeping the ascending part of this pattern to be tricky:

B----------12h17h12---------------|
Gb------13----------13------------|
D-----14---------------14---------|
A---14--------------------14------|
E-15-------------------------15h12|
B----------------------------------|

[F0RBIDDEN]

I would say you get better note pronunciation when you avoid palm muting notes when sweeping. So, in order to eliminate notes ringing out, you really have to practice naturally muting with just your fretting fingers.

You misunderstood. He means use your palm to help mute each string after you've played it, not palm muting the notes while you're playing them. I was going to recommend the same thing. Mute each string with your fretting hand and the palm of your picking hand after you play it, no harm in overmuting strings that you don't want to make any sound!

[Ouroboros]

Yeah, that's the way to do it.

[luciodeath]

listen to frank gambale
sweep picking master

[parabola5353]

my teacher has taught me to eliminate the roll. for that first shape, the order would be 4,2,3,2,1,4,1,2,3,2,4. and for the minor shape i do 1,3,2,3,2,1,4,1,2,3,2,3,1

[Jazzgrind]

I agree with not rolling.Also I know im gonna get a ton of shit for this but sweeping is a pointless technique.Is strictly a show off thing.And before anyone says that im saying this because I cant do it you right.I cant because I dont choose to waste my time practicing that.I work on musicical things.

[Jazzgrind]

Sorry if I offended anyone not what I want to do.Just stating my feelings

[rigor-mortis]

I agree with not rolling.Also I know im gonna get a ton of shit for this but sweeping is a pointless technique.Is strictly a show off thing.And before anyone says that im saying this because I cant do it you right.I cant because I dont choose to waste my time practicing that.I work on musicical things.

All depends how you look at it, any technique can be used to show off. I feel that arpeggios sound really melodic and add to the songs I try to write I don't use them to show off although they can be used like that. In all honesty I spend no more time practicing to sweep pick then I do to finger pick, or alternate or play cleanly..I just want to master as much as I can so I can grow as a guitar player.

[Djeez]

I agree with not rolling.Also I know im gonna get a ton of shit for this but sweeping is a pointless technique.Is strictly a show off thing.And before anyone says that im saying this because I cant do it you right.I cant because I dont choose to waste my time practicing that.I work on musicical things.

Not really.People show off with the technique, the technique doesn't show off to people.

There's no other way to play some diminished or minor arpeggios so...

Unless you have a bunch load of hands and finger and can tap happily ever after in the enchanted meadows.

[BZM]

I agree with not rolling.Also I know im gonna get a ton of shit for this but sweeping is a pointless technique.Is strictly a show off thing.And before anyone says that im saying this because I cant do it you right.I cant because I dont choose to waste my time practicing that.I work on musicical things.

lol, only note choice and phrasing can decide whether something is musical or nonmusical - technique is irrelevant, your logic is completely and utterly flawed.

[GrindYourMind]

Wrong, technique is definitely relevant.

Without specific techniques people wouldn't be able to fit their choices of notes together in phrasings they imagine. Victor Wooten and Les Claypool being PRIME examples of technique being used musically. Wooten would never have written A Show of Hands if his technique were limited to traditionally accepted 2 finger timekeeping.

Sure...sweeping, tapping, slapping, gravity blasting and whatnot can all come out as a clusterfuck of chops (Braindrill) but without the forwarding of artistic technique none of us would be playing DM.

"It is only the most elite of elite musicians whose unconventional approach becmes conventional" Steve Vai on EVH

[foreign10]

to be honest, I don't really get the point of sweep picking. what's it good for? besides looking cool...and what does it add to the song?

[Djeez]

to be honest, I don't really get the point of sweep picking. what's it good for? besides looking cool...and what does it add to the song?

Well it's simple.

I'm writing this 250 bpm riff.Let's say something in minor between the 7th and 12th fret.So yeah, I'm thinking of my riff, trying it on the guitar, alternate picking the notes.But then, while I'm "copy pasting" the riff that is in my head to the guitar, I realise the only possible way to play it is to alternate pick 4 or 5 notes, all on a different string.

Oh noes, I can't alternate pick that good :emot-fail

What do I do?Well I have no choice to sweep pick.

It's not a fucking show-off technique, it's just the ONLY WAY to play some stuff cleanly.Of course a lot of people jack off, writing solos based on sweeps, but who cares, THEY ARE THE SHOW-OFFS (OMG THE PLURAL), THE TECHNIQUE STILL COMES IN HANDY.

This is really stupid.People don't sweep pick because what they wanna play requires it, they think "alright I'm playing this riff, then I should bridge those 2 riffs with a sweep pattern to show some skills!".Same shit happened to tapping runs years ago, and now it's happening with the gravity blast too.

[Subjugate]

i never had a huge problem with sweeping for some reason. Try checking out the section in the petrucci rock discipline dvd if you need help learning sweeping, its pretty informative

[Subjugate]

also i totally disagree that sweeping is pointless. It just depends how bands use it. There are tons of ways to be creative with sweeping

[THATDUDE7]

lol, only note choice and phrasing can decide whether something is musical or nonmusical - technique is irrelevant, your logic is completely and utterly flawed.

lol why you gatta pwn all the time?

[Abu Monaar]

I agree with not rolling.Also I know im gonna get a ton of shit for this but sweeping is a pointless technique.Is strictly a show off thing.And before anyone says that im saying this because I cant do it you right.I cant because I dont choose to waste my time practicing that.I work on musicical things.
Judging by your username id think youre into jazz? you think guitarists like mike stern and holdsworth use sweeping in an unmusical way? i think not.

[Scrote]

I enjoy a good sweep. Haha...


c#|-----------13h19p13------13h19p13------------------1315~~-|
G#|---------15--------15--15--------15--------------15-------|
E |-------16------------16------------16----------16---------|
B |-----17------------------------------17------17-----------|
F#|---14----------------------------------14--14-------------|
C#|-15--------------------------------------15---------------|



I've been struggling a bit with this shape lately. (10 points to the person who knows what song it's from (lol)) But yeah... I think I found a pretty cool alternate way to finger it:


c#|--------10h13t19p13p10--10h13t19p13p10-----------10h13------|
G#|------12--------------12--------------12--------12---t20~~~-|
E |----12----------------------------------12----12------------|
B |---9--------------------------------------9--9--------------|
F#|-10----------------------------------------10---------------|
C#|------------------------------------------------------------|


bOnana

[ChAAPY]

sweeping technique developed to just "show off" and is "uselss"??? christ some of you assholes are dumb. "useless" if your in Beneath The Massacre yeah, haha.

proof that it's musically in it's most basic form = Severed Savior "Fuck The Humans" verse riff.

[Jazzgrind]

AHH this was to be expected.I never said tech was not important.I guess my whole thing is this.This is what i should have said.Sweeping has a time and place.I feel that death metal is to the point where people are just playing as many notes as possible for just the sake of it.Btw GRINDYOURMIND I practice a shit load of tech.

[Jeremy.]

I agree with not rolling.Also I know im gonna get a ton of shit for this but sweeping is a pointless technique.Is strictly a show off thing.And before anyone says that im saying this because I cant do it you right.I cant because I dont choose to waste my time practicing that.I work on musicical things.

You're an idiot. People don't do it to show off, they do it because when playing most arpeggios it is the only way to do them fast and clean. It's not a trick like playing upside down or anything, it's a part of the composition of a song.

[Endless]

You're an idiot. People don't do it to show off, they do it because when playing most arpeggios it is the only way to do them fast and clean. It's not a trick like playing upside down or anything, it's a part of the composition of a song.

exactly. I figured he'd have quit talking after BZM's post- guess not.