I’m not sure if it’s just me or if most people at the level I’m at also find it difficult to play sweep picking cleanly and accurately. When I first picked up a “teach yourself guitar” back in, ooh, 1993 I think, the chapter on sweep picking was at the very end of the book … a part I never got round to practicing. Consequenlty, whenever I was faced with licks or exercises I’d pick up here and there that involved sweep picking, I’d always shy away from it and dismiss it as “too advanced”. Now what I’m noticing is a serious difficulty in having this specific technique to catch up with everything else. Sweep picking is what is stopping me from playing the solo of “A tout le monde” in full speed … still.
In practical terms, the real issue is first and foremost a hand to hand coordination problem. I can see that when it comes to doing high-speed alternate picking on just the one string. There are various causes for that, tension being probably the most likely culprit, you know the “gaaaah it’s fast” *tenses up* as if it will somehow make it easier to play. Of course, finger accuracy is also an issue and with sweep picking exercises you end up having to roll your finger over the fretboard to make each note sound as if played individually, as opposed to arpeggiated notes which can ring together, and that makes it more difficult in the sense that it doesn’t just involve the fingertips but the whole finger as well.
So I might end up having to take it really slowly with arpeggios, or perhaps giving it twice as much time to practice as any of the other exercises. Seeing as I just could not play anything clear and steady at speeds faster than 96bpm, there is definitely more work required. In a way the book is odd to start you up straight on triplets and pretty quickly moves on to 16th notes which is going to be even harder.
A few more jams to finish things off and take my mind of those technical difficulties helped to keep up the good mood 🙂