Sweep Exercises/Licks

[FinkFloyd]

Right - this is my first foray into a technique-based thread for a while. The reason for this is partly because I've not been playing much lately - time constraints - and partly due to a lack of inspiration on my part. I got Dad to bring the Ibanez RG down with him when the parentals visited at the weekend, and I'm playing more already.

I tentatively restarted doing some of my sweep exercises tonight. Not much - I don't have the time or the patience to do many exercises these days; I'd rather just play and get better that way - but enough to remember that sweeping was something I liked the feel of and would like to get better at. Wenty got me started when I had lessons with him (Christ, that's 3 years ago now - and I was probably better then than I am now. :shock: ) by getting me to go up one 5-string arpeggio shape and down another (and calling chord progressions out and getting me to play the sweep arps to it) so I think I've got the basic technique. Fast it ain't, but it's there, and only practice will improve it.

I'm currently trying to use the old picking practice thing I used to do - namely Morse's Tumeni Notes. Through it 3 times, first time alternate picking, second time sweeping, third time alternating sweeps and AP on the string crossing arpeggios (I did try to do it with hybrid picking as well, but that got a wee bit too confusing). Slowly. It'll take a while to get back into it, mind.

The point is, I want to be able to use sweeps in my playing. I'm not a metal player, and that kind of diddly-diddly-diddly up-down arpeggio that features at the beginning of Sacrifice by Racer X or anything by Yngwie Malmsteen is not me. I do like how John Petrucci uses it sometimes, but on the whole people like Eric Johnson are more my bag - do any of you have any thoughts as regards licks or tricks that would enable me to use more sweeping without using those swooping arpeggios, or any pointers about sweeping in general?

[frankus]

Thought about making a backing track at a really slow pace and improvising over it?

The slower you play the more time you get to think about what you want to add, the more adventurous you feel and the more time you get to play the technique... if you've a couple of exercises it's likely some licks will fall out of those.

[jordan]

anything by Yngwie Malmsteen is not me.......but on the whole people like Eric Johnson are more my bag

This might be a little off topic, but....

It's funny that you mention youl like Eric Johnson style above, as he's not known for his sweeping. If you like his sound you could try exploring the large interval licks he uses, mostly achieved via string-skipping. I personally much prefer this sound to the sound of sweeping, which as you noted can lead you down a road to Yngwie-ville in no time.

Other players who sound like they're sweeping alot, but are actually using string skipping are Carl Veryehen (the undisputed master of intervallic playing) and Nuno Bettencourt (who incidently said he took the approach after preferring the sound of Eric Johnson to Yngwie!).

Sorry if that's verging off topic, but it might give you an insight into another form of playing you'd not considered.....

Cheers,
Jordan.

[jason morris1]

You should defo check Verheyen out, Fink, a very fine player.

With regards to sweeping, it all revolves around how much you want it to penetrate your playing - you can have your "big sweepy show-off licks", which is what many metal players do, or you can go into Gambale territory, where sweeping is integrated into the regular scale work which is economy picked. I kinda float in the middle, in that I try to eschew neo-classical cheese, but I like my strict alternate picking where appropriate. If you want to go down the Gambale route, then you'd really be best off getting some of his instructional material on the subject.

When you have good sweep licks that you like and can repeat, play them slowly, with a click - you can easily lose rhythm when the pick is gliding around without any hard, defined plucks.

[cruxiform]

or you can go into Gambale territory, where sweeping is integrated into the regular scale work which is economy picked.

I'm a big fan of this technique, when you pull it off, it sounds beautiful.

Rob

[frankus]

or you can go into Gambale territory, where sweeping is integrated into the regular scale work which is economy picked.

I'm a big fan of this technique, when you pull it off, it sounds beautiful.

Rob

Nah mate, pull-offs are different to economy picking.

[cruxiform]

or you can go into Gambale territory, where sweeping is integrated into the regular scale work which is economy picked.

I'm a big fan of this technique, when you pull it off, it sounds beautiful.

Rob

Nah mate, pull-offs are different to economy picking.

:lol:

Rob

[DLM]

It's funny that you mention youl like Eric Johnson style above, as he's not known for his sweeping. If you like his sound you could try exploring the large interval licks he uses, mostly achieved via string-skipping. I personally much prefer this sound to the sound of sweeping, which as you noted can lead you down a road to Yngwie-ville in no time.

:? EJ uses a lot of sweeping in amongst his hybrid picking stuff. It doesn't sound like Yngwie, though, as it's derived from all the old jazz players that influenced Eric, and his tone is totally different to Yng's. There's less zooming up and down basic arpeggio shapes with Johnson, though there's even a bit of that on Desert Rose.

Example: Chet Atkins (major EJ influence) was a thumbpick user and his "superlick" was a sweeped arpeggio. A basic minor one, actually. Chet, in turn was influenced by Eddie Lang and Django who also got about that way.

Other players who sound like they're sweeping alot, but are actually using string skipping are Carl Veryehen (the undisputed master of intervallic playing) and Nuno Bettencourt (who incidently said he took the approach after preferring the sound of Eric Johnson to Yngwie!).

When did Nuno say that? His technique was really pretty well-developed by the time EJ started to get a lot of publicity with Ah Via Musicom, and Nuno was already heavily Malmsteen-influenced – there's an instrumental on the first Extreme album that reeks of early Yng – scale choice, vibrato, backing keyboards, minor and diminished sweep arpeggios...

[jordan]

When did Nuno say that?

I have a Guitar World book at home (which is a collection of articles). He mentions the 'not liking sweeping and instead preferring skipping' in there quite abit.

Fair point about EJ tho, I guess he does sweep a bit, it just sounds so much better than YJM you find it hard to believe it's the same technique ;-)

[clarky]

I'm doing some interesting exercises and experiments with sweeping right now...

when I get enough time I'll write it all up and bung it in here