Sweep Picking is a technique that, to the uninitiated, appears to be impossible.
There’s a good reason for that.
Like most techniques, Sweep Picking is the solution to a problem of how to play certain things on the guitar. Or rather, it makes certain things possible on the guitar.
In other words, it looks impossible because, without Sweep Picking, it is impossible.
But there’s more to this illusion than simply the lack of information…
Sweep Picking, like anything on the guitar, requires a specific approach to practicing it to get the proper results.
If a guitarist tries to use brute force to get it down using advanced patterns at high speeds, it can feel as if they’re trying to smash their head through a brick wall.
If they’re able to make any progress at all, their end result will be incredibly sloppy and muffled – a direct contradiction to the purpose of sweep picking.
This leads many guitarists to believe that the technique is entirely inaccessible to them and it helps reinforce superstitions such as the idea that some people are born with a special “gift” for guitar and others, presumably like themselves, simply are not.
While it’s common for people to develop beliefs like that unconsciously, thankfully we can mostly dispel them by simply articulating them.
Saying it out loud is usually enough to see how ridiculous it really is.
The real difference between the guitarists who succeed at a technique like sweep picking and those who fail isn’t talent, but simply knowledge.
More to the point, it’s usually because guitarists draw the wrong conclusions about sweep picking when seeing it.
In reality, Sweep Picking is just a basic picking technique like any other. There’s nothing particularly difficult or special about it.
The confusion occurs for two reasons:
- Guitarists think of advanced sweep picking patterns, such as complex sweep arpeggios played at extremely high speeds, when they think of sweep picking.
- Sweep picking allows for things to be played on the guitar that would be impossible otherwise, creating the illusion that it would be impossible to learn.
For the first reason, it’s important to understand that a fundamental picking technique can be used to play anything from the most basic types of patterns to the most advanced. It can also be used at any speed, from extremely slow to extremely fast.
Just because a picking technique has been used to play extremely advanced things does not mean that it, in itself, is extremely advanced.
For the second reason, the solution here is just a matter of recognizing this illusion and taking the time to learn the fundamentals of the picking technique – which is not difficult at all and is even accessible to absolute beginners on the guitar.
Once you have the fundamentals of sweep picking technique down, it’s perfectly simple to start using it for progressively more advanced patterns.
As long as you start slowly, you can work your way up and master any sweep picking pattern, technique or style…
…but, like anything, you must first begin at the beginning.
Dan Mumm
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