How To Play Sweep Picking Arpeggios That Sound Awesome With Creative Practice Approaches
by Tom Hess
Don't fall into the trap of allowing your sweep picking to be sloppier than you want it to be just because you don't know how to get better.
Improving your sweep picking is easier than you think and learning creative ways to practice arpeggios makes the process of getting better feel less frustrating.
Efficient practice targets specific areas of your technique to improve your skills ASAP.
One powerful way to improve your sweep picking is to improve the synchronization between both hands. This is done using various picking practice methods to help your picking hand catch up to the fast sweeping movement of your fretting hand.
After using these practice methods, playing cool sweep picking arpeggios becomes much easier:
Sweep Picking Practice Approach #1: Pick Each Note Three Times
Pick the string three times per note instead of just once.
This is a simple, yet very effective way of bringing your hands together in sync. This also makes sweep picking like normal (one note per string) feel easier than ever.
For added benefit, practice this approach using the idea in this video:
Sweep Picking Practice Approach #2: Pick With Only Upstrokes Or Downstrokes
You know what makes sweep picking really hard?
Picking sweep picking arpeggio patterns using only upstrokes or only downstrokes.
Doing this really challenges you to think outside-of-the-box and focus on picking the string at the exact moment you fret with your fretting hand. This is amazingly effective for helping you clean up your arpeggios and get to the next level in your playing.
Try practicing any familiar sweep picking pattern for 1 minute using only upstrokes, then 1 minute using only downstrokes. Then practice as you normally would.
Sweep Picking Practice Approach #3: Use A Strong Picking Attack
Picking with more force causes you to fret the note precisely as you pick the string (otherwise everything sounds sloppy).
It also helps you identify and fix inconsistencies in your sweep picking technique.
This way you know what to practice to get better and specifically: which notes give you the most problems.
What is another powerful way to improve your sweep picking?
Integration.
Learn how to use integration to play killer arpeggios by reading this sweep picking tapping article.
About Tom Hess: Tom Hess is a guitar teacher, music career mentor and guitar teacher trainer. He teaches rock guitar lessons online to students from all over the world and conducts instructional live guitar training events attended by musicians from over 50 countries.
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