Lesson : 4 notes per strings and 6 strings sweeping arpeggios (with videos)

Hello Guys !

I introduce myself, my name is Thomas Bressel, i'm a french guitar player, professional since 1998, endorsed by LAG guitars (french guitars), and my principal job is guitar teacher :)

I give you 2 licks, the first one is about 4 notes per strings techniques on a C Major scale. The second one about sweeping arpeggios.
These exercices don't have any music way, but juste for training your hands :)


1 - Four notes per string scale

4 notes per string, but what for ? the principal reason why i sometime used this way of phrasing, is for accented notes, every 4 notes an accent is produced with the pick, then playing legato the three other notes. You can get a very smooth phrasing.


1st bar to the 2nd one

Playing this extentions are really tired for the left hand, so if your left hand morphology can't doing these extentions, don't insist, there is another way to execute them.
When you start and play G and A your hand is fix, but for A to B you can slightly pivote you left hand to get the B while letting the A and G.
To resume you must only let 2 fingers at the same time on each strings

this is the rest of this first exercice :

3rd bar to the 4th one

the last bar


I quickly recorded this lick in a webcam video :
1st lick Video - Shred1.WMV




2 - 6 notes sweeping arpeggios





This lick in video :
2nd lick Video - Shred2.WMV

Sweet. Only problem is how do i get my fingers to keep moving into the right places while playing fast. Im just starting sweep picking now, so any advice is great.

very cool dude

Originally Posted by: fool4gibsonSweet. Only problem is how do i get my fingers to keep moving into the right places while playing fast. Im just starting sweep picking now, so any advice is great.

Don't play it up to tempo right away, that's just asking for mess ups. It's much easier to start at a slow tempo and repeatedly practice proper muting and timing between your picking hand and fretting hand. Once you get that down well enough, it'll be safe to raise the tempo up a bit. It takes a lot of time as well, so don't expect to be using it a week after you begin practicing it.

Cool videos by the way.

WAAAAKK :eek:

I'm not even gonna attempt to try that, those vids are awesome!

Originally Posted by: fool4gibsonSweet. Only problem is how do i get my fingers to keep moving into the right places while playing fast. Im just starting sweep picking now, so any advice is great.

Cryptic Excretions is right,i will add, if you're a beginner in sweep picking, it would be better that you first start with 2 strings sweep arpeggios, then 3, 4, 5 and 6. Because the mouvement of your right hand is wider with 6 strings than 2 strings.
when you have learn one arpeggio, you can increase the tempo for only 1 pulsation per day. At the end of the months you won 30 pulsations.
It's a long way because at the same time you will had to oversee the cleanliness of the sound when you execute.

how to pick fret 14th on 5th string and then go hit fret 14th also on 4th string smooth and clean?is that all using just first finger? or pick on the 5th string using first then on 4th string use the middle finger?

how to pick fret 14th on 5th string and then go hit fret 14th also on 4th string smooth and clean?is that all using just first finger? or pick on the 5th string using first then on 4th string use the middle finger?

i'd use the finger like a bar or tilt the finger to the next string

WAAAAKK

I'm not even gonna attempt to try that, those vids are awesome!

what has this guy been drinking? wow. i can't even see his fingers moving on the video. all i see is his hand sliding up and down and i can see the fingers clearly, they just don't move at all (till the end). wow.

Originally Posted by: Mukhow to pick fret 14th on 5th string and then go hit fret 14th also on 4th string smooth and clean?is that all using just first finger? or pick on the 5th string using first then on 4th string use the middle finger?

Mmmmm, if i understand what you mean, you want to pick 14th on 5th string (B on the A string) then pick the 14th on 4th string (E on the D string) ?
Well, there is only one way to do it cleanly, as you said, it's only with the 1st finger, or another finger, it depends of wich context this two notes are include.
But you'll have to use only one fingers anyway.

Pick the 5th string using you first finger and then slightly break the articulation of the 1st phalange of your finger like a road roller. You have to make your finger roll, on this two strings. But don't change the position of your left hand, the movement must only coming from the phalange. :)

thanks for the ideas dude

One thing I would say is that the normal dude would find it very hard to decipher this with his ears so if your not aiming for a guitar playing audience slow down your sweeps so the average punter can here it.

To be honest I went through this phase of playing everthing at hyper speed but I realised as you lot probably have , not always but often it sounds like non musical cak.

they're more exercises than anything...

Originally Posted by: rockonn91they're more exercises than anything...

I'm being a bit too critical ,there great exercises too!

Yes it's right, these are just for moving fingers, exercices.