How To Become A Great Neoclassical Guitarist - FREE 14 Day Neoclassical Guitar Lessons Mini Course - Part 6
Listen to “Labyrinth of Madness”
MP3 of Lesson 6 played slowly
Welcome to the 6th part of this mini course on how to become a great neoclassical guitarist.
Today, I will show you another very cool arpeggio section that sounds very similar to the style of guitar players such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, George Bellas and of course myself.
It is again taken from the instrumental song “Labyrinth of Madness” (this time from the section 1:42-1:54). If you want to listen to the song, click here. Here is the tab of this section of the song:
Please check out the slow recording of this section before continuing with the rest of this lesson.
The main element of sweep picking that you need to focus on in this section is the slide which occurs as you shift your fretting hand from shape to shape. In the tab, the slide is shown with the backward slash that connects the arpeggios
The slide looks like this: 
Connecting arpeggios with slides is a very common way of using them in music because it creates a very cool and smooth sound.
One very common challenge that guitar players have with connecting arpeggios in this way is the inability to slide accurately from shape to shape among the different arpeggios. If you find yourself sometimes sliding up to the wrong fret when shifting between arpeggios, practice looking at the fret you will be shifting up to before your hand begins to move there. This advice seems simple but it will really help you with this element of your playing. It is one of the many effective strategies I teach my students that enables them to greatly improve their sweep picking.
As we discussed before, the most important thing about playing arpeggios is playing them clean! Make sure that only one note is sounding at a time when you play. Playing the technique clean is much more important than trying to play fast and sloppy. Speed will develop over time, but it will only come if you build the foundation of clean playing first.
Notice that each arpeggio is extended over two measures. Although you are playing what looks like different shapes all over the neck of the guitar, you are playing only 1 arpeggio over each pair of measures. There are actually many, many more creative ways for using arpeggios in music, and this is one very common example.
In the next (and final) lesson of this mini course, we will tie together all of the techniques and concepts discussed throughout these lessons and I will give some final words of advice about what you can and should be doing now to greatly improve as a guitar player!
As you can see, there are many elements to sweep picking which must be learned and practiced in order for you to use the technique with ease in your music. Although mastering these techniques will not happen overnight, I want to show you through these lessons that there are specific and identifiable areas which you must focus on in order to develop all the skills necessary to become a neoclassical guitar maestro. As you become aware of them and begin to incorporate them into your practicing, you will progress much faster. Becoming a great guitar player has nothing to do with talent, but has everything to do with what you learn, how you learn and how to practice in order to play guitar the way you want to play. Your progress will be faster when you study with a great guitar teacher who knows how to teach people to become great guitar players.
Visit my website to begin your journey to become the guitar player you want to be.
Go here to review Lesson 1 of this mini course.
Go here to review Lesson 2.
Review Lesson 3 here.
Review Lesson 4 here.
Review Lesson 5 here.