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Am i sweeping right?

Solution
Hi there!

So by the looks of things you're downpicking on parts where you should be sweeping - you have 3 notes to play on the down sweep but your wrist is making an individual down pick for each one.

The way to fix this is to slow way way down - like much slower than you think - and try one of the down sweeps- rest the pick on the first string you're about to play and instead of making a wrist flick to pick the note, put a bit of weight on the pick, then let your pick fall/cascade onto the next string - you should hear the first note of your sweep as your pick hits the second string you need. If your sweeping 3 strings, then your pick will cascade 3 times and you'll hear 3 notes - it should feel like you're doing one large, wide...

Chris Johnston

Music Theory Bragger
  • Nov 11, 2019
    759
    10
    1,883
    29
    North Ayrshire, Scotland
    14
    Hi there!

    So by the looks of things you're downpicking on parts where you should be sweeping - you have 3 notes to play on the down sweep but your wrist is making an individual down pick for each one.

    The way to fix this is to slow way way down - like much slower than you think - and try one of the down sweeps- rest the pick on the first string you're about to play and instead of making a wrist flick to pick the note, put a bit of weight on the pick, then let your pick fall/cascade onto the next string - you should hear the first note of your sweep as your pick hits the second string you need. If your sweeping 3 strings, then your pick will cascade 3 times and you'll hear 3 notes - it should feel like you're doing one large, wide picking motion rather than 3 individuals, and your pick is gliding through the strings, rather than individually downpicking them. So basically, one fluid motion.

    The same applies to any up sweeps you need to do, except the pick would glide upwards.

    You'll want to do this about 60% slower for a while until your hands are synced together, as if you try and speed it up too early it'll fall apart 👌

    Here's the best analogy I could think of for sweep picking - If you're actually sweeping the floor - say there's 5 crumbs (these could be the notes of the arpeggio) - would you take your heavy brush and sweep them up individually or would you use one sweep to sweep them all up? - Think of this the minute you start to downpick those parts 🤟

    Hope this helps!
     
    Solution

    idssdi

    Sold-out Crowd Surfer
    Nov 11, 2019
    5,336
    6,754
    Groningen
    11
    Form the looks of it it seems like you're more alternate picking than actually sweeping. For a reference mute the strings your picking and just make a very slow strumming motion across the strings, when this is combined with good left hand muting you'll be sweeping.

    I made this video about it to hopefully make it a bit more clear