Question: Hey Tom Hess, I have a question about how to improve my finger rolling when I practice sweep picking and other techniques that involve that sort of thing. I don’t have any sort of issue when ascending a particular sweep pattern or lick, but when I descend, I don’t know what part of my finger should be on the string before I roll my finger to land onto the string below it. I really thank you for having time to answer my question, it means a lot :)

Tom Hess's Answer: In general (assuming you are rolling over 3 strings) while performing ascending sweep picking rolling technique, you will keep the finger on the fingertip, then collapse it to ascend to the next string. Next, rock it backwards a little if you need to roll to the 3rd string. So with this in mind, to descend you simply “rewind” the same motions backwards, until you arrive back to the fingertip.


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