Here is what's wrong with YOUR sweep picking technique...
by Mike Philippov
If you began to read this article, chances are that you have been working
on your sweep picking technique and struggled with improving it. If this sounds
like you, then I want to show you how to avoid the 4 most common technical
pitfalls that many guitarists fall into when trying to improve their sweep
picking.
These four problem areas typically do not occur in isolation. Typically if
you have one of the four problems described below, you have the others to some
degree also. The good news though is that once you work on fixing at least
one of these problems, the others tend to improve as well (it works both ways).
As you read on, you will understand why.
If you want me to show you on video how to correctly practice the following
ideas in this article, you can watch a (totally free) 20 minute sweep
picking video lesson at my website that is available to my free newsletter
subscribers. Otherwise, I will do my best to explain these technical points
to you using text alone.
Separating the notes
Many players struggle with separating the notes of arpeggios, because they
do not release the fingers from the notes that have already played, which results
in all of the notes of the arpeggio ringing together. Although this follows
the theory of "minimum motion" for the fingers, it breaks the most important
rule of clean sweep picking: each note must have definition and clarity! So
on one hand, it is tempting to want to minimize the motion of the fretting
hand fingers as much as possible, and on the other hand, you also need to make
sure that the notes are sounding cleanly.
The solution is to find the balance between releasing the fingers from each
note right after you have played it, but doing so without letting the fingers
come up "too far" away from the strings. Obviously if your fingers move too
far away from the strings, it makes it difficult to bring them back down to
play when needed. That being said, you need to lift the finger off the string
slightly after it has played (so that it stops ringing), and also mute that
same string with your picking hand (more about this later).
Remember that economy of motion is a "relative" concept and not an "absolute"
concept. So even though releasing the fingers from the notes they have played
is not an "absolute" application economy of motion, it is necessary to do this
in order to play the technique cleanly. This advice may seem like perfect common
sense when you read about it, but MANY guitarists have a difficult time with
finding the right balance between the economy of motion and playing cleanly
(in this part of guitar playing technique especially, but also with other techniques).
Rolling
One of the biggest sources of confusion of the rolling technique is that it
is often confused with "barring". When you play barre chords, you fret notes
of two or more strings at the same fret with the same finger and you let all
the notes ring together. When you perform the rolling technique, you have to
actually physically "roll" the finger across strings by bending it backwards.
As a result, the notes sound separated.
This technique is best shown on video or in person, but basically you play
the first note of the roll with the tip of the finger, and then bend it backwards
fretting the remaining notes of the roll with the soft fingerprint. You then
reverse the motion when you descend. Your first knuckle of the finger becomes
the pivot point that bends or collapses allowing you the flexibility of fretting
the notes cleanly. If you are unsure about how to specifically practice this
motion, I can show you precisely what the finger rolling motion should look
like in the free sweep picking video at
my site.
The good news about the rolling technique is that although it is hard in the
beginning, it is actually one of the absolute easiest things to do on guitar
once you get better at it. But in order to make sure that you do master it
in minimum time, make sure to follow the guidelines above.
Pull offs:
Many players neglect isolating and practicing this part of the arpeggio in
the shapes that require a pull off on the top string. As a result, the weak
pull off distorts the rhythm of the notes and the arpeggio doesn't sound clean.
The picked notes usually sound rushed, and come out much louder than the pull
off (which is barely audible). The solution is to practice just the pull off
part of the arpeggio with the amp off. You should be able to hear the pull
off very clearly even with the amp turned off. If you apply more force to make
the pull off loud when you practice with no distortion, then after you turn
distortion on, it really becomes a lot easier to play the entire arpeggio smoothly
and cleanly.
Try to match the volume of your pull offs as closely as possible to that of
your picked notes. This will not be entirely possible, but by constantly striving
for it you will make great improvements in your legato playing in general and
in this area of sweep picking specifically.
Muting excess string noise
The conventional wisdom suggests to practice sweep picking with a clean guitar
tone in order to make it easier to hear imperfections in your technique. This
is true on some level, BUT practicing only with a clean tone makes it hard
to hear excess string noise that can occur either from letting the notes ring
together (problem 1 described above) or from not muting the strings that are
not supposed to be playing.
In reality, it is even more important to practice with distortion because only
then will you become aware of any excess noise that may be present and correct
it. If you have limited time to practice, then definitely you should practice
with distortion only. This one practicing tip (which I learned from my guitar
teacher, friend and mentor Tom Hess) helped me to greatly improve my own sweep
picking in a short amount of time.
When you do become aware of the sloppy extra noise, it becomes much easier
to fix it and mute it (using a variety of techniques in your picking and fretting
hands).
Think carefully about the points in this article and apply them to your playing.
You will see great results when you do!
If you are unclear about any part of what I explained above and want to see
me do it on video, visit my website and I will show you the free sweep
picking lesson on video that I send to all my newsletter subscribers. You
can also contact me by e-mail at mike@mikephilippov.com with
any questions.
You can e-mail Mike at mike@mikephilippov.com and he would be happy to answer any questions you may have.