# Sweep Picking Help



## BroadbandReaper (Nov 4, 2009)

hey anyone got any tips on how to make sweep picking easier or at least tell me what im doin wrong whenever i try to sweep pick its not graceful* as i hit the last note* twice on the way down. example:

|--13---------13-|e
|----15-----15---|b
|------14-14-----|g

i hit the top note twice by accident on the way down. Any tchniques that can help me do more controlled sweep picking?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

How to sweep:

1. get metronome
2. set metronome to 70bpm
3. learn pattern
4. don't speed up until you can play it cleanly unplugged.


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## BroadbandReaper (Nov 4, 2009)

said patern would be up up down down down ^^VVV


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## Rugburn (Jan 14, 2009)

In order to play fast cleanly, you've got to play it slower/slowly until you get it right. Then speed up as you get more comfortable. Keeping time with a metronome, backing track or a recorded song is very important. Lastly, most speed techniques are really about right/picking hand competence. Try practicing just the picking, leaving the fretting hand out completely. It won't sound too exciting, but it's something you can do in front of the TV or at the computer. All the best.

Shawn.


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## BroadbandReaper (Nov 4, 2009)

ok but whats the picking technique up up down down down or UUUDD


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## Rugburn (Jan 14, 2009)

BroadbandReaper said:


> ok but whats the picking technique up up down down down or UUUDD



I'm not a "shredder", so the particulars of what your going for are a little murky. I would imagine that it's up up down down down. I find sometimes you have to skip a string in order to flesh out certain arprggios. This may help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweep-picking


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## Were We Brave? (Oct 29, 2009)

Is it a looped pattern? What comes next?

Your picking motion should be headed towards the next string you want to hit. It's one of the key elements of sweep picking. You need it to make it fluid.


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## BroadbandReaper (Nov 4, 2009)

umm sweep picking in general like a simple picking pattern that will allow me to play gracefully. up up down down down sounds about right


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## Were We Brave? (Oct 29, 2009)

I like to see it not as a picking "pattern", but simply as a picking technique, since there is no set pattern. Just remember that you shouldn't break your picking motion, or else it'll just sound like a downpicked/upstroked arppegio. It's a single motion, not a series.


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## flashPUNK (Feb 16, 2006)

I've been working on Sweep picking for a few weeks - it takes time.
What helped me the most was this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV5tbqra6ng

The key is to GO SLOW, pick with confidence - I had recorded a bit of a video with my phone doing some sweep picking.... its not very good, but here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMEDok87XtM


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## Were We Brave? (Oct 29, 2009)

flashPUNK said:


> What helped me the most was this video:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV5tbqra6ng


His tutorial is alright, but his technique is quite sloppy... If you watch at 5:46, as he does the sweep a normal speed, a good number of the notes are choked. That's why it's extremely important to practice sweeps at slow tempos, and to really lock your fretting and picking hands together.


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## Nickelo (Apr 9, 2007)

From my experience learning sweeps, I would start with 3-string sweeps (GBE), 1 note per string. I would start with all down strokes. When I was comfortable with that, I would sweep all upstroke. Once I was fine with that, I would combine the two, with the addition of a hammer/pull-off to transition between the 2 "sections."


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