Quest for Shred Post #dos

Sweep Picking.
Instead of explaining it... I'll let this guy do it. This guy really helped me when I got started. Just moving your right hand back and forth in that motion really really helped. Even if I felt it was futile at the time.



But I'll post up the guitar pro files for the excerises I use. And post up my progress. Maybe one day someone (Jason!) will actually read through these and get more of an understanding... if said reader is inclined.

Honestly. If this is a technique a guitarist wants to utilize, then that guitarist should start doing the technique (and this applies to all techniques really) a.s.a.p. One of my biggest regrets was thinking something was too hard and putting it off. I'm still a newb to all this, but after a few months of sounding this shit on this I've progressed, albeit slowly.

From now on... I'm just going to post guitar pro 5 files. So to my non-existant readers... Go to your favorite bitTorrent site, and download guitar pro 5. Link to my two sweep picking exercises.

The two exercises are a 5 string sweep, and a 3 string sweep, with some extra alternate picking in there. It's actually the intro to an Atreyu song called "Bleeding Mascara." It's a weird time, 12/8, and they are 8th notes... so the max speed on that one is 265 bpm which would be around 130 if played in 16th notes. The 5 string sweep is just an arpeggio, 16th notes. If you don't know what any of that means, who cares. Just do it, and it will all come in time.

How I practice these:
If totally new to sweep picking then watch the video and start to get the motion down. Once I was ready to actually do a sweep... I take the guitar pro file, and turn the tempo down to something I can play, gradually increasing the tempo until I mess up. When I find my optimum speed, I practice that until I can move up 5 bpm. Rinse + repeat. Slow, accurate, and clean progress. Cannot stress this enough, even if I have a hard time following my own advice sometimes. Do it!

Personal progress as of June 1:
That 3 string shape I've gotten to 100% but its not as clean as it could be, so I'll say im around 90% through with that shape.
That 5 string shape I can do about 90 bpm, with a goal of probably 140.

Hopefully, motivation comes back. I've had a real hard time this week with getting into my schedule. Next post will be another lick I'm stealing from Kirk Hammett.