Advice on Sweep Picking

[drunkenmosquito]

Can any of you give me some advice/tips on sweep picking I just started learning this tech and I'm having some trouble

[Black Star]

i'm afriad you'll have to be more specific...can you pin point some major areas of trouble? do you need examples posted?

[wild_axeman]

Yeah start with small arpeggio shapes,first on strings 1 & 2,then on strings 1,2 & 3,then on strings 1,2,3 & 4 work on those string sets alot before moving on and including 5 and 6 string shapes.

[The Fury]

Play them cleanly. Clean is the key, I asked a similar queston and got a great reply: http://www.guitarlodge.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1744&highlight=sweep+picking

There is some great info here, do a search for sweep picking and you should get lots of results.

But like Black Star says, care to be more specific?

[drunkenmosquito]

Yeah, sorry. Well, the thing is that I can't really sweep, it seems like instead of making a long sweep I'm picking each string individually (with downstrokes or upstrokes, not A. picking), dunno maybe it's because I'm doing them slow.

Hope that clears the question

[The Fury]

You have to drag the pick across the strings so it sort of 'falls' from one to the next.

Some good advice I heard is to master the the picking and fretting seperately then combine them. So you could just fret a barre chord (or just mute all the strings) and practice the picking technique.

The left hand does nothing unusual, so once you can do the picking, it should be easy.

Starting of slow is a good idea, don't be in a rush to do them at high speeds.

[Black Star]

its gonna suck and may be boring, but you'll have to play them agonizingly (sp?) slow at first. Make sure that you play them with a clean tone first, and after each note is played be sure to mute it so the notes do not ring.

Oh, and don't individual pick the strings, drag them across kind of like your strumming a cord (thats the best way i can exlain it). You may already know this, but when your acsending, its all down strokes, and decending, is up strokes.

[drunkenmosquito]

Two things...

First - I'm only having trouble with the ascending strokes, my pick seems to get stuck on the strings, any tips on this?

Second - If am doing the arpeggios "agonizingly" slow how do I know I'm sweeping instead of individualy picking each note? :D

[Black Star]

Originally posted by drunkenmosquito
Two things...

First - I'm only having trouble with the ascending strokes, my pick seems to get stuck on the strings, any tips on this?

Second - If am doing the arpeggios "agonizingly" slow how do I know I'm sweeping instead of individualy picking each note? :D

for teh first question...ummm, maybe hold your pick looser, or closer to your thumb

and for teh second question, can't really exlain it, but just think if it as doin a really slow "strum" while moving your fingers to each note....

[drunkenmosquito]

Heh, I was kidding in the second question, it's really hard to tell when you're playing REALLY slow