How To Use Sweep Pick Speed Bursts To Build Guitar Speed
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In this sweep picking article, I will show you how a little-known, simple and crazy effective way to increase your guitar speed with guitar arpeggios you can see results with by this time tomorrow.
Sounds too good to be true, right?
Well, meet Mike.
Today, Mike is easily playing shred and progressive instrumental guitar solos at speeds well over 1,000 notes per minute. His sweep picking arpeggios are blazing fast and crystal clean.
But when he first came to me for help, things looked very different.
He'd been stuck at a speed plateau for years - unable to push his sweep picking past roughly 130 bpm, no matter what he tried.
He told me: "I tried doing a ton of slow practice for years but I keep hitting a wall at around 130 bpm. You're the third guitar teacher I've gone to. Hope you can help. Oh, and I can also only practice around 30-45 minutes per day."
(The third guitar teacher. Think about the frustration he must’ve been feeling.)
I'll tell you exactly what changed for Mike - and how he finally smashed through his plateau - later in this article.
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
First, let me show you the practice approach that made it possible.
This practice method allows you to increase your guitar speed and play guitar fast by fixing guitar playing mistakes that only happen once you cross a certain speed threshold.
(i.e. guitar speed mistakes that do not happen at slow tempos.)
And on top of helping you speed up your guitar arpeggios ...
The principles I lay out apply to all guitar techniques.
From fast scale sequences, to legato, to 2-hand tapping and even to fast rhythm guitar.
To begin, watch this video that explains what speed bursts are and how to practice them to play guitar fast with sweep picking:
Now that you know the basics, let's go deeper.
Here are 5 more ways to use speed bursts in the rest of your guitar playing to make it easy to play guitar fast:
Tip #1 For Building Guitar Speed With Speed Bursts: Isolate The Challenging Parts Of Your Guitar Arpeggios
Most guitarists try to speed up an entire guitar arpeggio at once. And when it breaks down, they slow the whole thing back down.
This is a huge waste of time.
Here's why: your sweep picking arpeggios don't break down everywhere at the same time.
There are specific spots where things fall apart - and those are the spots that need the most attention.
One of the most common trouble spots? Finger rolling.
Finger rolling is the motion you use when you need to play several notes with the same finger across different strings on the same fret. When this motion isn't clean, notes bleed together and your guitar arpeggios sound muddy.
Here's what I mean:
Instead of practicing the entire 5 or 6-string guitar arpeggio at a slow tempo, isolate just the 2-3 notes where the finger roll happens. Then use speed bursts on just that fragment.
Set your metronome about 10% faster than the speed where your finger roll starts to break down. Play the isolated fragment, focusing on the finger rolling technique elements described in this video.
This (finger rolling) is something Mike struggled with early on. His finger rolls were creating a muddled mess at anything above 130 bpm 16th notes. But when he started isolating just the rolling motion and attacking it with speed bursts - instead of grinding through the whole arpeggio slowly - things started to click within weeks.
And here's an important point most people miss:
You can isolate any part of any guitar arpeggio this way. The turnaround at the top of the arpeggio. The transition from ascending to descending. The pull-off on the high string. Whatever spot gives you trouble - pull it out, speed burst it, and watch it clean up.
Which brings me to something important:
Tip #2 For Building Guitar Speed With Speed Bursts: Pause Between Bursts To Analyze The Sound
This might be the most underrated part of speed burst practice.
Most guitarists treat speed bursts like regular practice - they play the burst, then immediately play it again. And again. And again.
This defeats the entire purpose.
The power of speed bursts is in the silence between them.
Here's why: when you pause for 3-4 seconds (or longer) between each burst, you give yourself time to do three critical things.
First, you can replay the sound you just heard in your mind and check for specific problems. Was there string noise? Were the notes even in rhythm? Was your 2-hand synchronization tight?
Second, you can relax excess muscle tension. Tension is the number one killer of guitar speed.
The more tense you are, the harder it is to play guitar fast. The pause lets you release that tension before your next burst.
Watch this video to see how to relax excess tension from your guitar technique:
Third, you can make a deliberate adjustment before the next repetition. This turns each burst into a focused experiment - not mindless repetition.
Think about it: five focused speed bursts with long pauses between them will do more for your guitar speed than fifty rapid-fire repetitions where you're just going through the motions.
Mike told me that this was the single biggest shift in his practice. For years, he'd been grinding through slow practice - hundreds of repetitions at low tempos - hoping something would eventually "click" at higher speeds.
It never did.
Once he started pausing between bursts and actually listening to what his hands were producing at high speeds, he was able to spot and fix problems that slow practice had been hiding from him for years.
Problems like sloppy string noise. Notes bleeding together. Subtle timing inconsistencies between his picking hand and fretting hand.
None of these showed up at 80 bpm. They only appeared at 130+ bpm. And slow practice never gave him a way to fix them.
Speed bursts with deliberate pauses did.
Here is what else helped Mike (and thousands of my guitar students to whom I taught to practice this way) transform his guitar speed:
Tip #3 For Building Guitar Speed With Speed Bursts: Use Speed Bursts To Integrate Techniques Together
This is where things get truly awesome.
Speed bursts aren't just for speeding up a single technique in isolation. They're one of the best tools for integrating multiple guitar techniques together - which is what real guitar playing actually requires.
Here's what I mean:
In a real guitar solo, you don't just sweep pick for 30 seconds straight. You combine sweep picking guitar arpeggios with scale runs, legato lines, string bends, vibrato, string skipping and more.
And here's the problem: most guitarists can play each technique reasonably well on its own ... but the moment they try to connect one technique to another at speed, everything falls apart.
Speed bursts solve this.
Instead of isolating a single technique, create a short burst that combines two techniques. For example: sweep pick up through an arpeggio shape, then immediately transition into a scale run using directional picking.
Practice that transition - and only that transition - using speed bursts. A few notes of the arpeggio, the transition point, and a few notes of the scale run. That's your burst.
You'll quickly discover where the integration breaks down - and you can fix it at speed, without slowing down.
Here is an example of how to practice guitar technique integration:
Mike had goals beyond just shredding arpeggios. He also wanted to create the kind of seamless, flowing solos (that use many techniques) he heard from his favorite progressive instrumental guitarists.
Speed bursts made that possible - because they didn't just help him sweep pick faster. They helped him connect his sweep picking to everything else in his playing.
That's a massive point worth repeating: the ability to integrate techniques together is what separates guitarists who sound like they're running exercises from guitarists who sound like they're making music.
So here's the question: how well can you integrate your guitar techniques together at speed?
If you're not sure - or if you know there's a gap between what you can do in isolation and what you can do in real playing situations - I put together a free guide that can help.
It's called "Guitar Mastery Decoded" and it breaks down the process of playing guitar really well into pillars anyone can follow - without spending a lot of time practicing.
It reveals why you don't need to practice 8 hours per day to become a great guitar player. And when you follow what's inside, you'll take your guitar playing from "just ok" to being really awesome.
Imagine how much better you'll be when you know exactly what to do and how to practice to reach your guitar playing goals.
To grab the eGuide for free, click the button on the banner below.
Now, here's something else very important that speed bursts enable you to do:
Tip #4 For Building Guitar Speed With Speed Bursts: Use Speed Bursts With All Your Lead Guitar Techniques - Not Just Arpeggios
Speed bursts work amazingly well for every lead guitar technique you practice - and they make it easy to play guitar fast with all of them. This includes scale sequences you play with picking, legato guitar licks, 2-hand tapping, string skipping - everything.
The principle is the same: take a short fragment, play it at a tempo above your current top speed, pause, analyze, adjust, repeat.
Here are a few specific examples:
For legato: take a 4-note legato sequence on one string. Set your metronome 10% above your top speed. Play the sequence once using only hammer-ons and pull-offs - then pause.
Focus on making the volume of your hammer-ons match the volume of your pull-offs. This is where most legato playing falls apart at speed.
For 2-hand tapping: isolate just the tapping motion and the 2-3 notes immediately before it. Practice that transition as a speed burst. The challenge with tapping at speed isn't usually the tap itself - it's the timing (and the cleanliness) of the hand switch. Speed bursts expose that in a way slow practice cannot.
For scale runs with picking: take any 6-8 note scale fragment and speed burst it well above your comfort zone. Focus your attention on one note at a time. Is that note clean? Is it in sync? Move to the next note only after the first is consistently clean.
Here is an example of this practice strategy in action:
Here's another thing most people don't realize:
Tip #5 For Building Guitar Speed With Speed Bursts: Use Speed Bursts With Rhythm Guitar Too
Yes, really.
Speed bursts aren't only for lead guitar. They're incredibly effective for building speed and tightness in your rhythm guitar playing.
Think about fast rhythm guitar riffs - things like galloping thrash rhythms, fast downstroke patterns, or aggressive palm-muted riffs that require endurance and precision at high tempos.
Most guitarists try to build rhythm guitar speed the same way they try to build lead guitar speed: start slow, gradually speed up with a metronome.
And most hit the same wall that keeps them from being able to play guitar fast.
Speed bursts bypass that wall. Here's how to use them for rhythm guitar:
Take a 1-2 bar rhythm guitar riff. Set your metronome faster than your top speed. Play the riff once - hard, with full power and pick attack - then pause.
During the pause, check for these things: Did your pick attack stay consistent? Did your palm muting stay even? Did excess tension build up in your picking arm?
The secret to fast, powerful rhythm guitar is this: hit the strings hard, then relax after each stroke. Tension should spike on the attack and immediately release. Speed bursts with pauses train this skill naturally - because the pause gives you a built-in moment to release tension.
Believe it or not, speed bursts (and specifically, the analysis of each burst between notes) can also help you train to play guitar in time. This is another aspect of tight rhythm guitar playing.
Mike used this exact approach to develop his rhythm guitar chops alongside his lead playing. He wasn't just building speed for solos - he was using speed bursts to create tight, aggressive rhythm guitar riffs for his own songs.
And that's something worth highlighting: speed bursts aren't just a "get faster" tool. They're a creative tool. When you can play rhythm parts at tempos you couldn't reach before, you open up new possibilities for writing guitar riffs that sound powerful and professional.
Now you know the principles behind using speed bursts to build guitar speed - with sweep picking arpeggios, lead guitar and rhythm guitar alike.
But here's what this article can't do for you:
It can't watch you play. It can't hear your sweep picking and tell you whether the problem is your picking motion, your finger roll timing, your hand synchronization, or something else entirely.
It can't tell you if you think you're doing speed bursts correctly ... but you're actually reinforcing the same mistakes at a faster tempo.
And it can't look at your overall playing and show you how speed fits into the bigger picture of everything you want to accomplish on guitar - from technique and speed to phrasing, creativity, fretboard knowledge, improvising, soloing, and songwriting.
I know this might sound self-serving. But it's the truth: a single article can show you powerful concepts (and speed bursts really are powerful). But it can't replace personalized guidance for your specific situation.
That's what I do in Breakthrough Guitar Lessons. I create personalized guitar lessons based on your exact skill level, strengths, weaknesses and goals. And along the way, I give you a ton of feedback on your playing and practicing - so you make rapid progress and actually sound the way you want to sound.
I've trained thousands of guitar players to reach their goals. Over 100 of them now play at a professional level. And the vast majority started out as ordinary people without natural talent - they simply followed a personalized strategy.
If you practice at least 30 minutes a day, I can help you too.
Click the button on the banner below to learn more.
But whether you take lessons with me or not, there's one thing I want you to take away from this article:
Remember Mike?
He was stuck at 130 bpm 16th notes on sweep picking for years. He'd tried slow practice. He'd tried other teachers. Nothing worked.
He didn't need more talent. He didn't need to practice more hours.
He needed a different approach to practice - one that would actually help him play guitar fast and clean - and personalized guidance to make sure he was applying it correctly.
Today he's playing shred and progressive instrumental solos at well over 1,000 notes per minute. His sweep picking is clean, fast, and musical. And he's writing his own songs that actually showcase the skills he's built.
A year from now, you could be in a very different place with your guitar playing.
Or you could be exactly where you are today - stuck at the same speed, grinding through the same slow practice, wondering if you've hit your ceiling.
The only difference is what you decide to do next.
Start by getting the free "Guitar Mastery Decoded" guide - it shows you the pillars of guitar mastery that let almost anyone play guitar as well as they want. It's the fastest way to see what's possible for your playing.
