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Sweep Picking Techniques Guide

This document provides examples and techniques for developing sweep picking skills on the guitar. It discusses sweep picking as a technique used by shred guitarists. The author explains that sweep picking involves picking notes smoothly without them sounding like a chord. Several two, three, and five string arpeggio examples are provided moving between different intervals to practice the technique. Changing the top note of arpeggios is also demonstrated to add musical interest. Readers are encouraged to come up with their own examples to develop their sweep picking abilities.

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大石 真義
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266 views2 pages

Sweep Picking Techniques Guide

This document provides examples and techniques for developing sweep picking skills on the guitar. It discusses sweep picking as a technique used by shred guitarists. The author explains that sweep picking involves picking notes smoothly without them sounding like a chord. Several two, three, and five string arpeggio examples are provided moving between different intervals to practice the technique. Changing the top note of arpeggios is also demonstrated to add musical interest. Readers are encouraged to come up with their own examples to develop their sweep picking abilities.

Uploaded by

大石 真義
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sweep Picking 1/2

www.premierguitar.com/articles/sweep-picking-on-the-seven-string-guitar

Sweep Picking
Mike Campese
October 22, 2008
This lesson I will be showing you examples to develop your sweep
Click here for high-
picking technique. Sweep picking is a popular technique among shred
resolution, printable
guitarists and it is used in many styles of music. It is a similar technique
tab.
to raking. The tricky part of sweeping is getting the notes not to run
together like a chord. I will be showing you some good ways to practice sweep picking and I will
give you some musical examples.

Example 1
This first example is a two string G# minor arpeggio (G#, B, D#). This is a great
way to develop your sweep picking, just using 2 strings. The right hand pick
motion is just down, down, up continuously. Example 1a is the same arpeggio but
we will be adding a pull off, this is a common way to play arpeggios.

Example 2
Let''s move on to three string arpeggios. Here we have a D major arpeggio (D, F#,
A). This is a great one to practice, and is really useful. The right hand continues
down, down, up. Make sure you are lifting off the left hand slightly after you hit
each note so the notes don''t run together like a chord. Example 2a is great way to
practice sweeping. We are moving the D major arpeggio up in half step intervals,
the pinky and index finger is sliding up each time we move to the next arpeggio. Be
sure you follow the suggested fingerings.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/print/sweep-picking-on-the-seven-string-guitar 2019/10/24
Sweep Picking 2/2

Examples 2b & 3
Example 2b is the same thing as the previous example, but now we are adding the
4th string. In example 3 we will add the 5th string to our D major arpeggio. This is
a common shape and is fun to practice. In this example we are moving the five
string arpeggio up in minor 3rd intervals. These examples are great for developing
your sweep picking technique.

Example 4
Here is a A minor 5th string arpeggio (A, C, E). A cool way to add interest to your
arpeggios is to change the top note. In this example we change the top note to a G,
which gives us a Am7th arpeggio and by changing the top note to F# creates a
Am6th arpeggio.

That wraps up the lesson, be sure to make up your own examples and for more info visit
www.mikecampese.com.

Mike is an in-demand instructor with a number of recording, performance, TV and film credits to
his name. Mike has studied with likes of Paul Gilbert, Norman Brown, Keith Wyatt, Stanley
Jordan, John Hilton, Wayne Krantz and Bill Connors. Be sure and visit Mike''s site at
mikecampese.com for news, CDs and more information.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/print/sweep-picking-on-the-seven-string-guitar 2019/10/24

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