I’ve made many mistakes with sweep picking exercises, which I shall describe for you. It appears that each guitar teacher asks you to play slow and steadily increase the speed. I have come close to quitting the guitar altogether as this method of practicing has frustrated me over and over.
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The issue with me was, I would nearly make myself play real fast at a very early stage and this never worked. For example in my next run through the scale/pattern, I would be able to play at 30bpm semi-perfectly and move right on up to 40bpm. Initially, I did not have an ideal technique at 30bpm and I attempted using it at 40bpm which is one of the nastiest things you could do. It is habit only because your muscles don’t forget the way you played a lick/riff and now also they do the same way. You don,t pick up speed overnight while playing guitar, there i s a tendency among guitar learners to just push through to increase speed and the learners usually forget how they practiced at 30 bpm. They just use this technique to increase their speeds. John F! This is almost like failing your training from flight-school as I don’t know about you and the school which still allows you to fly the next flight from. From Kennedy up to Heathrow.
By now, you have chosen a sweep picking pattern to perfect. You should start by breaking up any really long patterns. believe me this will help you in the long run. you are making it easier to commit the piece to your muscle memory. Next you need to select the correct fingers to perform the short section. I understood i cannot have speed and perfection to play a pattern because i have chosen wrong fingers and they fail me often.
Thirdly, once you have the right fingers in place on your short pattern, begin too slowly and play it at that pace till you get it down perfectly. Attempt varying finger formations and get the pattern even smaller if you think that it will not be up to par. Begin at a slow pace.
When you achieve the required speed comfortably , you can then increase it by 1 bpm. Practise it at the same speed for 2 minutes and in case you are fine at that speed shift 1bpm upwards once more. Move up in this manner and make certain you have your muscles at ease and concentrate that you are not stressing your shoulders, arms or hands. You could reduce the 2 minutes if you play the pattern fast.Utilize this method with each pattern and then merge them all till the time you get your fully mastered sweep picking pattern.
Sweep picking exercises that would enable you in learning the method perfectly in a very short time!
