legato and argepeggios

ok so i have a little knolege of scales / soloing / improv. but then i try to get soem fast stuff going like a 3 octave legato or fast sweeping argepegio and it starts sounding like total crap and i need someone to point me in the right direction on how to practice these techniques even how the should be picked properly

To practice legato, play scales / runs / atonal whatever using only your picking hand - moving to a new string means voicing the first note with a hammer. Just play anything you'd use to practice picking, without picking :eek:

Sweeping is tricky to master, but it's a knack like everything else, and once you have it down it's easy. Start with playing:

e------7--5-----
B----6------6---
G--5----------7-

The trick is to play the notes in one continuous motion rather than plucking each string, almost like strumming a chord. Do it really slow - and make sure that the notes don't ring in to each other by combining palm muting with lifting the fretting fingers just after the note is played. Hope that makes sense. Muscle memory does it again, so don't go too fast too soon or you'll regret it.

I found minor arpeggios rooted on the 5th string quite easy as a start on sweeping, but again, go slow - every note has to be clean and staccato - no ringing into each other. Use your rhythm (neck) pickup as well. I used a metronome to get it up to speed, but we're talking half notes (2 per beat) at 40 bpm to start...

Work the speed up VERY slowly. It took me 3 months to be semi-decent at sweeping and I'm still developing now after more years than I care to admit...

The secret of legato is muting and articulation: since your right hand is not doing much you have to use your palm to mute the lower strings and your fingers to mute the higer strings. The articulation af you left hand has to be relaxed but solid so it takes alot of practice but when you are doing correctly you can play for hours. So to practice left hand use a clean sound and for muting lots of distortion(duh). one of my problems is that somtimes doing legato i don respect the duration of the notes(my fingers run for themselfs)

Sweeping is not one of my favorites but the key is like you said !picking! there is not a correct way to do it but here is one exercice

e----19p15---------15-19p15-------- D down
b----------17--17------------17----- U up
g------------16------------------16-
........D......U..U..D....D...U.......U....U PICKING
.......(U)...(U)(D)(D).(D).(U)....(U)..(D) I use this one

e----17p14--------14-17p14--------
b----------15---15----------15-----
g------------14-----------------14- get the idea D and Dm shapes move them and let your hear guide you.


remeber lifting your fingers (do not let ring the notes) as you are sweping
this is CRITICAL.

e----15p12--------12-12p9-------------9- Malmsteen style
b----------12---12----------11-----11----
g------------12-----------------10--------
in this case use your index finger on 12 fret and lifting it realy smoot like doing a "U" in both direcctions of the sweep its realy hard to do it I still cant get it so I use palmuting all the time.

When you are sweeping arpegios there are a few different ways to approach each arp, try the following exercise and see which arpeggio within it works best for you. They all involve the same notes but are played on different frets. I've started practicing them all because I was stuck doing the same shape all of the time and I found some of these worked better is certain situations.

I'm no expert on theory so if anyone knows better, please correct me!

This is an excercise I put together to help me tackle 2 and 3 octave arpeggio sweeps in various positions all in the same key. There are probably a few more shapes that I missed but this is a great one to practice fluidity and it's helping me to know my way around the fretboard.

(PS as each arp ends it starts the next 1 off)

E----------------7-------------------------7
B--------------7--7----------------------7--7
G---------4-h7-----7-p4---------------7-----7
D-------4---------------4-----------9--------9
A-----5-------------------5-------9------------9
E---7-----------------------7-h10---------------10-p9

E--------------------------------------------------
B-------------------12-------------------------------------
G----------------11---11--------------------------11-h16-p11
D----------9-h12--------12-p9---------------9-h12------------12
A--------9---------------------9-----------9--------------------14
E--7-h10------------------------10-p7-h10-----------------------14-10

E--------------------------------------------------14-h19-14
B--------------7-h12-p7-------------------------15----------15
G------------7----------7---------------------16---------------16-----
D----------9-------------9------------7-12-16--------------------16
A--------9----------------9---------7-------------------------------17
E--7-h10-------------------10-p7-10
this arp above can be alternately picked all the way to the top hammer on due to the 7-12-16 (up, down,up)

E-------------------------------------------------------------15-h19-t24
B------------------------------------------------------12-h17
G-16-s11-----------------------------------------9-h12
D--------12---------9---------------------------9
A----------14-p9-----9---------9--------2-s7-10
E----------------10----10-9-10---7-0-h3

end doing a difficult Rusty Cooley sweep from lowest E to highest E

There you have it, I practice this mother daily and I'm finding I can do it better every day, some sections are easy where others are more difficult and require you to break from the usual patterns and think outside the box.

PS i hope I didnt tab any bum notes in there!!