3 Sweep Picking Mistakes That Make It Challenging To Play Arpeggios Clean

Sweep picking is not a difficult technique to get good at when you know how to practice it the right way.

Effective sweep picking practice uses efficient movement in your technique and stays away from all the common mistakes others make that lead to sloppy playing.

Don’t commit these three mistakes that make it difficult to sweep pick arpeggios at fast speeds:

Mistake #1: Killing picking momentum.

Playing a clean sweep picking arpeggio is done by making two key motions: one motion of the hand down when picking and ascending and one motion up while descending. Stopping the pick at any point in between kills your momentum and makes it impossible to keep your hands in sync. This leads to missed notes and sloppy playing.

Regardless of how many notes there are in the arpeggio or how many hammer ons, pull offs it contains, the pick must maintain momentum during each of the two separate picking motions.

Your pick needs to fall into each string and push against the next higher string, like if you were playing a violin with a bow. Maintain consistent momentum and watch your arpeggios get cleaner.

The importance of picking momentum becomes very clear when you try to do cool things like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE6z7oujEa0

Mistake #2: Allowing the pick to come to a stop in between each string

Completing a sweep picking motion through an arpeggio consists of two basic movements: moving the hand down while ascending and moving the hand up as you descend. Don’t stop in between strings. When you stop, you kill the momentum you created, cause sloppy noise and make fast playing nearly impossible.

Regardless of the number of notes within the arpeggio or the number of hammer ons/pull offs, the pick should only do one motion to ascend or descend.

Your pick must fall into each string and push against the next higher string, like the string of a bow. This keeps the momentum intact. If your fretting hand is doing a hammer on or pull off, the pick must push on the next string it’s going to play.

Mistake #3: Not isolating the rolling motion in the fretting hand.

“Rolling” describes playing notes on the same fret but different/adjacent strings (using the same finger). Many guitar players mistakenly treat rolling technique like playing a barre chord. Meaning: they fret all the notes at once and play through them with the pick. This causes them to ring out together, making your sweep picking sound sloppy.

Isolate the rolling motion and practice to play it cleanly. Instead of treating rolling like a barre, collapse the knuckles of your finger to fret a note while lightly dampening the previous string to keep it from ringing out. This helps your arpeggios sound sparkling clean!

Improve your sweep picking even more by using the tips in this article about sweep picking arpeggios fast and clean.

About The Author:
Tom Hess is an electric guitar teacher online and recording artist. He trains guitar players from around the world how to reach their musical goals in his correspondence guitar lessons online. Visit his website tomhess.net to receive many free guitar playing resources and read daily tips to help you improve your musical skills on the Official Tom Hess Facebook page.