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Been on heavy practice with guitar lately (I'm a bass player) been listening to a lot of tosin abasi, allan holdsworth, yngwie malmsteem etc. I just ordered a book called hybrid picking for guitar by Gustavo assis and now I'm trying to find something on sweep picking. If you guys could help that'd be awesome
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08-19-2015 01:59 AM
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Found a book on Amazon by frank gambale "speed picking for guitar" anyone familiar with that?
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Anyone?
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There are a few. Gambale's book and DVD, while old, pretty much describes the process.
But, if you're looking for other examples
Jimmy Bruno - Art of Picking
Sheets of Sound Home Page
Recently Miles Okazaki released a book called Fundamentals of Guitar. There's an entire chapter on Symmetrical Picking.
The Economy Picking Guitar School app is fun to work with as well.
But as I said earlier, Gambale's book is pretty much all you need. It just requires a lot of practice, especially if you've already spent a number of years using alternate picking. I was pretty hard core into it for awhile. I would spend time writing out my own lines and figuring out the best way to sweep pick them. I would also take sections from Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin and work out how to sweep pick them. I found that working them out myself helped me grasp the concept better.
Adam Rogers has it down. I took some lessons with him and he told me he'd learn Bird solos from the Omnibook, and because the way the lines are structured he developed his way of picking to play them. But, he also specifically said that he never actually spent time working on 'sweep picking'.
Good luck.Last edited by Dana; 08-21-2015 at 10:43 AM.
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First, buy a small broom...
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Hmmm I already tried that but Im not comfortable with the bristle gauge
Originally Posted by ronjazz
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Originally Posted by b_ryceeeee
Here is the single exercise that every shredder leaned to sweep with. A three string arpeggio.
major
e........4-7-4
b...5.............5
g.4
one continuos down stroke for the first three notes, up stroke on the 7, pull off to 4, upstroke b5
repeat 2000 times and you will understand sweep picking.
if you're interested in economy picking, check out the thread "one way to hold a pick" around page 13 I had mark post a video of an excellent excercise. If you do these two exercises, you will be guaranteed to improve your picking. Good luck!!!
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http://www.amazon.com/Sweep-Picking-...MP2NDSRDPG9WE7
You might find this helpful. It starts with 2-string sweeps with a 3 feel and a 4 feel and then moves up adding one string at a time. It has helped me immensely and I plan to keep it in my practice routine. I am averaging 2 to 3 days a week for 30 minutes. I hope to bump it up to a solid 5 days a week. I have had it for around 3 months and am just about to go to the chapter that adds a third string.
Hope this helps.
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AlsoRan, could the exercises in this book be helpful to people who fall into the Benson/downward slant camp who sweep downwards but alternate upwards? IE are the exercises clearly divided into those ascending in pitch and those descending?
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I saw that book on Amazon too. Here's the other one I was looking at http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/079352...RFL&ref=plSrch Originally Posted by AlsoRan
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heres the gambale book I was looking at http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/079352...RFL&ref=plSrch what do you think of that one? And "alsoran" just posted a link to Brett millers book that looks legit too Originally Posted by Dana
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Hello Stu. Originally Posted by Stu Foley
A picture is worth a thousand words, so they say, so I suggest you check out the "Look Inside" feature to preview of few pages of the book.
But to answer your question, I say the answer is "Yes" to being helpful to Benson Pickers. The exercises all tend to start on a lower-pitch string, ascend to the higher-pitch string. Many have a pull off included or hammer on included which can really increase your note output.
I have got to add that whatever method you choose, you will have many months of "gruntwork" ahead of you in trying to master it. I plan to keep this book so I am lightly writing the current beats per minute and I have circle some that I found more difficult.
As a matter of fact, let me go and grab that book right now!
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For what it's worth, I have an unorthodox sweep picking call. It's one exercise I found. Originally Posted by b_ryceeeee
I finished Bob Conti's PRECISION TECHNIQUE book (DVD included) last year. It's a picking book or rather a "technique book". As he puts it, "Technique is the voice with which you use to speak". Anyway, he uses a bunch of adapted etudes in there and some jazz lines to drastically improve picking technique. Raised my game 100% he did, yes sir!!
Conti's picking is a mix of intense sweep picking and alternate picking. Exercise #13 in particular is a sweep picking exercise with a little alternate picking mixed in. If you master that exercise alone it will give you ideas on how to apply that kind of sweep picking to your playing. It starts on the A string down to the high E and back again. Conti's demonstration of that exercise is insane, however I have to point out that he uses a very soft pick. He "suggests" how to pick it ("economy of -picking hand-motion" he says) but he also reminds you that you can "adapt" his suggestion to however way that makes it EASIEST for YOU to play it. I'm with that! Some of the very fast stuff stuff he plays with his soft pick, my heavy pick won't allow using his exact motions - so I have to adapt. ;-)
He refers to "sweep picking" as a "little trick" I learned when he started playing as a teenager. They were sweep picking back in THOSE DAYS? Sheesh.
Anyway, I switched to the small Ultex Jazz III pick (from the larger one) to help my fingers stay close to the strings. I've finally found my pick after umpteen years of testing.
That one exercise alone is definitely worth it (at least it was for me).
...good luck on your continued search for sweep picking nirvana!Last edited by West LA Jazz; 08-22-2015 at 10:08 AM.
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Yes, that's the Gambale book that I referred to earlier. Mine's an older copy from the 80's, and it came with a cassette. The recorded exercises sound dated (from the 80's), but everything you need to know is there. Originally Posted by b_ryceeeee
There's also the DVD if you prefer that over a book.
That's the secret. In the end, I don't think it matters which book you choose, it's putting in the time day after day. I also think that taking things you play now using alternate picking and working out how to play them using sweep picking will help as well. Originally Posted by AlsoRan
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cool ill probly check the dvds out on youtube first as there all on there right now. I definitely know all about that grunt work. 2-4 hrs maybe more when I have free time almost everyday for the past 7 years. I love grunt work! haha Originally Posted by Dana
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Originally Posted by b_ryceeeee
Like i said above, I can save you the cost and time of a book if you try that excercize I posted.
Here is the whole book in two sentences.
the goal of the sweep technique is to turn consecutive down/up strokes into one continuous stroke. Once you get the pattern down, you have to practice it fast enough that the consecutive stroke become one single stroke/motion.
ecomony picking (the single string sweep) is again used when two consecutive down/up strokes are available. This happens when you have an odd number of notes per string. The technique remains the same. Again check out the video for an excellent excercize.
thats the whole book, doing those two things will teach you everything you need to know. Because the entire concept is based on turning the consecutive strokes into one motion. Until you can do the above, reading about it is just a waste of time.
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I learned the gypsy jazz technique several years ago and I found that using their rest stroke technique totally transformed my sweep picking.
I explain it a little in this video I did a few years ago. Hope you find it helpful!
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Originally Posted by petestorz
Nice!!
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Thanks!
Just found another
Think I'm gonna update those old vids soon and try to get some better angles of the pick
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Yey! Another Eastman player! I like the exercise, it would be cool to turn that physical exercise into something more musical, while keeping the idea.
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I've used it on top of dominant chords for sure. Though I found for me it's more a question of how to build into this riff maybe a little more than how to get out of it. Because it's such a strange phrase I find you already need to be "outside" before you get into this level of weirdness :P
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Check out this old thread on sweep picking that I started.
Post 8 is very interesting with Jonathan Kriesberg going crazy with sweep picking.
Sweep Picking - Is it relevant in Jazz?
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Yea, I played it a couple o times and it sounded pretty hip with some dim and altered lines
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The one thing I don't like about the technical exercises is that most of them neglect getting a full tone on each string for the sake of the speed of the exercise (not saying that you don't, pete). I might give these a go and try and get that John Williams/ David Russell/Johnny Smith/ Howard Alden kinda tone going as well. Then I can make em musical.
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For classical guitar, it would be the opposite. After watching many master classes, the tone of the note is the priority. That and letting each not sing separately and letting the melody sing. All great ideas to to work into the craft.
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