How To Play Cool & Creative Guitar Arpeggios Using Slides


Want to make your lead guitar arpeggios sound creative and expressive?

Stop playing the same sweep picking shapes up and down continuously like most guitar players do.

Instead:

Start combining guitar arpeggios with other techniques you can play to make your playing sound truly creative and expressive.

This is actually very easy to do...

...and it's super fun!

Watch this video to learn how to creatively combine guitar arpeggios with slides:

Click on the video to begin watching it.

 

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The video above is just the beginning when it comes to playing creative guitar arpeggios that sound musically expressive.

Here are some additional tips to help you improve your guitar arpeggios and sweep picking technique:


Sweep Picking Guitar Arpeggios Tip #1: Maintain Consistent Note Rhythm

Don't fall into the common trap of rushing through your arpeggios so that only the high and low E strings sound clearly and the middle notes sound like a blur.

This makes your arpeggios sound sloppy, where the notes sound like an unclear mess.

To correct this issue, take the time to slowly play through your arpeggio patterns at a slower tempo, one note per click.

This helps you to mentally process the notes better rhythmically, so each note has the same rhtyhmic value in your mind. Then begin practicing as you normally would while keeping this in mind.

This concept is especially helpful when adding slides to your guitar arpeggios. Without a clear understanding of the rhythms being played, the slides and notes around them can often become blurred together. Each note should ring out for the same amount of time.

By simply paying attention to this during practice, you make much faster progress to clean up your guitar arpeggios.
 

Sweep Picking Guitar Arpeggios Tip #2: Articulate Every Note

Don't make the common mistake of accidentally cutting off notes with your picking hand while sweep picking.

This happens a lot when you try to orevent notes from ringing out together. However, this creates a separate issue by cutting off the notes too quickly.

Correct this by muting the previous string at the precise moment that the next one is sounding (pay attention and be very precise with how you time this).


Sweep Picking Guitar Arpeggios Tip #3: Use Efficient Picking Movement

Here is a solid approach to help you keep up picking hand momentum to play guitar arpeggios cleanly:

When you use a pull off on the highest string of a sweep picking pattern, press the pick against the next string to ensure that it is waiting for you when you go to fret the next note in the pattern. This prepares the movement in advance to keep things flowing smoothly.


Question: “Where should the sweeping movement come from in my picking hand?”

Answer: The sweeping motion should be one big motion that is generated from your forearm.

This is important as it helps you avoid breaking up sweeping momentum to play strings with individual pick strokes.

Remember: When you sweep pick, your pick should never stop in between strings.

This is similar to the picking motion you use while strumming chords.

Tip: Improve your ability to maintain momentum by actively watching your picking hand as you play.


Sweep Picking Guitar Arpeggios Tip #4: Listen To Your Mistakes Using Distortion

Playing guitar arpeggios with distortion is helpful because it brings any sloppy mistakes to your attention (as long as you are listening for them).

Treat these mistakes as a guide for what you need to do next to improve your sweep picking.


Sweep Picking Guitar Arpeggios Tip #5: Utilize A Metronome

Without practicing with a metronome, it is harder to see inconsistencies in your timing while playing guitar arpeggios.

As mentioned earlier, slow down to a slower tempo so that you can identify each note clearly and play them in perfectly even rhythm. Then speed up little by little, focusing on keeping everything tightly in time.

This is how you spot where things break down, so you can fix your guitar arpeggios.

Guitar arpeggios are actually fairly easy to execute cleanly but it can still be challenging to sweep pick when you aren't sure where mistakes are coming from or that you are even making them to begin with.

This is why I encourage you to take guitar lessons with an experienced teacher.

This is the fastest way for you to make progress.

An experienced guitar teacher knows how to help you idenitfy your mistakes and poor playing habits while giving you perspectives you may have never considered befored.

When you are ready to begin playing faster and cleaner guitar arpeggios than ever before, begin lessons with me and get big results just like my guitar students:

 

 


There are many more ways to develop fast and clean guitar arpeggios than what I've mentioned here. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Ready to learn more and improve your overall lead guitar playing? Let me show you more ways to play fast, clean and expressively with your guitar arpeggios. Get started with online electric guitar lessons.