Sweep Picking Arpeggios

Sweep Picking Arpeggios - by Chi

Allright, exams finally over..and as I promised to post some lessons here..so here goes my first

one..

This one is going to be about Arpeggios (and Sweep Picking). Most of you would know what

arpeggios are, but i'll define it here for those who don't. An arpeggio is where you play a chord

broken up. So you don't
strum it all at once, instead you pick it apart and play it note for note
(in any order).

Now what about sweep picking? The idea behind sweep picking is that you're going to play
notes, one after another, that are on strings next to each
other, rather than playing notes on the same string. It's the
same idea as strumming a chord, except with pick sweeping you
want the individual notes to stand out rather than playing
them all at the same time. This allows you to play notes one
after another much faster than if we were using other
techniques such as alternate picking.

How is this lesson going to help you? First of all, if you play guitar, which you certainly

do..(and thats why you are here) this is going to help you -

o Know your fretboard better.
o Help you play faster and probably even more accurately.
o Write better riffs and solos.
o Increase your understanding of chords.

{
The first thing to note when using arpeggios in your solos is try not to
think of chord forms. A lot of beginners, and even some seasoned players
like to think of chords as the shape they make with their fretting hand.
They'll say to themselves "Ok I'm going to play an E major so I'll shape
my hand like this and start on an E". That kind of technique can help you
out in a lot of situations but when it comes time to write melodies, and
even chord progessions for that matter, it limits you. Instead think notes.
If I tell you to picture a D major I don't want you to picture a hand. I
want you picture the notes D F# and A.

There's one other restriction that we can lift. If you were to strum a B
minor (for example) or apreggiate it for a rythm lick you would usually
want to start on B to really bring out that you're arpeggating that chord.
In lead, however, it doesn't really matter. If you listen to Areggios From
Hell by Yngwie Malmsteen, for example, you might have a hard time actually
picking out that he's apreggiating chords at all. That's because you don't
have to apreggiate so that it sounds like you're playing chords. [Here's the tab -

https://indianguitartabs.com/showthread.php?t=2143&highlight=arpeggios+hell ]

So what good are arpeggios? In solos they bring a tremendous ammount of
harmony. They're great for licks such as pick sweeps, taps, or even climbs
where we want to bring out a lot of harmony. Adjacent notes in the key will
sound like crud because they don't play together very well and we play notes
like that when we do climbs, alternate picks etc. where harmony isn't whatwe're
after.
} >>extracted from another article.


Ok now, lets get some exercises..

First to begin with i'd recommend the exercise by John Petrucci from 'Rock Discipline' on Sweep

Picking..which goes something like..

E||-------15-12-------------16-13-----||
B||-----14-----13---------15-----14---||
G||---13---------14-----14--------15--||(Goes on..)
D||-12-------------15-13-----------16-||
A||-----------------------------------||
E||-----------------------------------||

Don't Remember it that well..but do check it out. Exercise 3 and 24 from "Rock Discipline" by

John Petrucci.

^So thats how you have started to Sweep Pick.

Now these are some arpeggios which i'm giving as exercises..

Code:

       Emaj	F#m

E||------4-7/9p5---------------------||
B||-----5-------7--------------------||
G||----4---------6-------------------||
D||---6-----------7------------------||
A||--7-------------9/-(continued in next bar)
E||----------------------------------||

       G#m	Amaj
E||-------7-11/12p9------------------||
B||------9---------10----------------||
G||-----8------------9---------------||
D||----9--------------11-------------||
A||-/11-----------------12/----------||
E||----------------------------------||

       Bmaj	     C#m
E||----------11-14/16p12-------------||
B||--------12-----------14-----------||
G||------11---------------13---------||
D||----13-------------------14-------||
A||-/14-----------------------16-----||
E||----------------------------------||

	D#dim	      Emaj
E||---------14-17-19p16--------------||
B||-------16-----------17------------||
G||-----14---------------16----------||<thats right where we started (Emaj), & an octave higher.
D||---16-------------------18--------||
A||-18-----------------------19------||
E||----------------------------------||

And now backwards..

Code:

	Emaj	      D#dim
E||---------16-19-17-14--------------||
B||-------17-----------16------------||
G||-----16---------------14----------||
D||---18-------------------16--------||
A||-19-----------------------18------||
E||----------------------------------||

	D#dim	      C#m
E||---------14-17-16-12--------------||
B||-------16-----------14------------||
G||-----14---------------13----------||
D||---16-------------------14--------||
A||-18-----------------------16------||
E||----------------------------------||

       C#m	     Bmaj
E||---------12-16-14p11--------------||
B||-------14-----------12------------||
G||-----13---------------11----------||
D||---14-------------------13--------||
A||-16-----------------------14------||
E||----------------------------------||

       Bmaj	     Amaj
E||----------11-14-12-9--------------||
B||--------12-----------10-----------||
G||------11----------------9---------||
D||----13-------------------11-------||
A||--14-----------------------12-----||
E||----------------------------------||

	Amaj	    G#m
E||-----------9-11-7-----------------||
B||--------10--------9---------------||
G||------9-------------8-------------||
D||----11----------------9-----------||
A||--12-------------------11---------||
E||----------------------------------||

	G#m		F#m
E||----------7-11-9-5----------------||
B||--------9----------7--------------||
G||------8--------------6------------||
D||----9------------------7----------||
A||--11---------------------9--------||
E||----------------------------------||

	F#m		Emaj
E||----------5-9-7-4-----------------||
B||--------7---------5---------------||
G||------6-------------4-------------||
D||----7-----------------6-----------||
A||--9---------------------7---------||
E||----------------------------------||

You can also slide when coming backwards though.

Now try this!
Eugene's Trick Bag - Steve Vai (From the movie "Crossroads")


E||--------------5h8/12-8-5-----------|------------------7---------------|
B||------------5------------5---------|----------------9---9-------------|
G||----------5----------------5-------|------------7h9-------9h7---------|
D||--------7--------------------7-----|--------6h9---------------9h6-----|
A||------7------------------------7---|----5h7-----------------------7h5-|
E||--5-8----------------------------8-|--7-------------------------------|


E||------------------5---------------|------------------10h13h10-----------------|
B||--------------5h8---8h5-----------|---------------10----------10--------------|
G||------------6-----------6---------|----------7h10----------------10-----------|
D||--------5h7---------------7h5-----|--------7------------------------12h7------|
A||------7-----------------------7---|----5h8------------------------------------|
E||--5h9---------------------------9-|--5-----------------------------------10h8-|


E||--------------------------------------------|
B||-----------------------12-------------------|
G||-----------------10-13----13-10-------------|
D||------------9-12----------------12-9--------|
A||-------8-11--------------------------11-8---|
E||--7-10------------------------------------7-|


E||-----------------------------5-----8--|--12--8/---16-----------|
B||-----------------------5--------5-----|------------------------|
G||-----------------5--------5-----------|------------------------|
D||-----------7--------7-----------------|------------------------|
A||-----7--------7-----------------------|------------------------|
E||--5-----8-----------------------------|-----------------0------|




If you like my lesson..give me reputation and rate this thread!
:rockon:
Chi.

 

excellent article..kudos and reps to u!
just wanted to add that while sweep picking u only fret the note ur playing, this is so that two or more notes dont ring together...but suppose u wanna play for eg eugenes trick bag's first bar
E||--------------5h8/12-8-5-----------|
B||------------5*------------5*---------|
G||----------5*----------------5*-------|
D||--------7--------------------7-----|
A||------7------------------------7---|
E||--5-8----------------------------8-|
then ull have to roll ur index finger so that the two notes( the ones ive starred) dont ring together.... i hope u get what I mean.

 

now that ma cup of tea... excellent post.. will go thru this when i get some spare time..

 

thank you, i appreciate your appreciation.
@dennis, thanks for the add on..
n shahrukh, do try it, it took me quite some hardwork..

 

Very good article. That eugene's trick bag is a very good example. Keep up the good work. Repuation to you.

 

Reps to you dude, seems like an awesome lesson, would check it out.....damn exams prevent me.........anyways, will get back to you later.

 

Excellent article Chi.

 

thanks, the hyderabadi team. :

 

hey 6string , nice going dude , good post !!!

 

reps to you and hats off 6string !!!!! great job ... :nw:

 

Thank you Bob and Apro.

 

eh.. I don't understand this! How am I supposed to play this?? Am I to play this like scales?? Or somethins else. Okay can anyone tell me what to do? And if you have a very easy arpeggio , plzz post.

 

yea, u play them note after note..ur NOT strumming like a chord.
the arppeggios i've given are quite easy and for beginners..

actually i believe this lesson is meant for beginners..

try out the john petrucci exercise given first...

 

Hey thanks man.. Hmm 6string does Arpeggios have certain pace to be played with?? I mean I haven't tried those yet , i'll do them once i get some time. Okay few more questions!!
i. does it require a certain pace?
ii. can I play an Arpeggio by holding a particular chord??
iii. And if Arpeggios are to be played like the simple tabs i.e. one after the other where do you think we have a difference??

P.S. I am a novice and a complete budhhu/boka so plz pardon if i have asked something foolish!!
ROCK ON!!

 

i. arpeggios can be fingerpicked or sweep picked, played real slow or real fast, its upon you how you want to use them in your music. For now practice them slowly, focus on accuracy rather than speed.

ii. you can play an arpeggio holding a particular chord, and you'll do that mostly when you are going to fingerpick it. I'll probably write a beginner tutuorial on fingerpicking arpeggios too

iii. difference btw what? "tabs" or tablature is just a way of writing down music played on guitar or bass.

 

really fabulous thread man. provides a lot of help to the needy.

 

tHANKS FOR ANSWERing ME...LOL.. I'm looking forward to your tutorial for fingerpicking or something like this..lol.. :

 

yes.... introduce the wrold to appregios!!! i lvoe em - my favourites are the quick 3 string ones - theyre easy and sound awesome - 5 string and 6 string ones are slgiht harder and have to be used more sparingly to avoid the song from sounding strange...

i also like 2 string ones which u can circularly pick - they give a very nice sound

the hardest though -(ive just started on them) are the string skipping arpreggios.... for eg.. intro of universal mind by liquid tension experiment.... very difficult to play accuratly and with speed....

 

whoa man !!! LTE has a guitarist named JOHN PETRUCCI !!! ... :shock: ... it has gotta be difficult to play accurately AND with speed ...

 

You've done a fantastic job for the beginners like me. Weldone