Sweep Picking Technique: How to Master One of the Guitar's Most Difficult Methods

The sweep picking technique is an advanced guitar technique in which the player picks notes on consecutive adjacent strings by moving his/her pick in a continuous down or up stroke. The term sweep is used to describe the continual motion across the strings. If you have never heard just how wickedly awesome this technique can be listen to players like Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Jeff Loomis, and Frank Gambale.

The best way to explain it simply is to compare it to strumming a chord. Strumming and sweep picking are similar in that your pick moves across several strings in the same direction. The difference however is in the fretting hand. When strumming a chord you would hold the chord shape and allow all notes to sound in unison with one another. This is not the case with sweep picking. The idea behind sweep picking is to play a broken chord or arpeggio, sounding each note individually.

To execute the sweep picking technique you will first need to practice the right and left hand components separately. Begin with your right hand. Let the pick fall from string to string as if you are strumming a chord. It should be smooth and continuous. Do not separate each pick stroke by lifting up or away from the string. Instead, drag the pick over the strings in a fluid motion.

Mastery of the left hand is going to be the most difficult. I know it was for me. the trick to get each note to sound individually is to immediately mute each note after picking it. To do so lift your finger off of the note so that it is resting on the the string.

*Important! Lifting your finger completely of the string in a fast motion will create a pull off and the open string may ring while playing the next note. That is why you need to mute each note after it is played.*

Many times you will see two or three notes that are on the same fret. In this case you will have to roll your finger, simultaneously muting the previous note and letting the current note ring.

Sound hard? It is.

I suggest taking each finger one at a time and practice rolling it over two or three strings. Make sure your goal is to get each note to sound cleanly.

So are you still excited about sweep picking?

This is not a technique for the squeamish. It will take a lot of time and frustration to master. I suggest practicing it at least 20 minutes a day sometime during the middle of your practice session when your hands are nice and warmed up. Start with smaller arpeggios that span maybe three or four strings. As you get better try playing the big daddy arpeggios that cover five and six strings at a time.

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