How To Play With Fast Sweep Picking Speed Bursts To Develop Your Technique


Want to make your sweep picking speed fast and consistent?

Stop practicing using the same sweep picking shapes up and down continuously like most guitar players do.

Instead:

Start combining creative guitar arpeggios with an effective practice method to take your sweep picking to another level.

This is not difficult even if you are still fairly new to playing arpeggios on guitar.

Watch this video to learn how to play sweep picking with fast speed bursts using 7th chord arpeggios:

Click on the video to begin watching it.

 

The video above is just the beginning when it comes to playing creative guitar arpeggios that sound musically expressive.

Here are some additional tips to help you improve your guitar arpeggios and sweep picking technique:
 

Sweep Picking Speed Tip #1: Keep A Good Sense Of Rhythmic Timing


Don't rush through your arpeggios by emphasizing the notes of the highest and lowest register while the middle notes become muddy and unclear.

This makes your arpeggios sound like a big, jumbled mess.

To fix this problem and clean up your arpeggios, take the time to play through your patterns at a slower tempo, one note per click. This helps you to mentally process the notes better rhythmically, so each note has the same rhtyhmic value in your mind. Then begin practicing as you normally would while keeping this in mind.

This concept is especially helpful when adding slides to your guitar arpeggios. Without a clear understanding of the rhythms being played, the slides and notes around them can often become blurred together. Each note should ring out for the same amount of time.

By simply paying attention to this during practice, you make much faster progress to clean up your guitar arpeggios.
 

Sweep Picking Speed Tip #2: Articulate Notes Clearly


Watch your picking hand to avoid accidentally cutting off notes by muting them. This happens a lot when you try to keep notes from ringing out together.

However, this can create a separate problem by cutting off the notes too quickly. Fix this by muting the previous string at the precise moment that the next one is sounding (pay attention and be very precise with how you time this).
 

Sweep Picking Speed Tip #3: Avoid Cutting Off Notes With Your Picking Hand


Here is a good way to maintain picking hand momentum in order to play fast sweep picking arpeggios clean:

When you use a pull off on the highest string of a sweep picking pattern, press the pick against the next string to ensure that it is waiting for you when you go to fret the next note in the pattern.

This prepares the movement in advance to keep things flowing smoothly.


Question: “Where should the sweeping movement come from in my picking hand?”

Answer: This motion should be one big motion coming from your forearm. This is important as it helps you avoid breaking up sweeping momentum to play strings with individual pick strokes.

Remember: When you sweep pick, your pick should never stop in between strings. This is similar to the picking motion you use while strumming chords.

Tip: Improve your ability to maintain momentum by actively watching your picking hand as you play.
 

Sweep Picking Speed Tip #4: Find Mistakes With Distortion


Playing guitar arpeggios with distortion is helpful because it helps you identify mistakes like notes ringing together or other unwanted string noises ringing out (as long as you are listening for them).

Treat these mistakes as a guide for what you need to do next to develop better sweep picking.
 

Sweep Picking Speed Tip #5 Use A Metronome


Without practicing with a metronome, it is harder to see inconsistencies in your timing while sweep picking.

As mentioned earlier, slow down to a slower tempo so that you can identify each note clearly and play them in perfectly even rhythm.

Next speed up little by little, focusing on keeping everything in time.

This is how you see where things break down, so you can clean up your guitar arpeggios.

Guitar arpeggios are actually fairly easy to execute cleanly but it can still be challenging to sweep pick when you aren't sure where mistakes are coming from or that you are even making them to begin with.

This is why I encourage you to take guitar lessons with an experienced teacher.

This is the fastest way for you to make progress.

An experienced guitar teacher knows how to help you idenitfy your mistakes and poor playing habits while giving you perspectives you may have never considered befored.

When you are ready to begin playing faster and cleaner guitar arpeggios than ever before, begin lessons with me and get big results just like my guitar students:

 


There are many more ways to develop fast and clean guitar arpeggios than what I've mentioned here. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Ready to learn more and improve your overall lead guitar playing? Let me show you more ways to play fast, clean and expressively with your guitar arpeggios. Get started with online electric guitar lessons by clicking the 'Start Now' button below: