How To Sweep Pick Faster In 30 Minutes Using A Powerful Guitar Practice Training Routine
Learning how to sweep pick faster isn’t just limited to playing an entire arpeggio up and down countless times until it eventually sounds good… Most guitar players use this approach and their sweep picking technique takes years to develop.
Good news: it doesn’t have to take you years to sweep pick arpeggios fast and clean.
You quickly get better at playing fast and clean arpeggios using a practice approach that isolates different picking attacks. This places your sweep picking technique under a microscope so you don’t overlook critical flaws that are holding you back.
Sweep pick faster and cleaner in just 30 minutes per day using the practice routine below.
Focus mainly on two types of arpeggios while using this practice routine:
Sweep picking arpeggios that do not use rolling:
Sweep picking arpeggios that do use rolling technique:
Quickly review how to roll notes cleanly by reading this article on how to master sweep picking rolling technique.
Use This Sweep Picking Practice Routine To Quickly Play Arpeggios Fast And Clean
Play each of the following steps one-after-the-other with no break in between until the very end.
Step One (Repeat For 1 Minute): Tremolo pick every note in the arpeggio.
Tremolo picking technique isolates each note in the arpeggio using much faster picking speed than a single pick stroke (like normal). This helps smooth out the transition between notes, while simultaneously improving your speed picking technique.
Make this and every step extra effective by picking with tons of power to articulate every note as clearly as possible.
Step Two (Repeat For 1 Minute): Play the arpeggio’s pattern ascending (moving from lower strings to higher strings) only. Play fast.
This isolates the downstroke aspect of your sweep picking technique. While playing ascending only, it is easier to identify flaws in the few notes you play. By playing fast, you are able to spot mistakes that only occur at faster speeds. Correct them as you see them to make quick progress.
Step Three (Repeat For 1 Minute):
Play the arpeggio’s pattern descending
(moving from higher strings to lower strings) only. Play fast.
This isolates the upstroke aspect of your sweep picking technique. The upstroke is usually weaker than the downstroke when it comes to picking technique. Isolating it strengthens it, and brings it closer to the strength of your downstroke.
Result: It feels much easier to sweep pick fast and
clean whether you are playing ascending or descending notes in an arpeggio.
Step Four (Repeat For 1 Minute): While ascending only, tremolo pick the highest note.
This combines the powerful aspects of practicing only with
the downstroke aspect of an arpeggio with the precision of isolating notes with
tremolo picking. Once you are comfortable tremolo picking the highest note,
experiment with using tremolo picking on different notes within the arpeggio.
Step Five (Repeat For 1 Minute): While descending only, repeat the first two notes of the pattern many times as fast as you can. Once they are clean, add on the next note and continue from there.
This breaks down the previous “descending only” step into
two notes at a time. This focuses in even closer on playing two notes cleanly
as fast as you can.
Adding notes from here gives you the ability to play fast and clean sweep picking arpeggios one-note-at-a-time.
Once you are comfortable with this step, begin applying the
concept both ascending and descending.
Step Six (Repeat For 1 Minute): Play the entire sweep picking arpeggio fast while briefly pausing between repetitions.
It’s easier to process and fix mistakes when you add a brief
moment of pause in between each repetition. Do this step by not only playing
the entire arpeggio, but by breaking it down into 2 or 3 note groups at a time.
Step Seven (Repeat For 1 Minute): Play the entire sweep picking arpeggio like normal.
After going through the previous steps, playing the sweep
picking lick like normal feels much easier.
Break: Rest for 3 minutes. Repeat the practice routine two
more times (including the rest at the end each time) for a total of 30 minutes.
You easily have the power to make as much progress with your sweep picking as many guitarists make in months after just one week of using this routine daily!
Want to learn more creative and powerful practice approaches that improve your sweep picking? Get articles, videos and free resources to help you sweep pick like never before on this page for sweep picking technique.