Sweep Picking part Two!!

As always, thankee kindly for your awesome comments! So since I covered general sweeping form, its time to get into the actual shapes!

A shape is just a movable pattern whose root note changes whenever the shape is moved up and down.  A root note is the first note in whatever scale/ chord the sweep is based off of.  Thats most of the theory you'll need for now.

Since I am lazy, I don't want to make a 3 string and a five string sweep tab.   So I will just have the five string, and you can just use the last three strings from it for your easier three string version. And without further rambling, here is a C major sweep:

I also added its counterpart, the C minor.  Major= happy, Minor= Sad.

The root note is the 15, or C.  Get it?? C major sweep has a C as its root!
That would mean that a D major sweeps root would be?? Thats right!  A D!!








Any questions and stuff, feel free!! Tomorrows lesson will cover how to make your own sweeps, and possibly sound examples.

As always,




Cordially yours,




Velociplum

Sweeping stuff- palm muting and general picking!!

Through the comments, I was unable to get what you guys really wanted, (not to say that they weren't awesome and completely, totally, and undeniably appreciated) so I will make a series on all aspects sweep picking.  It seems to be the one thing that people consider to be that "Virtuoso" technique.  It is not.  The most difficult part of sweeping is muting the strings with your picking hand, and coordinating each hand to the others movements.  Its really cool too, because one moment sweeping will be really difficult, and you can't get it fast or flowing, and then all of a sudden, BAM.  There is a giant leapfrog from beginner to proficient.

So first off, palm muting.  Assuming you are using an electric guitar, the largest problem you will face, (especially with distortion), will be excess string noise.  It is easily rectified by applying light pressure using the palm of your hand near the end of the bridge.  Just block out each string right after the note has sounded, so the next not does not "bleed" together with it.  An easy practice is to hit all the open strings, and seeing if you can dampen them out after being played. I will have a sound recording tomorrow to demonstrate better.

Next is picking form.  With sweeping, you are not alternate picking.  That is, you are not individually striking each string with a back and forth wrist movement.  You want your pick to glide across the strings gracefully, using a forward wrist movement when going down, and backwards when going up (hey, I want to cover all the bases here).  This is when palm muting really comes in.  As you are gliding around, you want to use your palm on the strings you just finished playing.  I hope I am being clear, if not, leave a comment please. 

Thats about it for palm muting, and general wrist movement and stuff.  Its not too complicated, its just that if the fundamentals are not down, the more advanced concepts seem impossible. Tomorrow I will show a major and minor sweep and show why they are called that.  As always, leave comments to whine, cry, praise, thank, or anything else.

Cordially yours,

Velociplum

SHRED

People in the beginner section of class are always asking "How do I shred?? How do I sweep pick, I want to be fast?"

The questions are so general and ill-informed it makes me cry.  Shredding is simply playing fast.  Pick as fast as you can, tap as fast as you can, whatever bro.  By technicality that is what shredding is.  Shredding well, however, requires technical proficiency in several areas and improvisational knowledge...and good taste.  Sweep picking is simply one of the areas, and fast picking is not what most people want, ACCURATE picking is. Either way, most advanced things are just more intricate parts of little things, like a huge ass pyramid.

Hopefully I can cover all of these in lessons to come, so ask away for what you want to see first in the comment box.

Cordially yours,

Velociplum

Opening post, no rambling yet

Well hello all! Welcome to the blog and whatnot, where my general musings can be found.  Even though I will occasionally go off in random tangents, the subjects that I will talk about will be music theory and guitar, welding/ machining, or animation mediums.  My biggest interests, of course. I can't be a COMPLETE slave to you people, after all.  But since you are what keep me going, feel free to fly comments on specific things that you could consider interesting for me to cover, general improvements, the origins of my moniker, praise, flaming raging hellfire comments, etc.

Cordially yours,

Velociplum