The technique is most useful when crossing strings at speed with a melodic phrase.
This video shows the difference between sweeping and alternate picking on the open strings (the camera is held) at a decent speed, and then an example with the fretting hand in action playing a maj 7 arpeggio.
Whilst sweeping looks elegant and economical, you are up against trying to coordinate a slow moving picking hand with a fast moving fretting hand - which feels odd when you compare with using one deliberate stroke per note.
The sweeping action resembles a slow strum across the strings, so the temptation is to leave fingers on the notes like you would a chord, but instead the fingers are only playing one note at a time and none of the notes can ring together - the fingers must therefore leave one before the next, so you start with one finger on and it feels like you are rolling your fingers across the strings with the pick sweeping alongside.
Once you kick on the distortion then the you will also need to dampen behind the sweep on the down trajectory to prevent them bleeding into on another. The upwards sweep is dampened by the fretting fingers.
Through an amp, it is clear that the sweeping also sounds different to the alternately picked version so the goal is to be able to choose, if the speed is within your alternate picking range.
See TECHNIQUE 140 for the two string version, known as ‘economy picking’.
The sweeping action is also known as raking.
For shapes to work on, search the archive for Arpeggios.
There are also more sweeping opportunities int eh archive if you search it using the term.
