Best Sweep Picking Guitar Tips For Speed In Metal Soloing

No doubt, sweep picking is a staple in metal guitar.

Ever wish you could blaze through amazing sweep picking licks at fast speeds like the pros?

Good news:

It’s not just possible… it can be done sooner than you think! The trick is to not rush into trying too much at once (i.e. large patterns or complicated shapes). Instead, master the fundamentals using effective practice approaches.

After doing this, playing killer sweep picking licks becomes a breeze, so you play fast arpeggios in an effortless manner!

Let’s get started:

Break Down Sweep Picking Arpeggios Into Small Groups Of Notes

It’s reasonable that you want to play bigger sweep picking patterns and play some really amazing licks and ideas with them.

Fortunately, you still can … by using practice that is more productive and less frustrating.

How?

Answer:

Master sweep picking phrases by focusing on two notes (on different strings) at a time.

Here’s an example of how this works:

1. Pick a 3-string sweep picking arpeggio.

2. Play the first two notes in an arpeggio by only ascending for 1 minute.

3. Now play the 2nd and 3rd notes for one minute.

4. Practice the arpeggio similarly except by descending (playing the notes moving from higher pitch strings to lower pitch strings, using upstrokes).

Obviously, you can work on this with any size of arpeggio or guitar lick.

This method makes the whole practice approach much simpler and less discouraging because you instantly observe your errors and practice them to efficiently get rid of them. It’s less frustrating as well because you don’t end up trying to play a complicated lick where some parts are clean and others are sloppy.

Identify & Master Cleanly Releasing Notes

Want the notes of your guitar arpeggios to sound individually without any unwanted noises wrecking them?

Doing this means efficient muting in both the picking hand and fretting hand.

Your fretting hand’s job is to:

1. Keep notes from ringing out simultaneously

2. Stop string noise from occurring on strings above the one you are picking

Here’s how to mute successfully using your fretting hand:

Use the side of your fretting hand pointer finger to softly mute any strings above the one you are currently playing (above = higher in pitch ).

Now, prevent notes of the arpeggio from bleeding together by releasing the string right after a note is performed.

Translation:

Lift your fretting finger off the fret just enough so that it is gently touching the string, but not pressing the string down to produce the sound of the note.

This mutes it, so you are able to play the next note on the next string without them bleeding together.

Check out this video to see a demonstration of muting in the fretting hand for awesome sweep picking:

Use Thumb Muting In Your Picking Hand

Misconception: “Palm muting is the only strategy to silence unplayed strings.”

Indeed, palm muting is terrific for playing chunky rhythm guitar ideas with a particular sound, but not that good for keeping unplayed strings from playing matched up to … using your thumb to do it.

Always use your picking hand thumb to mute unplayed strings that are lower (in pitch) than the one you are presently on.

This video demonstrates how to use thumb muting to clean up sweep picking (plus guitar playing as a whole):

Use any available fingers on your picking hand to mute unplayed strings by gently laying them on the strings above (in pitch) the one you are on.

Master Sweep Picking Rolling Technique

Rolling technique is a key part of sweep picking that enables you to quickly play notes across several strings where the same fret is played on each string.

It’s like performing a barre chord, apart from you don’t want the strings to sound together.

As you are sweep picking the arpeggio, you need to use a somewhat different method.

This is a demonstration of how to get started mastering rolling technique:

Practice perfecting this rolling movement with all fingers to play the same two frets. This improves your rolling skills with each one.

At some point, this technique becomes very natural and you start performing excellent sweep picking licks with ease.

Now that you are aware of how to play fast and clean arpeggios on guitar, find out how to play arpeggios more expressively while soloing. Begin by downloading this expressive guitar soloing resource.