Sweep Picking Guitar Lessons

If you've ever marvelled at Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker or Marty Friedman and thought that you'd never get to that stage in a million years … don’t give up! They aren’t robots, with a programmed ability to place every finger perfectly and pick cleanly at a million miles per hour from the beginning. They're human, like us, and needed to learn guitar techniques the same way we do. One of the favourite techniques of neo-classical players like Yngwie, Friedman and Becker is sweep picking. Here we break it down systematically to make it easier to learn.

What is Sweep Picking on Guitar?

Sweep picking is an advanced two-hand guitar technique, where three or more notes are played in quick succession, however not strummed together as with a chord. In guitar sweep picking:

• You will move up or down three or more strings at a time, sounding each string once.  
• Arpeggios are the note pattern usually used  
• The end note is usually accentuated above the other notes  
• You will use one of several techniques for making each note sound separately, rather than together. You might lift your finger off a note on the fret board as it is struck, or palm mute with your right hand, or mute with your left hand using a finger rolling technique.   
• When you need to sound more than one note on a string, hammer ons or pull offs are often used in order to preserve the natural sweeping motion, rather than alternate or economy picking a small section  

 Pick downwards in one direction smoothly.

Picking Hand Technique for Learning Sweep Picking 

• Think of the sweep as a controlled strum  
• Make sure that your pick is slightly angled up when you are moving down the strings, and down when you are moving up the strings  
• Don’t hold the pick too hard  
• Maintain a steady rhythm for the sweep itself  
• Angle your pick a little more towards 90 degrees from the body for the last note, to accentuate it slightly.   

Finger Rolling on Guitar

Finger rolling is the easiest way to ensure that all the notes in a sweep sound clearly, but do not ring, while keeping up your speed. If you are moving down the bottom 3 strings, the finger rolling technique would consist of:

• Pushing the tip of your finger down on the G string  
• Lifting it after the note is struck and pushing the middle of your finger down on the B string  
• Lifting that after the note is struck and pushing the lower part of your finger down on the E string  

For those of you who have difficulty visualizing this, imagine your finger as a rocking chair and move your finger in a rocking chair motion.

Sweep Guitar Practicing 

Sweep picking can be a difficult technique to master. As with all new skills that you’re learning on the guitar, always practice first to get it right, and second to get it fast. Don't try to live up to Jason Becker's standard in your first week! If you teach yourself to sweep pick sloppily, for the sake of speed, it will be much more difficult to un-learn your bad habits.

Good songs for practising sweep picking:

• A Tout Le Monde, Megadeth   
• Leper Messiah, Metallica   
• Bloodlust of the Human Condition, Unearth   
• Eugene's Trick Bag, Steve Vai   
• Beast and the Harlot, Avenged Sevenfold