Sweep Picking Basics

Sweep picking is a technique of 'sweeping' your pick across the guitar strings in one motion, this enables a guitarists to play (with practice) extremely fast.

Before you think of getting to deep in a study of sweep picking I highly suggest you get the basics down first with alternate picking. Sweep picking is a very useful tool to have but you cannot substitute it to replace alternate picking. I would also suggest you learn what a rest stroke is. If you feel you’re ready to start learning how to 'sweep', then let's move on.

Sweep picking is technique that heavily relies on both the right and left hand. For this lesson we will first focus on the right hand and then move on to the left.

The Right Hand

Sweep picking can only be used when your lick or phrase or whatever it is that you are trying to play spans across several strings, with one note per string. Take the following for example.

***IMPORTANT***

This is where many people are confused about sweep picking. The first half of the lick does use all downstrokes, but that DOES NOT mean you are to play individual downstrokes. INSTEAD you are to use the same downstroke. You start the downstoke on the G string but you dont finish the downstroke till the E string. Thinkof it as sweeping with a broom in one constant motion. The same should be applied to the guitar, sweeping your pick across all 3 strings in one constant motion. YOU USE ONLY ONE STROKE ACROSS ALL 3 STRINGS. This is very important and I cannot stress this enough. The same is done for the upstrokes. Do not play 3 individual upstrokes but instead play only one upstroke across all 3 strings.

Think of a rest stroke. In a rest stroke, you pick one string and as your pick flows past that string it rests on the next string. This is what you should be doing in sweep picking but with one modification. Instead of resting on the next string, you continue your stroke through it.

Now play the lick again. Make sure you use just one downstroke and one upstroke, each stroke crossing all 3 strings in one motion. Some of you may experience a situation where it sounds like a chord, because all the strings are ringing into each other. This is where the left hand comes in.

Part II - The Left Hand