How To Play Killer Sweep Picking Guitar Arpeggios

Approach #1: Extend Standard Triad Guitar Arpeggios

Do not limit yourself to playing only standard major/minor/diminished triad guitar arpeggios.

Instead:

...add other notes to the triad to create cool extended sweep picking shapes.

This is a very simple way to make your sweep picking guitar arpeggios sound more exotic and interesting.

Watch the sweep picking video below to learn how to do this:

Whatch the second part of this sweep picking video (for free) to learn even cooler sweep picking shapes to add to your guitar playing style.

Approach #2: Integrate & Combine Sweep Picking Guitar Arpeggios With Other Techniques

Another great way to make your guitar arpeggios sound better is to combine sweep picking with other guitar techniques. This will insert a lot of cool variety into your arpeggio playing (especially when combined with the previous idea of extending triad guitar arpeggios with other notes).

You can combine sweep picking guitar arpeggios with hammer ons and pull offs, 2-hand tapping, string skipping, legato and any other technique.

Here is an example of a major 7^th arpeggio that was created by adding notes to a major triad arpeggio with hammer ons, pull offs and 2-hand tapping:
 

To learn more cool sweep picking shapes like this, watch this video about arpeggio guitar licks.

Approach #3: Connect Shapes (Inversions) Of The Same Sweep Picking Arpeggio All Over The Guitar Fretboard

When you learn new sweep picking guitar arpeggios, practice playing them all over the fretboard, connecting all shapes of the arpeggio together. This will not only make you more free to use the arpeggio creatively, but also will be a great exercise for building your guitar technique.

Here is an example of this, showing an A minor arpeggio played all over the fretboard, connecting several shapes (inversions) together:

On top of increasing your creativity with sweep picking guitar arpeggios and improving your technique, connecting arpeggio shapes together will develop your fretboard visualization skills. This will greatly improve your general creativity as an improviser and songwriter and help you remember new music more quickly and easily.

Note: Fretboard visualization is a specific skill that can be practiced and improved, just like any other area of your guitar playing. To maximize your progress with this skill, you should be consistently tracking your progress with it. Check out this tool for tracking your guitar playing progress to learn how to do this effectively.

Approach #4: Superimpose Guitar Arpeggios Over Different Chords:

On top of varying how sweep picking guitar arpeggios are played, you should practice changing when arpeggios are applied. The easiest way to play any arpeggio is over a chord with the exact same notes (e.g. an A minor arpeggio played over an A minor chord). In addition to this, you can also play the same A minor arpeggio over other chords, such as F major, C major, D minor, E minor (among others) to imply very cool extended chords.

Here is an example of how to do this, comparing 2 chords: A minor and F major.

The A minor arpeggio (or chord) has these three notes: A, C and E. The F major chord contains notes: F, A, C. Notice that 2 of these notes (A and C) are the same to both chords. So when you play an A minor arpeggio over an F major chord, you’re basically playing two common notes (A and C) plus one more note (E). The result your ears hear is an F major 7^th chord (consisting of notes F A C E).

So simply changing when the arpeggio is applied (over what chords) will make any sweep picking lick sound totally different, depending on what chord is played under it.

Here is an audio example of an A minor arpeggio played over the chords: A minor, F major, C major, D minor, E minor.

Hear It

Begin applying these concepts to your guitar playing and you will open up a treasure chest of creativity for using sweep picking in your guitar licks and solos. To learn even more about mastering sweep picking, watch this free video about playing arpeggios on guitar.