SHRED PICKING: Alternate & Sweep Picking

For this installment of PsYcHo LiCkS, I've opted to revist a couple blazing picking licks from my pre-tendinitis days. (I've had this crap since 1997, non-stop; exciting details can be found in the HAND JOB portion of this site.)

The MP3s of the two fast-picking lines I'm presenting below were taken from one of a zillion old tapes I have of me trying to blaze... Just practicing crap, really. (In the “alternate picking” example, I actually play it three times in a row, trying to “nail” it; the third pass at it is probably the closest.) These licks appear to be from June 1995—probably a year before my “technique peak” of late '96 (*sniffle*) (*sob*). The audio quality is pretty bad, but at least you can hear the stuff. Hope you dig!!!

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Alternate Picking Lick

For starters, the long picking passage below came from a period when I was working on different, short picking patterns, trying to combine them to create longer, not so predictable lines. When it comes to these kinds of picking lines, nothing sounds more lame than a long sequence that goes straight up a scale, restating the same note pattern throughout. Why not mix up your patterns to vary the ways you can get from point “A” to point “B,” à la alternate picking mofos like John Petrucci, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, and Tony MacAlpine?

Between the TAB and notations staff of the line below, you can see I've indicated three different “mini” picking patterns: PATTERN A, PATTERN B, and PATTERN C. These are all “routine” picking patterns that everybody interested in this style of playing has likely already practiced—isolating them, playing them “in position,” repeating them over and over along with a metronome (to build speed/monitor progress). In these types of passages, alternate picking—that is, consistent alternation between down/up strokes (here, beginning with a downstroke)—is used throughout. For fun, here are little MP3s of each pattern (all played slow), as they relate to their first occurence in the longer lick below:

You'll probably wanna make sure you have each of these little licks together before directing your attention to “the biggie” below. Why? 'Cause the exact same patterns are used all over the place! For instance, an incarnation of PATTERN A occurs three different times (on different string sets) throughout the course of this lick. Similarly, PATTERN B makes an appearance in two different places. Meanwhile, PATTERN C is the only “mini lick” used one time only (towards the end).

Without further adieu, here's a TAB for the lick in its entirety (MP3s linked below)—all squeezed from the F Mixolydian scale (F-G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb), designed for shredding over F7:

(*Hear above lick played FAST by clicking HERE*)

(*Hear above lick played SLOW by clicking HERE*)

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Sweep Picking Lick

Any time you use one pick stroke to articulate two or more notes on neighboring strings, in succession, you're using “sweep picking”—an economical picking approach, primarily reserved for arpeggios, often used by players like Frank Gambale, Shawn Lane, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, and Paul Gilbert, among many others. Let's try our hands at a line using this timeless “shredding” technique.

The sweep picking line below is all based upon an eight-note-long motif, played during beats “one” and “two” of the lick's first measure (i.e., two beats' worth of sixteenth notes). The opening motif is a little arpeggio of an Eb major triad (Eb-G-Bb), with an extra diatonic note (the note “A” on the 1st string's 5th fret) grabbed within the F Mixolydian scale (F-G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb). For your pickin pleasure, below is a slow-motion MP3 of this little motif:

• MP3: Sweep Picking Motif (Opening Eb Triad)

Before tacking the blazing beast below, make sure you're able to comfortably plow through the above example!! Begin with a quick alternate-picking (down-up) move along the high string, then allow your “upstroke” to rest up against the lower adjacent string (the 2nd string). Using one, smooth, “sweeping” pick motion, let the pick pass through the 2nd and 3rd strings, making every effort to control your pick's timing—you want your 16th notes to be perfectly “in time,” along the lines of the slow MP3 example. Strive for separation between notes by releasing fret-hand pressure on each string after a note's payed on it. This will help prevent the notes from ringing into one another, like a chordal sound. Yuuuuuuck!

If you survived the above, now you're ready to try using the same motif to outline other triads (three-note chords) that occur in this key—in this case, primarily major ones like Eb (Eb-G-Bb), F (F-A-C), and Bb (Bb-D-F).

Without further adieu, here's a TAB for the lick in its entirety (MP3s linked below)—all squeezed from the F Mixolydian scale (F-G-A-Bb-C-D-Eb), designed for shredding over F7:

(*Hear above lick played FAST by clicking HERE*)

(*Hear above lick played SLOW by clicking HERE*)

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To help support this site's free online guitar lessons, please check out my new acoustic CD, INTERPRETATIONS—10 crazy versions of '60s and '70s classic rock cover songs (including Queen's “Bohemian Rhapsody,” reproduced “live” with a single guitar and voice!!) Thank you :)

1. “Bohemian Rhapsody” 6:03  2. “God Only Knows” 2:39  3. “Blackbird” 2:28  4. “Sweet Baby James” 3:52  5. “Hallelujah” 6:28  6. “She’s Always a Woman” 3:08  7. “Leader of the Band” 4:17  8. “Sister Golden Hair” 2:53  9. “Castles Made of Sand” 3:12  10. “Coconut” 3:44

Total playing time: 39:03 All songs used by permission. All rights reserved.

CD dedicated to my mother, Jeff Buckley, and a few of my friends.