Sweep Picking technique

In this lesson I am going to explain a guitar technique called "sweep picking" or also known as "economy picking". Sweep picking allows you to play a flurry of notes at a speed that would be very difficult to match using just alternate picking.

The basic idea of sweep picking is that you are going to play 2 or more notes on adjacent strings using the same picking direction for all of the notes.

A lot of times when the technique of sweep picking is talked about, it is in the context of shedding metal guitar. Players like John Petrucci from Dream Theater, or Yngwie Malmsteen playing lightning speed sweep arpeggios across all 6 strings. But that is only part of what can be done with sweep picking. The technique can be used in a much more subtle manner for some great effects.

The Sweep

Here is one of the most basic sweep picking ideas. You are going to play and arpeggio (the notes of a chord played one at a time) on 3 adjacent strings. This example is a Dm arpeggio on the top 3 string. When sweep picking, you do not want to lift up your pick for each individual note. You want to just let your pick glide (sweep) across the surface of the strings. It is similar to the motion for strumming, but you will articulate each note rather that just hearing all of the notes together as one chord. You also will not want to hold all of your fingers down as if you where playing a chord.

= pick down

= pick up

Here you are just reversing the direction and sweep picking up on all of these notes.

Here you are sweeping picking down, then up. The trick is to keep a steady rhythm.

Sweep picking with hammer-ons and pull-offs In this next example, you are going to add a hammer-on into the arpeggio on the 1st string. In this example you are going to add a pull off the the basic sweep picking arpeggio on the 1st string.