How To Improve Your Sweep Picking Speed Using Easy Short-Cuts To Help You Play Lightning-Fast Arpeggios With Amazing Accuracy

Playing amazing sweep picking arpeggios is one of the most impressive things to do on guitar. Many guitarists think that improving sweep picking speed is incredibly difficult, but it’s actually quite easy when you know how to practice the right way.

Playing fast sweep picking licks is easier and more fun when you use these simple short-cuts:

Make Any Sweep Picking Arpeggio Easy By Breaking It Into Small Bite-Sized Chunks

It’s a common mistake to try burning through a large 6-note per string arpeggio before mastering fundamental elements of sweep picking technique. This results in a sloppy mess of notes that sounds totally amateur.

Here’s a much better approach:

Focus on mastering sweep picking arpeggios in small 2-3 string segments. Breaking down arpeggios like this makes it easier to process every movement your hands are making.

For example: This B minor 7 arpeggio contains two strings with a hammer on. Playing the pattern for the first time is difficult if you are not used to this.

Breaking it down into smaller sections makes the pattern much easier to process. This makes it easier to play perfectly a few notes at a time, so you don’t become overwhelmed.

Play each segment of the pattern several times at a fast speed before moving onto another. This helps you learn to correct the mistakes you make while only playing at faster speeds.

Result: Playing sweep picking arpeggios fast becomes effortless.


Short-Cut#2: Play Cleaner + More Creative Arpeggios Using A Simple Pause

It’s much easier to play clean sweep picking arpeggios without slowing down when you give yourself time to mentally process what you play. The most simple way to do this is by inserting a short moment of rest at the end of an arpeggio.

This video demonstrates how to use a simple pause to play fast and clean arpeggios:

Apply this concept to master any sweep picking lick like so:

  1. Choose the arpeggio pattern you want to master.

  2. Play the arpeggio as fast as you can several times while adding a pause to the end as shown in the video.

  3. Repeat the previous step with this change: after 3 repetitions, move every note of the pattern up one fret. Then after another 3 repetitions, move it back down. Optional: play an entirely different arpeggio pattern (as seen in the video).

This simple practice approach helps you listen for and correct mistakes that make your arpeggios sound sloppy. It also trains you to think faster and process notes more easily at fast speeds – making your technique feel more fluid and natural.

Short-Cut#3: Clean Up Every Note In An Arpeggio One At A Time Using Tremolo Picking

Tremolo picking a note in an arpeggio articulates it so your mind focuses on playing it perfectly. Since tremolo picking requires picking the string many times in rapid succession, picking only once (like normal in a sweep picking arpeggio) feels much easier.

This video shows you how to play cleaner, more badass sounding sweep patterns using tremolo picking:

Here are several ways to use tremolo picking to improve your sweep picking speed and play creative arpeggios:

  • Repeat an arpeggio continuously while tremolo picking the highest note of the arpeggio only.

  • Repeat an arpeggio continuously while tremolo picking the highest note on the first repetition, then the second highest on the next repetition, third highest and the third, etc.

  • Tremolo pick every note in an arpeggio, then sweep pick it like normal. Alternate between both approaches for several minutes.

  • Use a very powerful pick attack while tremolo picking to force yourself to lock both hands in perfect sync.

  • Sweep picking half of an arpeggio while tremolo picking the other half.

 

Short-Cut#4: Improve Your Sweep Picking Technique With No Practice At All Using Higher Action

Making this simple adjustment requires no practice on your part, only the time it takes to adjust your strings or have someone do it for you. Playing guitar using a higher action (strings are higher away from the fretboard) makes it much easier to separate notes in arpeggio so they don’t bleed together.

Here’s how it works:

When the string is very close to the fretboard, it takes more control to release a note cleanly while keeping the finger close to the string.

When string action is higher, you can easily relax a finger from a note to mute it while still touching the string (so that your fingers don’t have to come off the strings unless necessary).

This makes your sweep picking cleaner AND faster since your fingers move less!

Your sweep picking speed and accuracy goes through the roof after practicing the ideas in this article. However, there is much more to learn. Watch this free sweep picking video to learn more ways to play arpeggios fast and clean while avoiding the sloppy mistakes others make.