I am currently practicing sweep picking my scales... however, when playing the usual 3 notes per string scale my rhythm seems to be in triplets rather that semiquavers. I just can't seem to get to the next string quick enough.

Could anybody give me some advice without saying, "Just practice."?

From Frank Gambale's 1985 book "Speed Picking" (REH Publications):

"Another important thing is the use of scale patterns with three (3) notes per string. Speed picking lends itself to these, but be sure that when you practice these patterns to keep the notes 8th's or 16th's. Because of the three note system it's easy to play everything as triplets. Also, there is a tendency at first to accent the first note of every string, like accenting the first note of every triplet. This situation is normal and just takes a little time to get used to the feeling of using a single stroke when crossing strings. You can see almost immediately that the amount of right hand picking is reduced by 1/3, a lot less work required to play the same amount of notes."

Frank was a teacher at G.I.T. when I was there in '84-'85. He told me that he practiced at least an hour a day facing a wall, as close as he could get to it and still hold his guitar. He did this to minimize finger movement and maximize economy of motion. Obviously, it worked. Now that's the kind of discipline I can only take a step back from and admire. Kinda like Rocky Balboa workin' out with sides of beef in the meat locker.

I think that economy of motion is key. Try forgetting about the scales and just work for a while on the string skip with your metronome. It's probably more difficult, in this case, at slower tempos to keep it clean, because it feels so funky.

I never did quite get it. But like other techniques I've failed miserably at, the work I put into it did eventually pay dividends. For me it was suddenly finding myself quite comfortable with the "rake" licks that SRV and others were so fond of. This seemed to happen out of the blue, and much later on. I'm not suggesting that you "settle" when hitting a brick wall with a new technique; Merely that all work is good work. Eventually things can creep into your playing unexpectedly, and often they can be traced back to something you worked on years ago, as was the case for me with the rake licks. BTW, I'm sure he wasn't the first, but the first guy I remember effectively incorporating the rake thing into his style was Barry Bailey of the Atlanta Rhythm Section, a highly overlooked player.

And I'm rambling again, sorry. Anyway, I'd suggest doing a search for anything Mr. Gambale has to say on the subject. Frank's the prime purveyor of the technique. He's the Sweep Guy.

Corleone, excellent post!!

Hey, thanks man.

Hey, I realize this is quite an old post but it is a subject that I feel warranted some attention anyway. About two years ago I got frustrated with the trouble I was having with my accuracy and speed. Not wanting to become a metal shredder, (no offense to any out there) I was kinda iffy about the idea of sweep picking. However, I decided to incorporate it into my playing. I had a lot of trouble making it work until I began my study with an incredible bebop player in my area. He showed me how to practice it, rather that just saying "hey, just do it until you get it right." I found that using standard scales rather than the usual three note per string type helped me keep out of the triplet rut. First of all, as with practice in general, the first part of it is focused repetition(don't start playing your favorite solo in the middle of your practice regimen). But the real key is with the metronome. You start at a speed that is almost childishly slow, so that you have time to think about how you are going to pick each note. You first play quarter notes, concentrating on using the sweep technique of course, but also listening to make sure that every note is the same volume, and play up and down the scale. You then do the same thing with eighth notes, sixteenth notes and thirty second notes. Next, you play a polyrhythmic triplet and sextuplet, with the accent on every fourth note. This second part is pretty tough, but it can help drill into you the different feels between the triplet and the 1/4 through 32nd notes. What I recommend is that you start in the key of C, and run through the standard five positions, spending time enough in each position that you allow yourself the proper devotion to each, without feeling that you need to master all of them at once. In other words, don't move on to the next position until you have gotten to the point that you're not fumbling too bad through the first one. After you get comfortable in the key C, go through each key in the order of the circle of fourths or fifths. Also, when you get fluid at one speed, move the metronome up a click, and hover at the sixteenth note speed until you can play the 32nd notes. Before long you'll be playing your ass off! You'll find that sweep arpeggios become a god bit easier, as well. I love what the previous post said about economy of motion. That is absolutely essential. I think a big part of that is repetition enough that you learn to relax. Also, I think that at first, until you get some muscle memory with the excercise, it is okay to have a wider picking stroke. If you do it enough it'll become like second nature. Good luck to anyone struggling with this technique, and don't believe it if someone tells you that you'll drain all the soul from your playing by doing it (as many people told me). It frees you up by lessening the amount of energy you have to expend with picking, and makes your playing sound a lot cleaner.

I know this may be obvious, but one more thing about sweep picking for anyone who's not aware (the thing that makes it a sweep, as far as I know): As far as getting to the next string quick enough, the thing to do is this: everytime you switch strings, you do a stroke in that direction. In otherwords, if you go from the E to the A string, you do a downstroke. If you go from the G to the D string, you do an upstroke. Effectively, what this does is set up a somewhat awkward effect of often having two downstrokes in a row, or two upstrokes in a row. What you do is make the second stroke part of the same motion as the first one. It's really just doing one downstroke but playing two notes with it. This is what makes it such an economized technique. You can play a lot of notes while hardly even moving your hand. a good illustration of this is in the Guitar Grimoire (sp?) on scales and arpeggios. Good luck.

You guys have given a great description of sweep picking.
One more question is, what about the muting side of things? what is done in the way of muting to keep all stuff clean. I sweep a little but have never really achieved greatness/speed with real clean notes.
Also where can I go to get a bunch of easy to handle sweep patterns that accomidate a smaller hand?
As an example I max out my reach on a 25.5 scale fretboard while playing notes on the 3-5-7 frets with my index-ring-pinky respectivly.

Thanks
Craig

check out my site Guitar From The Green goo for my gear and music.

kingpin, I know I'm chipping in late here, but here's a little bit of stuff...

to keep things clean on the sweep, I keep my pick flat to the strings so the fullness of the note's really heard and there's no chirping of the pick. also, I use the bottom half of my palm to lightly mute the strings as I go. (so the palm part I use follows the string picking pattern) lots of people like john petrucci just move the pick and keep their palm anchored, tho.

some easy small hand arpeggios would be: the top 3 notes of an e minor chord at the 7th fret...then just add one note at the 10th fret(high e string) play all the notes as one arpeggio. another is in the same spot. the notes are: 9th fret/4th string, 7th fret/3rd string, 8th fret/2nd string, and 7th fret/1st string. immediately slide the last note up one fret and back down and go back down as the e minor arpeggio from the first example. it works pretty nice, I use it all the time. that would be a G major arpeggio that's suited for small hands and is easy. a few little ones like that are nice for jazzy or quick bursts in a rock solo. especially if you explore a few chromatic notes following the arpeggio. it's easy and effective.

hope that small bit of info helps.

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