Sweep picking?

[Chankgeez]

Chet drops these sweeps during "Jerry's Breakdown" like a muthafuckin' bomb:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBvhY4uqGDE[/youtube]

Got any tips for me? t

I wanna play like Chet.

[Uncle Grandfather]

I wanna play like Chet.

chet was otherlevel. maybe start with a thumb pick and practice sweeping simple arpeggios slowly to a metronome down and then back up. over and over. you'll get smoother eventually. increase the speed. rinse repeat. helps if you already know your scales and how to build chords anywhere on the neck across the strings, as these are what you are sweeping. easiest to start around the 9-10th fret, like an Aminor arpeggio is pretty basic starting with your pinky on the 12th fret A.

[Chankgeez]

Thank you, sir.

Yeah, Chet's amazingly smooth. Not much of a chance I'll ever get that fluid, but I can try.

[Uncle Grandfather]

Thank you, sir.

Yeah, Chet's amazingly smooth. Not much of a chance I'll ever get that fluid, but I can try.

He also uses uses the thumb pick a lot for walking bass lines during his single lines or chord changes. he was way into jazz and other types of music beyond what he sold on tv.

Just use easy chord shapes to start with across 4 strings. then add the high E string. then add a hammer on/pull off on the high e string before bringing the sweep back home. but that's for later. slow and slow and slow to a metronome for weeks.

if you're into jerry reed and chet, there is a great record chet did with mark knopfler called "neck and neck" you would probably love. just unbelievable music being made between those two.

[Chankgeez]

Thanks again, Uncle Grandfather.

I do like guitar duets and Chet made great records with a lot of people. I'll have to give that a listen.

[jfrey]

Find a number of strings that you're comfortable practising with. Some people like to start with 3. For me 5 worked best. Just go up and down 135s really slow over and over to start off.

something like this:

|---------------8-------------------------------9-----------------
|-----------10---10------------------------11---11--------------
|---------9----------9------------------10----------10-----------
|-----10---------------10-----------11-----------------11-------
|-12-----------------------12-/-13------------------------13----
|-------------------------------------------------------------------

etc.

you can add on some other stuff like this if you want:

|-------------------8-h-12-p-8----------------------------------------9-h-13-p-9---------------------
|---------------10--------------10---------------------------------11--------------11------------------
|-------------9---------------------9---------------------------10---------------------10---------------
|---------10--------------------------10--------------------11----------------------------11-----------
|-7-h-12---------------------------------12-p-7-/-8-h-13-----------------------------------13-------
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

etc.

or extend it to 6 strings:

|--------------12------
|-5-/-8-h-12---------

you can figure out the rest. you can also do this:

|--------7-h-12------
|-5-/-8---------------

and so forth. You can replace the slide with a hammer in that if you like.

if you get bored throw in a 7 or something:

|----------------------------------8-h-12----
|------------------------------10-------------
|----------------------9-h-12----------------
|------------------10-------------------------
|--------------12-----------------------------
|-5-/-8-h-12---------------------------------

or

|--------------------------------8-h-12----
|----------------------------10-------------
|--------------------9-h-12----------------
|----------------10-------------------------
|--------7-h-12----------------------------
|-5-/-8-------------------------------------

etc. same thing here - you can hammer instead of slide if you want.

I can write up some other patterns if you want but that should be plenty to start with.

Pro tip: Netflix is your friend. You're going to spend a lot of hours practising if you want to get good at sweeping, so find a tv series you like.

[Chankgeez]

Ha ha, yeah, awesome, thank you.

This's going to take a lot of time and effort. There've been a bunch of Kung Fu flicks I've been meaning to watch on YouTube.

[hollowhero]

If you want to learn to sweep, I'd suggest finding a major triad and its two inversions on 3 adjacent strings, and slowly sweeping up and down through those 3 chord shapes until your technique is perfect. You need to get used to sweeping with your right hand AND moving your left hand around on the neck in sync. As you get better, you can of course add more strings and speed it up.

After that you can learn the minor and diminished triads and their inversions. Once you have a handle on those 3 different triads, you can stack them to get fancier chords...i.e to play G7 you can sweep G major and B diminished and to play Gmin9 you can sweep G minor and D minor.

[Chankgeez]

I need to brush up on my theory. I haven't tried playing scales or building complex chords since I've been playing in DADGAD. I usually just play power chords and open strings.

[hollowhero]

Yeah there's a bit of a learning curve with all of the chord building theory. That's why I like the triad method... you just stack tiny chords to make bigger/fancier chords. It makes things simpler (for me at least).

Here's what I was talking about with the major chord + inversions. It's in standard tuning btw

|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|-----2--2------------7--7--------------11---11------------|
|---4------4--------7------7---------12---------12---------|
|-5----------5----9----------9----12---------------12------|

You're basically just playing A major 3 different ways

Here's the same thing on the top 3 strings

|-----0--0------------5--5------------9--9--------|
|---2------2--------5------5-------10------10----|
|-2----------2----6----------6---9------------9---|
|---------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------|

[fishtankdork]

this thread is good for me. sweeping is the only guitar technique i am not comfortable with. i shall be practicing this stuff!

[Chankgeez]

Thanks, hollowhero, I was just messing around with three note chords.

Then I tried mixing open and fretted notes. That sounded horrible. I think I'm gonna have to stick with the fretted notes.

I'm still not really familiar with chord shapes in DADGAD. I'll have to start slowly building like you suggested.

(Yeah, fishtankdork, I'm glad I started this thread. Even if I don't really get proficient with sweeps, my playing with improve with the practice.)

[lapsteel]

So,
Jerry Reed doesn't use his index finger?!!

I once played with a guy who was missing his index and most of his middle.
He got along better than fine, but to skip the index by choice that is kinda weird.

[Chankgeez]

Ha, I never noticed that.

If he's not using his index finger, there must be a reason. That finger's a powerful tool.

Yeah, people with handicaps find ways to work around them.

[Chankgeez]

Watching that again now, I'm thinking he's not using it because it may not be as fast and fluid as the others.