Increase Your Guitar
Speed By 100%
by Tom Hess
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There are 2 types of guitarists.
Those who want to sweep pick faster & cleaner …
… and those who hate fast sweep picking arpeggio licks so much – they think all guitarists who even dare to sweep are … ahem
… compensating for something.
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
Why?
Because I'm about to spill the beans on my best-kept secrets hundreds of my students are using to sweep pick fast & clean.
(Including those struggled with fast sweep picking arpeggio licks for years.)
Ready to swee… I mean...
Ready to start?
Here we go.
Watch the video below to see my favorite easy & fast sweep picking arpeggio licks that’ll make you sweep cleaner and faster almost immediately:
Now that you know the basics, let’s dive deeper to improve your guitar arpeggios.
Fast Sweep Picking Practice Tip #1: Isolate the motions of each hand.
Everybody knows it’s a good idea to isolate the hard part of a gutar arpeggio lick and practice it over and over.
But have you ever tried isolating the motions of each hand (and practice them without the other hand)?
If you have no idea what I'm talking about (or have never done it), you just found a shortcut that can catapult your technique to a level you never thought you could reach.
Watch this guitar arpeggio video to see what I mean:
(Note: of course, the above video is not about fast sweep picking guitar arpeggio licks – but the principle of the video applies to all techniques, including sweep picking.)
Isolate your fretting hand motions for all arpeggios – the same way you do for the picking hand.
Fast Sweep Picking Practice Tip #2: Clean Up The “2 Levels” Of String Noise
Level 1 of sweep picking string noise comes from the lower (in pitch) strings that aren’t being muted.
How do you play sqeaky-cleany sweep picking arpeggio licks?
Simple: use your picking hand’s thumb and the fingers you aren’t holding the pick with. This article about guitar string noise shows you how.
Level 2 string noise comes from the notes ringing together (bleeding) when they should sound separately.
This happens most often during finger rolling. The infographic below shows how to fix this problem for clean guitar arpeggio licks:
Fast Sweep Picking Practice tip #3: Stop “Cheating” At Pull Offs
Second only to string noise, the most telltale sound of amateur fast sweep picking is:
… rushed pull offs.
These pull offs are much faster than the rest of the guitar arpeggio.
And there are 2 problems with this:
1. It makes you sound bad whenever you play guitar arpeggio patterns.
2. This way of playing makes it almost impossible to sweep pick fast (because it’s very hard to play notes at different speeds within the guitar arpeggio).
Fortunately, it’s a very simple issue to fix.
Watch this video to see what fast sweep picking arpeggio licks sound like with clean & smooth pull-offs:
Fast Sweep Picking Practice Tip #4: Put Each Note Under A Microscope
We talked about isolating notes within the guitar arpeggio. We also talked about isolating the motions of each hand.
The next level above that, is:
… isolating random “chunks” of notes within the arpeggio and putting them under a microscope.
What you do is focus on a group of notes in the middle of the guitar arpeggio pattern you often never pay attention to.
Watch this video by one of my top students, Guitar Practice Expert Mike Philippov to see what sweep picking arpeggio licks sound like at the mastery level:
You now know what it takes to speed up your fast sweep picking arpeggio licks and make them cleaner. If you want to know my other speed building secrets – secrets you can use to potentially double your speed, check out my free guitar speed eGuide.
Download it today and start playing sweep picking arpeggio licks faster than ever while practicing much less than you do now.