sweep picking?

sweep picking?.............i might allready know how to do it but this term is new to me anyone care to elaberat on how and what this term means

Sweep Picking:

usually used to play arpeggios fast - it's kinda like strumming a chord - except that you mute with both hands. Palm mute with the fretting hand, and lift your fingers off the strings as the pick crosses, so you get the notes sounding individually.

So, to sweep pick is to play notes on different strings using one flowing picking motion...

Not the best piece of music in the world by a long shot but it has the most intricate sweep picking sequences I've seen in a long time (all improv'ed too).
The sweep picking starts at about 8 seconds.... crazy speed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7m3aIuGlUg

Plenty of posts and lessons here that explain how to do it.

the one way to do this to practive is createing nonsense arrpegios...just trying to make ur figners hit random notes..the goal is the get the notes to sound clean and in succesion(one by one)...if u have a fender oput ur pickup selctor onto the one nearest the neck cuz it removes any excess string stuff dum didiidildildidllid...what i do is to not look at ur fingers but ur picking hand and try syncing the random ntoes..slow down..or speed up cuz if ur too slow you will pick one string at a time...u dont want that

Originally Posted by: buckethead14the one way to do this to practive is createing nonsense arrpegios...just trying to make ur figners hit random notes..

Not sure about that - for one, it's not as useful musically as properly constructed arpeggios, and for two - how do you know you're playing it right if you're not sure what you're playing?

Not totally against atonal pratice patterns to build dexterity, but using sweeps musically is more of a challenge than the technique in my opinion...

I second that. There are 6 basic arpeggio shapes that you need to learn. Of course there are other more exotic shapes but those 6 cover major and minor (3 for minor and 3 for major). Sure you can work on chromatic exercises but if you stick to that then you really won't learn anything except how to use your right hand. It's difficult enought getting the left and right together, the most difficult part is linking shapes and of course changing from up to downward stroke (hammer and pull or pick and pull). Might as well go for it and practice the shapes from day one. Chromatic runs work but they are generally done using a conventional shape. If you want to master sweeping patterns then its like anything else, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Nicely said Ren and Superhuman...

Mr. DEMONIAC : Maybe you've heard the term 'RAKE' or 'RAKING' ???

Well thats sweeping....

or am I wrong here???

:confused:

Originally Posted by: maestro shazNicely said Ren and Superhuman...

Mr. DEMONIAC : Maybe you've heard the term 'RAKE' or 'RAKING' ???

Well thats sweeping....

or am I wrong here???

:confused:

Not sure - to me, a rake is different. I understand raking to be similar to sweep picking, but you mute all the notes until the top string, so you get a more percussive sort of sound followed by one note only.

Not sure who's right there... it's useful either way

Hey guys,

A rake doesn't necessarily have anything to do with sweep picking. A rake is used as a percussive sound before one note or a series of notes. Made by muting the strings being played with rather the picking or fretting hand. I think people confuse sweep picking and rakes because it has a similar motion in the picking hand. Many times sloppy sweep picking can turn into a rake, because the fretting hand is not in coordination with the picking hand.

For example:

Sweep

E:---------5--------
B:--------5---------
G:-------5----------
D:------7-----------
A:-----7------------
E:----8-------------

Rake

E:------------------
B:--------5---------
G:-------x----------
D:------x-----------
A:------------------
E:------------------

Hope that helps clear up the difference.

Yes you're right...

It's a similar motion but used differently....

thanks for making it clear

yes it is true that random ntoew is flat out not good but as i satrter i became frusturated so i just hit random notes jsut to get the feel then whent one to three string triads...and then adding notes to that...and that how far i got..

i was just giving a real begginer tip..just get the sound and feel of hitting a ntoe per string then start looking at the music theory and sutff that deals with true arpeggios

Originally Posted by: buckethead14yes it is true that random ntoew is flat out not good but as i satrter i became frusturated so i just hit random notes jsut to get the feel then whent one to three string triads...and then adding notes to that...and that how far i got..

i was just giving a real begginer tip..just get the sound and feel of hitting a ntoe per string then start looking at the music theory and sutff that deals with true arpeggios

It's all good, wasn't putting you down - once you link the left and right hand you get a part of the puzzle, its just trying to get everything else that's the real trick. Having spent a long time trying to get my shred to where it's at now (still plenty of room for improvement) I wish I knew then what I know now. I would have approached practice a lot differently and would have focused on becoming technically perfect at very slow speeds first. Sometimes I feel like I would love to give lessons to guys starting out to help them finbd the short cuts to nailing techniques... but then again, I'm not much of a teacher!

John Petrucci gives some great advice on his 'Rock Discipline' DVD about sweep picking and all speed related techniques. As does my teacher Tom Hess...

http://www.tomhess.net/

When I teach I always get people to master techniques slowly first then build up gradually. It helps to build up accuracy, strength and most importently confidence. Work with a metronome to a plan over a few weeks or months and you'll really start noticing great results.

oh no...i mean my way is the noobies way lol...ive only been playing 11 months...i just wanted to learn the techniques then play it down onto notes....yup..the noobie way