Sweep Picking I

This site is full of lessons about scales and arpeggios, explanation of their construction, and examples of how you might apply them to musical situations. This lesson is on the sweep picking technique.

The sweep picking technique is used to blast through an arpeggio shape at speed. We’ll use the A Major arpeggio from the 5th string, twelfth fret, as an example:

Sweep Picking Technique 

The fretting hand technique doesn’t differ greatly from standard arpeggio playing, but it is imperative that you lift your fingers the second the note is played so as to keep the notes separate – we don’t want to have it sound like strumming a chord. So, we keep the picking hand motion constant – all down strokes whilst ascending the arpeggio, and all up strokes to descend. It is up to you whether to hammer and pull notes on the A and E strings – note that if you decide to pick them all, you’ll want to begin with an up stroke so your pick is moving in the right direction for the sweep. Personally, I always hammer and pull. Also, the D, G and B string 14th fret notes are all played with a ring finger barre which means you have to roll your finger across the 3 strings as you pick them.

That final point will, from experience, take a little time to get together. As with everything else, start slow and build speed. Although it’s tempting to just crash through the arpeggio as fast as possible (and many players do), spending time on the technique will reward you with the ability to use it at will, and to articulate every note. No other technique gives such a flurry of speed when executed correctly.

There are many other lessons on this site that you may find useful as background to sweep picking are below:

The Aeolian Mode
The Major Scale
Major and Minor Arpeggios

The following exercises should help you build the technique, and the last one incorporates a tap demonstrating how you might extend the arpeggio.

Some Examples (Tab symbol key below)

1) 3 string sweep pattern:

2) 4 string pattern, ascending:

3) 3 string Am7:

4) Em, then Am:

5) A major, with tapped third:

You can download a PDF of the Sweep Picking exercises HERE.

The first two exercises are atonal – they will help you learn the technique but you would have to be pretty brave to try to use them musically! Exercises 3, 4 and 5 are moveable – so practice moving them! Experiment with different keys so they’re under your fingers no matter what the musical situation. Once you are comfortable with transposing the patterns across keys, you’ll find some backing tracks to try these exercises over on my YouTube channel HERE.

And that’s Sweep Picking Part 1 done! You can find more lessons on scales and guitar technique to help you develop as a player here. If you’ve got any questions please get in touch on Facebook or Twitter.