Hey guys... well good news, I got to keep my guitars and get my car fixed! (those of you that remember my FS post a while back)..
Well, I have been actually getting alot back into guitar lately and I just started up private lessons for the 3rd time, and This guy is great! He is teaching me exactly what I want to learn; Intense Soloing.
Well, I had my first lesson super bowl sunday, but didnt miss the superbowl! 8)
Anyway, He started me off with arpeggio Sweep picking he called it. He gave me 4 different I guess there "scales?" to "arpeggio sweep pick".
Well, Ive learned them steadily in the past 2 days or so and now I can play it up and down like a scale sweep picking up and down just like he said. My problem is, is I just dont see how he does it so incredibly fast. I know this is a pretty ridiculous question considering the fact that I pretty much know the answer but will it all come together in the end? I mean, I am so far from making them sound like yngwie malmsteen or anyone who does arpeggio's, It sounds so..... not like it... but I watched him play it extremly fast and just like them so I guess all in all I am answering my own question, but does anyone have any tips or hints or whatever to help me become faster at these sweep picking arpeggios??
I am also having some trouble getting used to just down picking and up picking.. I play very fast type solos so I Almost ALWAYS use alternate picking.
Thanks for any tips on speeding up the process... Im stumped and can't even see the white light at where it would begin to sound like a real solo :x
(Basically just dont see how its possible to sweep pick and play those notes that fast.)
Sing Me A Song Your a Singer, Do me a wrong, your a bringer of evil. - Dio
Whenever I (try) sweeping, I always have to get a good grip on the pick and try to keep a smooth motion. I can't really do the fast solos yet, but I guess that's what practice is for... :wink: But to me it just seems like if you keep a smooth motion and have a good grip on the pick, you can increase or decrease speed at will
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Thanks for the reply man good advice.
Sing Me A Song Your a Singer, Do me a wrong, your a bringer of evil. - Dio
it just takes time dude, a lot of it.
guys like yngwie didn't take three lessons and become sweep picking masters, they played for hours every day for YEARS to get to the speed they are at. just keep plugging away, it will take time, but if you are committed you will get it.
Yah! and get a metranome(spell check). but i'll warn you right now. first of all start sloww and get good at it. but also, if all you do is sweeping then you won't go to far (i.e. Jason Becker). try adding stuff to it. Don't just sweep the crap out of an Am Scale and call it a song (i.e. Michal Angelo Batio, and Jason Becker). Other wise get a Yngwie Book. they rock but they are hard.
"I'm as free as a bird now. And this bird you can not change" Free Bird, By: Lynyrd Skynyrd
GIT SNAKE BIT!!!
stay safe
This kind of question has popped up a lot around here, no? In the end, the answer is always the same... just as ab0msnwman said... it just takes time and practice. Um, just to add a bit (and to rehash the comments from all the other times this question was answered), start out small. Work up to sweeping 3 strings quickly; then, you'll already have the feel for the picking when you go to 5 or 6 strings. Another thing... don't think about it too much. Grab an arpeggio pattern that you are comfortable with and fiddle with it while you're watching tv.
PS- Hawkfoggy. The Jason Becker comments hurt :cry: Michael Angelo, yes (I was just listening to his No Boundaries CD earlier today and even I couldn't get into most of it). But, IMO, JB has too many great compositions to be thrown into that category. Although he does has some songs that are full of "exercises" (Mable's Fatal Fable?), there are others that have little or no sweep picking (Air, Images). When used in a great composition, sweeps are simply beautiful (Altitudes). But, that's just my opinion/taste :wink:
Yah! and get a metranome(spell check). but i'll warn you right now. first of all start sloww and get good at it. but also, if all you do is sweeping then you won't go to far (i.e. Jason Becker). try adding stuff to it. Don't just sweep the crap out of an Am Scale and call it a song (i.e. Michal Angelo Batio, and Jason Becker). Other wise get a Yngwie Book. they rock but they are hard.
gah!
why knock on jason becker like that!
gah! you hurt my soul!
Yah! and get a metranome(spell check). but i'll warn you right now. first of all start sloww and get good at it. but also, if all you do is sweeping then you won't go to far (i.e. Jason Becker). try adding stuff to it. Don't just sweep the crap out of an Am Scale and call it a song (i.e. Michal Angelo Batio, and Jason Becker). Other wise get a Yngwie Book. they rock but they are hard.
gah!
why knock on jason becker like that!
gah! you hurt my soul! well the thing about jason is that almost nobody has heard of him. offcoarse. that disease he got contributed but he relied to much on one technical trick. that will get you no where
"I'm as free as a bird now. And this bird you can not change" Free Bird, By: Lynyrd Skynyrd
GIT SNAKE BIT!!!
stay safe
well the thing about jason is that almost nobody has heard of him. offcoarse. that disease he got contributed but he relied to much on one technical trick. that will get you no where
You should listen to some of his other stuff, the guy was a composer first and a guitar player second in my opinion. He doesn't really rely on "one technical trick" but I'm not going to argue this and hijack the thread, so I'll just say just out his later stuff that he produced after he got ALS.
Ashamed as I am to ask - who is Mr Becker?
Enlighten me on required stuff by said brother if you please!
Also, about the speed picking. You mentioned you are doing alternate picking. I don't know
if it is a given for sweep picking, but are you using Frank Gambale's method for approaching
the strings? Being new here, I am not sure what gives.
When I found out about Frank's pickin technique, it just made so much sense:
Less pick movement = More Speed
Iam not a fast sweep picker be any measure, but practising at mindnumbingly SLOW speeds will
help - don't believe me? Try it at around 40 -50 BPM, you have to THINK about what your doing.
It is really difficult to make yourself sit their and do this exercise. But, because this is not a motor skill
at this speed, is is ultimately where your control comes from - to gain mastery over yourself.
Steve
My Contribution To The Guitar World:
http://www.visualmodalguitarblueprint.com
Sweep arpeggios have been flavour of the month in Total Guitar magazine for the past couple of months, looking at how Herman Li (Dragonforce) plays.
As you'd expect, the recommendation is that you should start slowly; you won't get to be able to play them at speed if you don't
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
I hate Dragonforce and all power metal
Sweeping is a technique that you should only use SPARINGLY
start slow you'll get it.
Also Jason Becker is basically just a underground guitarist who was really prominent in the 80s and early 90s. He played extensively with Marty Friedman of Megadeth fame in a band called Cacophony that produced some really prominent neo-classical guitar albums. The guy is basically the benchmark for all neo-classical players. Perpetual Burn is probably his best album. He was a great player, not just some lame shredder, and more importantly, he was a brilliant composer. Songs like Air and Altitudes off of that CD are simply mindblowing. I encourage you to check him out if you enjoy music heavily focused on the guitar and like classically inspired stuff.
The best advice I think is to be patient. If you want to shred like those players then you better be prepared to practice 24/7 for the next ten years. If you get frustrated after two days because it's taking so long then you really shouldn't be playing guitar. So be patient.
