Sweeping

I have no clue how to sweep,i have only been playin 2 and a half years
i try and try i dont know how you ppl do it. i can play some fast stuff but sweeping blows my mind
any help or advice?????

Try some easy 3-string sweeping first , and make sure to start slow and to be very accurate.

Some good example for starting out are : Metallica's "Lepper Messiah" Solo , and Malmsteen's famous Diminished 3-string sweep.

Don't forget to focus on accuracy , Good Luck.

You can even start to sweep on two strings if you want. But check out Malmsteens Play It Load Video nr. 2. That one really got me into sweeping.

After, you can move on and try some Jason Becker sweeps. They are hard.

Originally posted by Dejan Sajinovic
...After, you can move on and try some Jason Becker sweeps. They are hard.

Yeah , his sweeping is very fast and sometimes need wide finger streches (Altitudes sweep part) .

kool thanks guys

I can´t play that much stuff of Jason Becker. I can play only two sweep parts (the long one from Ocus Pocus where he repeats same sweep 4x, not that hard) and the sweep section from Black Cat (still practicing that one and somtimes I get it right whole way but not often. It would work live but not for recording).

Sly, do you got any recomendations o except Serrana ´cause I that one is too advanced and than I don´t have 24 frets.

For Jason Becker sweeps ...Unfortunately the guy didn't get a chance make so much material , only one real album (perpetual burns) which kick serious a$$ ... The other two albums are nice too .

I realy believe that if he didn't have ALS , he would have been the most invincible guitarist of all time.

Anyway , I recomend Altitudes . It has realy nice sweeping section in the middle , and the whole piece is extremely beautiful ... It was the first thing I've ever heard for Becker.
His work with Cacophony is awesome , but I don't find their albums anywhere to buy , I just have some few mp3s.

If you wanna practice sweeping , I recomend practicing individual arps (sweeps) and combining them together ... It's easy theoreticaly , just take any chord progression like 3 or 4 chords , find those sweeps along the fretboard and combine them together with slides , legato ot whatever.

Also check out Friedman's sweeps in "Rust in Peace" album , they're mostly individual sweeps but they're realy wicked.

I`m recomending the Michel Angelo Batio - Speed Kills. The video has some killer sweeps, but the video is made for the advanced guitarist. I see many ppl recomending 3-finger sweeps, but I tried this when I first was learning sweeping(still am => ) and I always felt that a five string minor sweep was the best. It forces you to get used to pull-offs and hammer-ons in you`re sweeping and it gives you time to get used to the right hand motion. I find the 3string sweep to be more difficult than 5string and even 6 string because of the right hand tech. in 3string sweeps you`re right hand have to go up and down to much, and it makes a crappy exercise. ****ing anoying

I really believe 3-string sweeps (like Hammett's solo in "Lepper Messiah") are the easiest to begin with , cuz you don't do so much sweeping with your pick ... But there are 3-string sweeps which are very complicated too , I realy recomend "Lepper Messiah" solo or something similar for a sweep beginning.

It worked for me this way , after mastering 3-string sweep I went to 4 , 5 & 6 string sweeping ... It just takes time to master.
BTW, I've seen people who can sweep on 6-string & can't do a simple 4-string ... I realy recomend taking it as stairs 3 , 4 , 5 then 6 strings.

"Speed Kills" is realy awsome , but it can be so FRUSTRATING for someone who isn't used to this kinda stuff yet.

Like Yngwie, I find 3 and 5 string sweeping most useful. How about you?

Also, try some 2 string sweeps (if it´s called sweeping) like Malmsteens Rising Force solo.

Most sweeps in the original stuff I come up with are either 3 , 5 , or 6-string ... Mostly 3 .

4-string sweeps are realy hard to find in anybody's music (donno why) , except for Friedman ... "Rust in Peace" album is full of 4-string sweeps .


For the 2-string sweep , most people call it economy picking ... I don't care anyway , both have the same theory & goal which is less movement for sure.
Rising force solo is cool , specialy the octave switching part ... It seems like the one at the end of Crossroads duel , realy cool to show off ! :D

Yeah man. That octave part (both in rising force and crossroad) rocks big time. Easy but looks cool as hell. Still it can be hard from beggining to hit evry note right but after a while it gets really simple. Good control excercise too.

How about 7 string sweeping (lol) our 7 string-skipping.

I don't have a 7-strings ! :(

I realy want to try 7-string sweeps and skipping in case I get my hands on one , that would be cool .

What do you think of 7-strings guitar ? I find that the guy who created it (Vai) doesn't use it that much , that's why I believe it's less important to have a 7-strings than having different guitars tuned differently (Half , whole,etc. step(s) down , drop D , or whatever) .
I'd realy like to have a 7-strings , but I guess I'll be getting another 6-strings before .