Proper technique for sweep picking?

[Adevil]

I'm looking for some help with my sweep picking. Most of the lessons & tips I've come across over time usually seem to be for people who already know the basic proper technique for this, but what I'm looking for is the BASICS of sweep picking. By now I know dozens of arpeggio shapes, but getting them to sound crisp, clear & up to speed is still eluding me.

Some questions:

1. How do I prevent the notes from running together in a barred arpeggio shape.
2. What exactly should I be doing with my right hand? I'm completely confident in my left hand's speed, but getting both hands synchronized is a bit of a problem. No matter how slowly I do it with a metronome, the moment I start speeding up, my right hand starts doing something completely different than when I do it slowly.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[magicninja]

I know you're probably waaaay passed this lesson overall, but if you're having issues with timing you can use it as an exercise to help sure it up.

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=9897

[Akira]

Some questions:

1. How do I prevent the notes from running together in a barred arpeggio shape.
2. What exactly should I be doing with my right hand? I'm completely confident in my left hand's speed, but getting both hands synchronized is a bit of a problem. No matter how slowly I do it with a metronome, the moment I start speeding up, my right hand starts doing something completely different than when I do it slowly.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

The trick is to "roll" the barred finger across the strings as you sweep them, it takes a lot of practice.

The reason your right hand is struggling is because you're reversing the roles of your hands when you sweep pick, let me explain:

When you alternate pick, or even use legato, your left hand (fretting hand - assuming you're a righty) just does its stuff and your picking hand follows it where ever it goes, however, when sweep picking, the opposite takes place, your right hand does its stuff and your left hand goes crazy trying to keep up with it, if you get where i'm coming from. So basically your right hand isn't used to leading, as it's normally used to following. I think the basic remedy is time, patience, and practice, however redundant that may sound.

[Mark Pav]

I find that if you learn to alternate pick the run first it makes it easier to sweep pick it later.

[ren]

Practicing slow is good to get the idea together, but I only started figuring it out properly by crashing through arpeggios and correcting the mess along the way.

I'm not sure if my technique is 'correct', but I've managed to separate all the notes mostly with fretting hand muting, but a bit of right hand palm as well for some shapes. Once I got the idea by blasting through them, I went back to slowly building them up cleanly. I reckon it might have taken me 3 months of 15 minutes a day practicing 5 string minor arps before I nailed it at speed.... I'm not sure if that's average or just me.

on your hands doing different things when you speed up to when you go slow, maybe you should increase speed in smaller increments (?) It's a bit dull I know but I'm forever telling people that "If you increase speed by 1bpm on the metronome every day, in 120 days you'll be able to do it at 208bpm" or similar....

you get the picture... :D

[Superhuman]

Here's a great way to increase your speed, timing and clarity on arpeggio sweeps. Open your midi sequencer and program in an arpeggio and loop it so it plays forever. First try single octaves, then double and finally triple (tough!). Start at a low manageable bpm, then gradually build it up. Anytime I have to play a long sequence of arps I practice them this way first - especially if they are new patterns or have difficult fingering. You will find that you 'get' the rhythm quite easily this way and once you actually understand the tempo it becomes easier to play. I found that playing sweeping was more of a mind game than anything else, like Akira mentioned. After that it's a matter of adding the techniques the other lads above pointed out.