In this guitar lesson you’re going to learn 5 sweep picking tips for guitar!
These tips are accompanied by an image that shows the sweep picking shapes that go along with each tip.
Let’s dive straight in.
Table of Contents
5 sweep picking tips summarized
- Start with 2-string sweeps. If you can’t do these, then you can’t do larger sweeps.
- Now, moving onto sweeps that span 3 or more strings, practice sweeping in a single direction, and make sure you’re using a single sweeping motion, akin to a strum. Start by practicing: D-D-D with an E minor arpeggio shape. (G-9 B-8 e-7). Remember, don’t let the notes ring together. Play them individually.
- Learn 3-string sweeps the right way, with 6 total motions. D-D-D-U-PO-U.
- Play triad arpeggios across octaves, because it’s usually easier than single-position CAGED shapes.
- (Kind of 2 tips in 1) Practice slowly to get down the motions and shapes, and don’t worry too much about muting in the beginning.
Tip 1: Start with 2 string sweeps
The 1st tip I have for you is to learn 2-string sweeps!
To do this, you’ll use a very simple sweep picking motion.
The motion is: D-D-U (Down-Down-Up).
Learning these simple sweeps will make you sound awesome, and are an easy win when it comes to guitar techniques.
Tip 2: Practice sweeping in a single direction
My 2nd sweep picking tip is to nail down the sweep picking motion, which is basically a strumming motion.
This just means that rather than picking each note individually you’ll use a single motion.
Learn the motion with this popular E minor triad shape, shown as example 2 in the tablature. You’ll play it with your ring, middle, and index fingers.
Remember these notes need to be played individually, which means these notes won’t ring together in harmony.
Tip 3: Learn 3 string sweeps the right way
For your 3rd tip I’m going to tell you how to play 3-string sweeps the “right” way. The right/ proper way is what I consider the easiest motions for playing these 6-step, 3-string sweep picking shapes.
The 6 motions are: D-D-D-U-PO-U. (Down, Down, Down, Up, Pull-off, Up)
Start be practicing this with the minor triad shape shown in example 3 of the tabs.
Watch your picking hand
Bonus sweep picking tip: WATCH YOUR PICKING HAND
When you’re learning to sweep you need to watch your picking hand, because sweep picking technique is a picking technique, and you need to make sure that you’re watching the hand that’s doing the work.
Tip 4: Play triad arpeggios across octaves
You’ll notice that a lot of guitarists use large, complicated, wide sweeps that are sometimes referred to as CAGED arpeggios.
The CAGED shapes can be a real pain to play, so I recommend playing octave sweeps instead, which take advantage of the simple, 2-string sweep picking shape and motion(s) that I showed you in the tip 1.
You see, these shapes are so simple and awesome because you’ll use the same picking pattern and fret-hand shape at each octave.
For example, when playing a 3-octave arpeggio shape from the root note G, at the 3rd fret of the low E, you’ll:
- Use fingers 2, 1, and 4 (Middle, Index, and Pinky) to play frets E-3, A-2, and A-5.
- With your picking hand, you’ll pick: D-D-U (Down-Down-Up)
- Then, you’ll use the same fret-hand shape and sweep picking pattern at the next to octaves. The next 2 octaves appear at frets D-5 and B-8, which are both G notes, of course.
This is shown as example 4 in the tabs.
Tip 5: Practice slowly
The final tip is to practice slowly so you can accurately memorize your sweep-picking motions and common sweep-picking shapes.
You see, you cant move onto playing and practicing fast sweeps if you haven’t learned the motions and the shapes.
Also, don’t worry too much about muting when you’re getting started with sweep-picking. You can incorporate the muting technique after you’ve learned the common sweeping motions and shapes.