I'm not sure what you guys know and don't know. In my vid we harmonized the G major scale and built triads in thirds. Major, minor, and diminished. If you don't know how to create these or you don't know why they are what they are I suggest Pebber's 3hr Music Theory Workshop video from the University of La Verne.

For instance, if you don't know that a Major triad is a Major third with a minor third on top (also included is a perfect fifth from root to fifth) or that a minor triad is the reverse of this or that a diminished triad is two minor thirds stacked on top (with the diminished fifth interval from root to fifth)

If you don't know this or how or why then watch this video.

wow, I love the fact you guys share this stuff......so generous! Thank you :)

I have a passing knowledge of this stuff but haven't drilled it into my brain enough to use it in anger.....

Don't worry. That's why I posted this video. Even the students in the class getting their music degrees don't know. But Pebber is the ultimate guide to take you through it step by step.

Most guitarists THINK they know music theory. But their information is scattered at best and they have a terrible grasp of the basic fundamentals; which will take you very far if you have a firm understanding. MUCH more beneficial than knowing a few pieces of advanced concepts that you can't even put into practice.

My Laptop was crashed quite a while just recorded this video, Great work ursin, I checked out the scalpel sweeps but did it the casual way in this recording, I think when I practice those they will be much cleaner in about 2 weeks

Quote: K Kromp wrote in post #79

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My Laptop was crashed quite a while just recorded this video, Great work ursin, I checked out the scalpel sweeps but did it the casual way in this recording, I think when I practice those they will be much cleaner in about 2 weeks

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Quote: pebberbrown wrote in post #63

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Nick you are slightly incorrect in your diatonic chords by one note.
The vii chord is not Dim5 and Dim7. A Dim7 would be a double flat 7 (or equivalent to a 6th)
the actual vi chord as a 4 note chord is not a diminished chord but a minor7b5 (also called HALF Diminished)
and the formula is - 1 b3 b5 b7 no bb7 (or 6).

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Sweep picking update. No diminished chords were harmed in the making of this video:

I am wondering what peoples thoughts are on inside vs. outside directional sweeping...I've been working on Mr. Becker's Serrana Arpeggios for a bit now and it is still not crystal clear to me which way of partioning the picking motion is preferable, for example:



e|--19------------------------------------------19---------------------------------|
b|-----19p15----------------15h19--------------19p15----------------15h19--|
g|------------16-----------16----------------------------16-----------16---------|
d|---------------16-----16------------versus--------------16------16-----------|
a|------------------17----------------------------------------17-------------------|
e|--U=======|-D=========|---------U========|----D======|-|

is doing it one way superior to the other? or is it just a matter of whats comfortable/personal preferance?

Quote: NicholasJacquet wrote in post #83

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I am wondering what peoples thoughts are on inside vs. outside directional sweeping...I've been working on Mr. Becker's Serrana Arpeggios for a bit now and it is still not crystal clear to me which way of partioning the picking motion is preferable, for example:



e|--19------------------------------------------19---------------------------------|
b|-----19p15----------------15h19--------------19p15----------------15h19--|
g|------------16-----------16----------------------------16-----------16---------|
d|---------------16-----16------------versus--------------16------16-----------|
a|------------------17----------------------------------------17-------------------|
e|--U=======|-D=========|---------U========|----D======|-|

is doing it one way superior to the other? or is it just a matter of whats comfortable/personal preferance?

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The first one. The second one would require you to do an upstroke on the A string followed by jumping over the A string to do a down stroke on the D string. With the first one, you don't have to make this jump which at high speeds would be problematic.

I must be getting old. I bought a tab book for Yngwie and have been working my way through it. I thought a saw some annotations that said 'played behind the head'. When I managed to focus properly, I realized it said 'played behind the beat' :).

My attempt at three string sweeps sorry about the sound it,s 3am and playing through a broken speaker on a yamaha 10 watt at 80 bpm

Both of these techniques have been used by virtuoso guitarist. I would pick one and work on it.

Quote: uderoche wrote in post #85

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The second one would require you to do an upstroke on the A string followed by jumping over the A string to do a down stroke on the D string. With the first one, you don't have to make this jump which at high speeds would be problematic.

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At high speeds, inside picking is problematic for most people. I have already stated in another thread that BOTH inside and outside should be mastered and I believe I also inserted a link with exercises for both inside and outside picking. I also stated that most of the "rock shredder" guitar players try to keep the pick on the outside of the strings. Again, it is the easier of the two.

Having said that, feel free to do whatever you want.

Find your own bliss.

Isn't the point of sweep picking to be able to play a passage faster than would be possible with alternate picking? If that's so, then it makes perfect sense to choose the easier of the two options when switching directions.

Funny thing I suspect about Sarod is...I personally am ppretty damn convinced that in the grand scheme of life and all its picking styles...that Sarod is still faster for these fancy "sweep arpeggio" shapes... than is sweep picking...unless you are Frank Gambale; that is....if it were not as such...then all those oud players in india for the past 2000 years woulda been sweeping rather than saroding.

And if the Sarod were talkin boutt happens to be a hybrid specimen of the mexican jumping bean variety...than nothing is faster than that...once the pick is trapped inside the vibrating string it has no choice but to keep bouncing allong and running after the left hand like a dog chasing after the milk man...If thats what were talking...no contest...because all you got to do is trill the sucker...and the pick very courteously chases after it and hits each note...like the dog and his enemy the milk man.

In essence, it is. It opens up to shapes that aren't as easily accessed at high speeds through alternate picking. But it also produces a different sound than alternate picking, and, for example, arpeggios come out very nicely in a bubbly sort of manner -- also because of the speed it's played it. You can combine the sweep with tapping to spice up an arpeggio with higher notes that would be "impossible" (probably possible for someone) to pull off with alternate picking.

EDIT: this was a reply to Cliff. I'm not saying that in essence Sarod can play anything sweeps can, and faster, because I don't believe that.

Quote: Cliff wrote in post #90

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Isn't the point of sweep picking to be able to play a passage faster than would be possible with alternate picking? If that's so, then it makes perfect sense to choose the easier of the two options when switching directions.

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Did Becker "fingerroll" from E to B and vice versa? Keeping the hammer-on on the B-string would on the way down give some extra time to turn from your downstroke to upstroke and hit the E-string on the way up. Putting the B-string's note on the 19th fret on the E-string's 14th fret would move the hammer-on to that string and let you hit it with a downstroke and change direction while hammering on to the 19th fret. Guess it also depends on the type of attack you want on E19 - pick or hammer-on. And also what comes before and after the snippet.

Picking patterns are very interesting to me.

Getting back to Ursin's original sweep exercises, I seem to have hit a wall at around 140bpm. I'm pretty sure it's my left hand letting me down here.

Ursin - in your last video you mentioned that once you reach a particular speed, you have to stop lifting the finger on the B string. Have I reached that speed yet (140bpm, 4 notes per beat)?

I've been practicing trills for a good few months now, but I've never concentrated on speed before - just trying to make them accurate and even. Since hitting this wall at the beginning of the week, I've been concentrating on speed with my trills. I'm pretty disappointed to find that, with first and pinky trills, I max out at a bit less than 8 notes per second. How is everyone else doing in this regard?

Speaking only for my own playing, I have found cliff that the answer to your question about trill ceilings, has fluctuations from one day to another. It has a failrly high degree of variability depending on what string i am doing it on, what position I am on the neck, what guage my strings are, and if I am in standard tunning vs down a 1/2 step or tuned to a full step below std. If I sit there relax and ease a trill up to a max over a period of say 45 min, I'll get up there around to around 16ths at 180 BPM...But that ceiling fairly often wears away after 30 min of focussing on something else other than that one trill. So I gotta enjoy my fleet of finger it while it lasts.

Good to know. FWIW, I'm playing top E, standard tuning, extra light gauge strings, on the fifth and 8th fret. To be honest, though, I don't think that matters in my case. I think I wouldn't be able to go any faster if I was just tapping on the fretboard. It's like I tell my fingers to go faster and they just won't. Funnily enough, I've seen a lot of variation in my top picking speed depending on what day it is and how warmed up I am, but not so much with trills.

I took Pebber's triple-dog-dare challenge and trilled this combo for 20 minutes straight the other night. No problem at a moderate speed. Seems like I've built up stamina but not speed.

I've never in my life cared for body building but it seems to me I need to build those finger muscles. From what I understand, I need to be exercising them to the point where they really ache, so that the muscles rebuild stronger. I'm not sure if there's a particular way to exercise to ensure speed as well as strength.

I quadruple dog dare you to switch string guages up to 10's or god willing 11's...I made the switch over to 11;s about 4 months ago...when i tried playhing on a 8 and 9 guage strung guitar the strings felt like wet noodles...suffice it to say, trilling was nothing but unfortunately my picking hand needs the thicker strings for the sarod picking...If you trill on a guitar with cables on it...your trills will get beastlier.

I'm afraid I can't do that for three reasons:
First, quadruple dog dare's have been outlawed by the Geneva convention.
Second, I could achieve the same effect just by trilling on the B or G instead of the E. Normally of course I trill on all strings, but this last week I've been focussing on the high E to try and break this sweep picking barrier.
Third, and most importantly, when my luthier asked what gauge of strings I wanted on the guitar he was building for me, I said 8s. He wound up giving me a set he had spare from a build he'd previously done for Yngwie. If they're good enough for Yngwie, they're good enough for me...

Quote: Cliff wrote in post #99

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I'm afraid I can't do that for three reasons:
First, quadruple dog dare's have been outlawed by the Geneva convention.
Second, I could achieve the same effect just by trilling on the B or G instead of the E. Normally of course I trill on all strings, but this last week I've been focussing on the high E to try and break this sweep picking barrier.
Third, and most importantly, when my luthier asked what gauge of strings I wanted on the guitar he was building for me, I said 8s. He wound up giving me a set he had spare from a build he'd previously done for Yngwie. If they're good enough for Yngwie, they're good enough for me...

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