Guitar Practice Advice That Helps You Get Better At Sweep Picking In No Time
Guitarists who are the best at sweep picking know all about:
*Working on the skill of being able to listen to notes while playing at fast speeds and correct mistakes in the moment.
*Making your technique efficient so sweep picking feels natural.
*Preventing sloppy string noise.
Learn how to play fast and clean sweep picking arpeggios by watching this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3diuvhTRw8
These tips help you master sweep picking more quickly:
Guitar Practice Tip #1: Pay attention to your fretting hand thumb position.
It’s easier to play sweep picking arpeggios when you are able to stretch your fingers without having to move your wrist from side to side.
Achieve this by keeping your fretting hand thumb positioned behind the fretboard around the middle of the neck. Keep the thumb pointing up (towards the ceiling) and aligned with your middle finger.
Guitar Practice Tip #2: Mute with your thumb to clean up your playing.
Thumb muting means laying your thumb on the strings below (lower in pitch) the one you are playing on currently. As you play through an arpeggio, your thumb slides up and down the strings to mute them.
This way, your pick only plays the strings you want to hear and everything else below those strings is muted.
Thumb muting works equally well for other lead guitar techniques (such as scales, bent notes and vibrato). It is consistent, easy to learn and makes your guitar playing a lot cleaner.
Note: don’t confuse thumb muting with palm muting. Palm muting is the technique used to mute the strings you are playing. Thumb muting is used to mute the strings you are not playing (and don’t want to hear ringing).
Guitar Practice Tip #3: Program your brain to think faster using speed bursts.
It’s a common mistake to use palm muting instead of thumb muting while playing sweep arpeggios. Thumb muting means you keep your thumb on the strings below the one you are playing on. Then, your thumb stays planted on the strings as you move up and down to play an arpeggio so the pick only plays the string you want to hear.
Thumb muting doesn’t just work for sweep picking. It works well for any lead guitar technique. It is consistent, easy to learn and makes your guitar playing a lot cleaner since it doesn’t cause you to lift your hand away from the guitar (as with palm muting).
Remember: Palm muting is the technique used to mute the strings you ARE playing. Thumb muting is used to mute the strings you are NOT playing (and don’t want to hear ring out).
Learn more about how to play with killer guitar speed by reading this article about fast and clean sweep picking technique.
About The Author:
Tom Hess is a professional touring musician and guitar player. He also teaches and trains guitarists from all over the world in his online guitar lessons. Learn more by reading the Tom Hess wiki page and following him on Twitter for free guitar tips.
