How To Play Guitar Arpeggios Fast And Clean Using 4 String Pattern Drills
Playing guitar arpeggios fast and clean with sweep picking often seems harder than it really is.
There are tons of easy and painless ways to practice arpeggios to make them less difficult to master.
The key is to master the subtle technical movements required for playing clean.
What are some examples?
·
Rolling technique
·
Picking hand momentum
· Creative arpeggio training
Sweet!
Here are three powerful sweep picking exercises to help you play arpeggios on guitar faster and cleaner than ever before:
Exercise 1: Pinpoint Your Focus On Rolling Technique Mastery
It’s common for the middle notes of an arpeggio to get lost
underneath the highest and lowest notes.
This is often because guitar players are not playing them clearly, and quickly move past them while accented the most easy to hear notes at the top and bottom of the pattern.
Mastering rolling technique helps you pinpoint these middle notes to make them sound great, so the entire arpeggio sounds amazing.
Practice your usual major and minor arpeggios by focusing on making the middle notes perfect using rolling technique as shown in this video:
Focus your mind on making just one note sound perfect at a time. Then switch your focus to another note. Continue like this until the entire arpeggio sounds clean and articulate.
Exercise 2: Make Sure You Maintain Consistent Picking Hand Momentum
Your sweep picking falls apart and becomes sloppy without consistent momentum in your picking hand. Fortunately, this is not a hard skill to practice and improve.
A great way to get better at maintaining momentum in your
picking hand is to practice arpeggio patterns that involve playing 2 notes on
one of the middle strings of the pattern.
This means you’ll need to maintain momentum while also using hammer-ons/pull-offs.
This makes normal arpeggios feel much easier while also massively improving your overall sweep picking technique.
Watch this video at 3:50 to learn how to do it:Exercise 3: Practice Guitar Arpeggios That Use Wider Stretches And Intervals
Playing sweep picking arpeggios with wider stretches that span across larger intervals not only sounds cool, but has the effect of making “normal” patterns seem easy by comparison.
How is this?
Most common arpeggio patterns contain a legato hammer on/pull off at the highest or lowest point in the pattern.
This gives you time to think about what to do next so you are able to make a quick adjustment mentally to continue the pattern.
With many wider interval arpeggios, this isn’t always the case.
For example: Check out the arpeggio comparison below.
How to make this arpeggio easier:
Practice by playing only the first three notes at full speed. If this isn’t possible yet, only practice the first two.
Then gradually add one note at a time until you are able to play the ascending version of the pattern perfectly. Then work on playing the full ascending and descending version in the same way.