The last week has proven itself to be one of the most stressful and difficult weeks of this whole project, so I am taking the next few days to re-gather my motive to keep going with it.
This week I needed to take a break to wait for parts to intonate my guitar to be delivered. In the meantime I have still been listening to examples of sweeping to get an idea of what I want to write.
0 Comments
I began writing my own sweep picking piece this week drawing inspiration from the chord progressions and scales that my teacher shared with me previously. While I had originally planned on doing a full 6-string sweep, I am not at a skill level yet that I could play it efficiently. I am going to be focusing on a 4-string sweep instead, which should be a little bit easier to write and perform/record.
During my guitar lesson this week, my instructor recommended that, instead of focusing on complex solos present in heavy metal and rock music, I should begin sweep picking more classically focused scales to better improve my accuracy and ability to fix mistakes that I made previously. Classical scales require much more attention to sound proper. While they're still fast and can still be used (commonly) in metal music, my teacher talked about the long term benefits they'll have rather than just learning solos. The more scales that I know and can use, the better off I will be while writing my own solo. He sent me a few chord progressions to start working on, and so far, I can see how much more difficult it is to sweep pick properly.
After taking a break from practicing last week, I resumed learning about the ins and outs of sweep picking; new techniques that I can use, songs that I can practice, and ways that I can implement sweeping into my own music. I found many very helpful tutorials on youtube that each have different takes on sweep picking, and I've used them to develop my own ways of practicing. One issue that I've ran into with sweeping is consistency; being able to continually sweep whilst moving across the fret board is much more difficult than I had initially thought. While I can do arpeggios quickly with alternate picking and sweep the strings while playing a chord, merging the two skills together takes a good amount of trial and error to actually perfect.
This week, I took a break from learning how to sweep pick to start researching different types of sweeping, along with examples of songs that use these techniques. Although sweep picking is becoming second-nature to me at this point, it's gotten fairly boring to practice it everyday. I've found many different artists and bands that use sweep picking consistently, so I've started listening to them more and more to become more efficient at recognizing it and being able to learn it by ear.
Although I haven't had as much time recently to practice as I did, I am steadily increasing my skills sweep picking. My instructor said that I am at the point that I don't need his assistance anymore, and that I should be able to fluently sweep pick in the next week or so. I have also just started work on my self-written sweep picking piece that I am expecting to finish by Thanksgiving.
It is the first week that I have spent a majority of my time practicing sweep picking, and it's proven itself to be much more difficult than I had expected it to be. Because I was taught classically, I'm used to playing with alternate picking. Alternate picking is a method where you strum down and then up, or vice-versa. Mr. Barker recommended a few songs for me to learn, but I am not at the skill level that I want to be at when I learn them. Although I'm not quite at a level of experience that I can play along with songs, I have been practicing everyday. My guitar teacher says that he is already seeing a sufficient amount of progress in my learning.
September 17th, 2017
Hello! Welcome to my genius hour project. Over the next few weeks I will be learning how to sweep pick, and progressively increasing my skills doing other techniques on the way. I am very excited to share my experience with you. My guitar teacher will be guiding me through the process of learning how to sweep pick, starting with simple scales and moving into more advanced arpeggios. Nearing the end of this project, I will be composing my own solo that will include sweep picking in it. There will be a video attached to this blog to show my newly learned skill! |