Sweeps!

[Burn]

I can go up, but I just can't seem to mute it right going down.... any tips? i'm almost getting it, I think it's just a trick i'm not thinking of.....I already turned my talent boost all the way up....help! [img]/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img]

[thetroy]

Re: Sweeps!

Practice the patterns WITHOUT a pick, or your picking hand anywhere near the strings. When you can get them sounding pretty clean like that, add in the picking.

That's just what I did though, someone better than me may say it's a stupid idea!

[Burn]

Re: Sweeps!

thats interesting, i'm working on it, thanks!

[jjw]

Re: Sweeps!

The key is the muting with your freting hand,Like Troy said try using no pick with simple minor/major and diminished triads using 3 strings.Dont RUSH it,you should sound smooth-a lot of so called sweepers i hear on theire websites just rake the pick up and down as fast as possible to hide there bad tech.When you have the 3 string triads nailed move on to 5 sting chord shapes and then 6 string patterns sweeping into higher boxes.Practise makes perfect mate,when watching a film at home pick your guitar up and sweep all the way through it.
Also try breaking the arps up into fragments as Gambale does as your new to this-trust me later on you will be doing this so you might as well start early

[Baum83]

Re: Sweeps!

Also practise the picking hand motion without moving the fretting hand. Bar the 12th fret as natural harmonic, mute the strings or whatever, just make sure you can concentrate on the picking hand. You need to be able to execute the motion both fluidly and rhythmically correct.
Then you can try putting both hands together... good luck. Took me ages to get even the simplest 3- and 5-string patterns down, and I still pretty much suck at it. One day it just worked, though. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
The intro to "Towards Dead End" by Children of Bodom is a very nice exercise.

[kmanick]

Re: Sweeps!

Get Frank Gambale "Monstor Licks" he shows some pretty good stuff. The key with me is making sure I relax and anchor my picking hand so it barely moves. A friend of mine (who totally shreds)was watching me a while ago and he noticed when I attempted a very fast sweeping section I was tensing my picking hand and actually raising it up a little. Now that I'm aware of this my sweeping has gotten better like night and day. (I'm left handed and playing righty so my right hand is alway my weak link)
Also try practicing your arpeggios very slowly with a metronome. It's amazing what you can play smoothly fast, sounds like crap when you try to play it slow, or at a different tempo than is what's comfortable for you.

[shredmonster]

Re: Sweeps!

I do a lot of really complicated arpeggio sweep stuff that took me years to figure out.

Now I can go from arpeggio to arpeggio all over the neck doing an entire solo of nothing but arpeggios if I want.

There are some really cool things you can do once you get creative and learn them.

It took me two years of work to get clean at them.

What I did was first practice maj or min with just the fretting hand - getting good at cleanly tapping the notes with my frethand until I could tap out an arpeggio cleanly without using a pick. I think this is esential to build enough hand strength. This also will make your sweeps very clean. In my opinion your arpeggios will never be super clean until you develop the finger strength to be able to tap them out without picking them - and this takes work.

Then I practiced circular picking which in my opinion increases the clarity and helps maintain a sense of even timing from string to string. I would recommend circular picking them.

[noodlesatf]

Re: Sweeps!

Please to define circular picking. Is this what Eric Johnson does?

[dfvxc]

Re: Sweeps!

For the practicing with just the left hand...

what do you guys do when 1 finger frets 2 notes? I find it almost impossible to do that cleanly and make it sound with just the left hand..

[thetroy]

Re: Sweeps!

Hmm I don't think you can really do it in that case. I think the best you could do is just make sure nothing else is ringing out that isn't supposed to be when you're on that 2nd note.

[skidd]

Re: Sweeps!

Take your time and go slow. Video tape yourself and watch what yours hands are doing. You will see what you need to do from there. The key is to take your time learn it right SLOW then fast won't be a promblem.

[shredmonster]

Re: Sweeps!

[ QUOTE ]
Please to define circular picking. Is this what Eric Johnson does?

[/ QUOTE ]

Circular picking - picture a clock and follow the tip of the hand with your pick in a circular motion. Sorry - thats probably a bad explanation.

Starting with the lower strings you sweep downwards toward the neck direction in a semi circle and as you pass the high e string you hit the high e again with an upstroke on way back toward the lower strings in a semi circle toward the bridge making one complete circle with your pick.

You can look up circular picking on the net and you'll find it.

With regards to finger strength - start with just the first 3 strings and take an Em scale for example and start at the Dmaj, and go up the neck in the scale - Em, next you will hit the locrian chord - can't remember the name offhand, Gmaj, Am, Bm, Cmaj and Dmaj up on the 14th fret.

There is one note for each arpeggio on the g string, one note on the b string and two notes on the high e string.

Tap them out up and back down - 3rd string to 1st string and back to the third string (g string) over and over until you can play them cleanly. I can tap them now on my electric without plugging in and still get a clean sound accoustically - that is how hard you should be able to hit them with practice.

When picking them you don't hit them that hard with your left hand but the point is the reason they sound sloppy is because your technique is not developed and this method will work for you if you stick with it.

Half of the sound should be your left hand hitting the strings hard and half should be your pick. This will give you clean arpeggios and allow you speed and precision.

After a while you will be able to tap them out from the high e down to the low a string. That is more advanced and takes pinky strength but if you can do this you will be able to fly with them.

Straight up and down picking will put scrape noises in there. You have to use circular picking if you want to play them as clean as is possible.

Here is an example of an Em that you should be able to tap out....

---373----------------------
--5---5---------------------
-4-----4-------------------

Obviously this is harder when the notes are spread out at the lower neck positions.

[shredmonster]

Re: Sweeps!

[ QUOTE ]

---373----------------------
--5---5---------------------
-4-----4-------------------


[/ QUOTE ]

Forgot to mention... when you are first doing this a good starting point is to practice tapping the first half of the arpeggio and then the second half separate.

Here for instance you would tap the following:

---3----3-----3----------------
--5----5-----5--------------
-4----4-----4------------
until you build the finger strength.

Then tap
--3----3----3-----------
---5----5----5-----------
----4----4----4----------

Once you have the finger strength built up in each direction then you put the whole thing together into one arpeggio.

Make sure each direction is clean and that you don't hit other strings.

[Twisteramps]

Re: Sweeps!

hardest thing about sweeps is the TIMING... you have to be able to time both hands perfectly in sync, and also mute strings right after they are played so you don't end up just playing strums.

Pete

[shredmonster]

Re: Sweeps!

[ QUOTE ]
hardest thing about sweeps is the TIMING... you have to be able to time both hands perfectly in sync, and also mute strings right after they are played so you don't end up just playing strums.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep - note separation - but that comes though lots of practice and circular picking development.

Practice even note separation. Some variations allow you to
pick some notes physically faster within the arpeggio than other notes because of where the pick is at or where your other fingers are at. But that is not what you want to do. You have to slow down or speed up in some instances to keep an even spacing or timing between all the notes.

Lets call it a bottleneck. In a complecated arpeggio where there may be two consecutive notes that you have to hit on the same string - like Cmaj7th for example, you may hit these slower than other notes that just require the downward picking sweep motion.
So you should go no faster than the slowest part or bottleneck of the arpeggio if you want it to sound evenly timed.