Hello everybody!

For this first of three related articles, we will concentrate on "sweeping" or "sweep picking", an excellent technique to help expand a rock/blues guitarist's bag of tricks. The problem is that, since Yngwie Malmsteen first played his trademark fast triad sweeps, everyone who tries to develop sweeping technique feels inclined to play the same kind of sweeps! This factor is very limiting for a variety of reasons:

1. Due to their "sweep shape", triadic sweeps tend to sound very similar.
2. It is an instantly recognizable sound, which means you cannot use it more than once or twice in each solo, without sounding VERY repetitive.
3. Most players just go up and down the full 2-octave sweep, and consider this "improvisation using sweeping"! Imagine doing the same thing, just running up and down the minor pentatonic scale in 2 octaves, without any pauses, vibrato, slides or any kind of phrasing… Hardly improvisation, eh?

The first thing I'll do to remedy this problem is show you single-octave "short versions" of all the different 7th arpeggios throughout the fretboard. Let's start by examining the minor 7th arpeggio (1 b3 5 b7) since this can be seen as a simplification of the Minor Pentatonic (1 b3 4 5 b7) and the Natural Minor scale (1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7), both scales that are very widely used in rock/metal guitar improvisation. Here's a fairly large array of m7 arpeggios in all their inversions around the neck. Be very meticulous about following the various picking directions! I've divided the patterns and inversions in 3-string sets.

Now, let's combine a couple of these shapes with regular alternate picking to create a few licks that will sound like something a saxophone player might play. The first example uses two shapes of the Am7 arpeggio and connects them using notes from the A minor scale. To use this lick over a Dorian chord progression, just raise the F on the 10th fret, 3rd string to F#.

 Listen to the example

The second example uses three different inversions of the Am7 arpeggio, played on different sets of strings, and connects them sequentially in groups of 5 notes (quintuplets). This is similar to what Eric Johnson might play using minor pentatonics, only done with m7 arpeggios. This is a very interesting-sounding lick, made more impressive by the fact that it is usually considered very difficult to sequence sweeping arpeggios.

 Listen to the example

The third and final example again uses three different positions of the Am7 arpeggio. In this example we combine sweeping with legato and slides in order to create a long phrase that spans 12 frets. Make sure you follow the picking-legato directions to the letter. This is the kind of arpeggio Richie Kotzen might use in his playing.

 Listen to the example

Well, that's it for now! Until next time, keep playing and never give up! Best wishes,

Ioannis