Sweep Arpeggios
- I can’t overstate my disclaimer enough for this lesson. This is definitely a hard technique for me and in all honesty I’m not very good at it. I tend to cheat a lot. I just do what has worked for me, but that may not be the best thing to do if you want to become a professional musician or something.
- The biggest difficulty people have with sweep arpeggios is that they tend to get ahead of themselves and try to play extremely difficult pieces that they should probably hold off on. If you can’t play solid, absolute, dead on, perfect rhythm, or you can’t play a leads easily and cleanly, you probably shouldn’t play sweep arpeggios until you get a little bit better.
- I tend to use liberal amounts of palm muting to sound cleaner. I also suggest that you focus on shapes rather than specific positions because that will allow you to apply the shapes you learn to all keys. Focus on clean picking, and use a light touch.
- Let’s start with three string/four note arpeggios first. For these arpeggios, we’ll just do a minor or major chord. Remember that a minor chord is a root, minor third, and then a fifth. A major chord is the same but we use a major third instead of a minor third. Let’s go with the key of A.
- There are three common ways to arrange the notes if you account for the different inversions.
- Root, third, fifth (A, C, E or A, C#, E)
- Third, fifth, root (C, E, A or C#, E, A)
- Fifth, root, third (E, A, C or E, A, C#)
- Here’s the first way (Root, third, fifth):
-------12-17-12-------|-------12-17-12------- ----13----------13----|----14----------14---- -14----------------14-|-14----------------14- ----------------------|---------------------- -------Minor----------|--------Major--------- ----------------------|----------------------
Here’s the second way (Third, fifth, root):
-----5-8-5-----|-----5-9-5----- ---5-------5---|---5-------5--- -5-----------5-|-6-----------6- ---------------|--------------- -------Minor---|--------Major-- ---------------|---------------
Here’s the third way (Fifth, root, third):
------8-12-8------|------9-12-9------ ---10--------10---|---10--------10--- -9--------------9-|-9--------------9- ------------------|------------------ -------Minor------|--------Major----- ------------------|------------------
- Once you are able to easily play these three string arpeggios, you can move on to five and six string arpeggios. You can add and remove notes as you see fit for these. These are a few of the ways I personally play them.
- Here’s the first way (Root, third, fifth):
----------------12-17-12---------------- -------------13----------13------------- ----------14----------------14---------- -------14----------------------14------- -12-15-----Minor------------------15-12- ---------------------------------------- ----------------12-17-12---------------- -------------14----------14------------- ----------14----------------14---------- -------14----------------------14------- -12-16------Major-----------------16-12- ----------------------------------------
Here’s the second way (Third, fifth, root):
---------5-8-5---------|---------5-9-5---------- -------5-------5-------|-------5-------5-------- -----5-----------5-----|-----6-----------6------ ---7---------------7---|---7---------------7---- -7-----Minor---------7-|-7------Major--------7-- -----------------------|------------------------
Here’s the third way (Fifth, root, third):
------------8-12-8------------|------------9-12-9------------ ---------10--------10---------|---------10--------10--------- -------9--------------9-------|-------9--------------9------- ----10------------------10----|----11------------------11---- -12------Minor-------------12-|-12-------Major------------12- ------------------------------|------------------------------
- You can add and remove notes to these arpeggios as you see fit. You can add some tapped notes as well. Here’s a tapped arpeggio I play a lot.
------------8-12-t17p12-8------------ ---------10---------------10--------- -------9---------------------9------- ----10-------------------------10---- -12------Minor--------------------12- ------------------------------------- ------------9-12-t17p12-9------------ ---------10---------------10--------- -------9---------------------9------- ----11-------------------------11---- -12-------Major-------------------12- -------------------------------------
- Another common arpeggio is the diminished scale. The diminished scale is very simple. You just pick a root note, and then play all minor third intervals. So for example, the E diminished scale is just E, G, Bb, C#.
-----6-9-6----- ---8-------8--- -9-----------9- --------------- --------------- ---------------
- A nice property of this scale is that you can just move the shape around up and down in minor third intervals, which is a step and a half, and you will stay in key. It works well with harmonic minor/phrygian types of songs.
- Just like with the other three string arpeggios, you can make the diminished sweep arpeggio into a five string version. There are different ways of doing this if you try skipping over notes in the scale. For instance, Here’s a version where we skip over some of the notes.
---------6-9-6--------- -------8-------8------- -----9-----------9----- ---8---------------8--- -7-------------------7- -----------------------
- Here’s a version where we don’t skip over any notes. This one is tricky because of the two notes on the G string, and the wide stretch.
----------------12-15-12---------------- -------------14----------14------------- -------12-15----------------15-12------- ----14----------------------------14---- -16----------------------------------16- ----------------------------------------
- You can experiment and use any notes you want to. You don’t always have to use root, third, fifth sweep arpeggios. For instance, you can do a suspended pattern. Here’s an A suspended chord changed into a three string sweep arpeggio. The notes are just A, B, and E.
------7-12-7------ ---10--------10--- -9--------------9- ------------------ ------------------ ------------------
- One great player to check out is Yngwie Malmsteen for great songs that feature lots of sweep arpeggios. Here’s a section of his song Liar.
-7-4-------4-10-7--------10-12-8---------8-17-12----------12- -----6---6--------9----9---------10---10---------13----13---- -------7------------10--------------9---------------14------- ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- -12-9---------9-13-10----------10-10-7-------7-12-8-------8- ------10---10---------10----10---------8---8--------8---8--- ---------9---------------10--------------7------------9----- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ -10-6-------6-8-5-------5-7-4-------4-5- ------6---6-------5---5-------6---6----- --------7-----------5-----------7------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
- Here’s another great one, it’s Yngwie – Demon Driver. Keep in mind that this is my own version of it, not the version on the record.
-10-7-------7-9-6-------6-10-7-------7-12-9---------9- ------7---7-------7---7--------7---7--------10---10--- --------7-----------6------------7-------------9------ ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ -14-10----------10-12-9---------9-14-10----------10- -------10----10---------10---10---------10----10---- ----------11---------------9---------------11------- ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- 14-11----------11-15-12----------12-14-11-----------11- ------12----12----------12----12----------12-----12---- ---------11----------------12-----------------11------- ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- -15-12----------12-16-13----------13-19-14----------14- -------12----12----------15----15----------17----17---- ----------12----------------16----------------16------- ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- -14-11----------11-19- -------12----12------- ----------11---------- ---------------------- ---------------------- ----------------------
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