New Lesson - Sweep Picking Triad Arpeggios

[Kerouac]

I came up with this etude for practicing sweep picking triad arpeggios, which I find the most useful for introducing sweep picking into actual solo's. I played some in the recent "Holy Scubadiver" jam and couple of people asked me about them, so I thought I'd show you what I do to practise these. The first section of the piece focuses exclusively on sweeping down, and the second part works on sweeping up.

The key to the technique is to keep your right hand very, very relaxed and let the pick "glide" across the strings. For alternate picking, I move my thumb and index finger quite a bit, but for sweep picking I find it better to keep them steady and keep my thumb straight. "Tight but Loose" to quote an old description of Led Zeppelin. . If you play with a lot of distortion like I do....muting out as much unwanted noise with your right hand palm and left hand fingers is important too.

Where the left hand needs to bar across two or more strings, you need to practice rapid fretting and muting using a "rubber stamp" type motion, rolling the finger in question across the strings, trying to ensure that the notes are kept as separate as possible and not played together like you would for a chord.

The first (sweep down) section uses the following arpeggios:

​

The second (mostly sweep up) section uses the following arpeggios:

​

Sweep up the first three notes and then downstroke on the 4th.

The chord progession that these arpeggios cover is Am/GMaj/FMaj/EMaj/CMaj/DMaj/ CMaj/GMaj/Am/Bdim/Ddim/Fdim/G#dim

Here's an example, I'll let you work out how many times to play each arpeggio for this piece:

http://www.box.net/shared/fuoxg0ytoq

Play slowly with a metronome, have fun, get it as clean as possible and then get your Yngwie on! :rawk:

Out of curiosity, what fingering were you using there? I tried it as:

2314 - 1214 - 1214 -1214 - 1114 - 1114 -2114 - 2114 - 2104

 

[mosiddiqi]

Out of curiosity, what fingering were you using there? I tried it as:

2314 - 1214 - 1214 -1214 - 1114 - 1114 -2114 - 2114 - 2104

I do 1214 for the first 4 and then 1114 1114 2114 2114 2104..so, just the one difference to you, but your 2314 for the first arp is certainly more logical I think..I have some bad habits.

Also this may be weird, but I'm certainly finding notation much more elegant and beautiful to look at than Tab..aesthetics do matter I think..once you're drawn in (as I appear to be) you want to know more...

 

[Mark Wein]

Also this may be weird, but I'm certainly finding notation much more elegant and beautiful to look at than Tab..aesthetics do matter I think..once you're drawn in (as I appear to be) you want to know more...

you also start understanding what the whole argument is about. Tab is a very useful tool and I use it quite a bit but the reality is that there is much that is not communicated in the way that most tab is written.

 

[Modern Saint]

you also start understanding what the whole argument is about. Tab is a very useful tool and I use it quite a bit but the reality is that there is much that is not communicated in the way that most tab is written.

Agreed unless you back to the days of the lute when rhythmic figures were written above the tab note. Even then though that notation was messy. Standard notation gets messy IMO when you have a full orchestral score only because I don't work with that type of notation daily. In fact the last time I ever remember seeing that stuff was in college eons ago.

 

[Kerouac]

I do 1214 for the first 4 and then 1114 1114 2114 2114 2104..so, just the one difference to you, but your 2314 for the first arp is certainly more logical I think..I have some bad habits.

Also this may be weird, but I'm certainly finding notation much more elegant and beautiful to look at than Tab..aesthetics do matter I think..once you're drawn in (as I appear to be) you want to know more...

I tried the "D" shape using the actual chord fingering but in addition to making the pinky stretch uncomfortable it sounded more like a quick rake than the sweeping sound. I'll try you're 1214 when I get into work.

 

[Mark Wein]

Agreed unless you back to the days of the lute when rhythmic figures were written above the tab note. Even then though that notation was messy. Standard notation gets messy IMO when you have a full orchestral score only because I don't work with that type of notation daily. In fact the last time I ever remember seeing that stuff was in college eons ago.

If I tab stuff out by hand I usually try and put the stems and flags on to notate some rhythm....after all the crap I give my students about counting its the least I can do

 

[Modern Saint]

If I tab stuff out by hand I usually try and put the stems and flags on to notate some rhythm....after all the crap I give my students about counting its the least I can do

That is one of the major things you got going for you, your continued work with students forces you to count. So without trying, you are always working on basic rudaments. I remember those days when I used to teach as well and how important counting is. Now I go more on feel and knowing where the one is for most music genres. With jazz, just knowing the 2 and 4. The only time I am forced to count is odd meter.

Now that I am back to Midi programming of drum tracks for the Recordingfest's, I am forced to count measures and placements of accents - so it is a good thing.