Question about arpeggios. Unlike the “start with speed” approach that’s advocated here for alternate picking, does this equally apply to getting up to speed with arpeggios. I’m having difficulty getting to full speed with a lot of arpeggios on No Boundaries, and the cleanliness and clarity of the notes just breaks down at a certain point. Should I take a “start with speed” approach, or do arpeggios demand a the more traditional approach of starting slow and building up gradually?
I think it really depends on what the problem is.
I wouldn’t necessarily start with speed with sweep picking. For me timing and control is much harder than getting it working fast.
If it’s alternate picking, then it will be some sort of dbx motion, and I see it recommended to start fast to find a motion that works at speed first. Then slow it down a bit to clean it up.
I don’t, at the moment, practice alternate picked arpeggios so someone with more experience with fast dbx should be able to advise on that, if that’s what you are referring to?
I second @jptk suggestions. If it’s sweep picking, the speed seems to be the lesser of problems that most have, and biggest being control feel and timing. In that case slowing it down and practicing it to a click is usually the best way to approach it that so you can get used to timing and note articulation.
I’m afraid I don’t do much alternate picked arpeggios either, so I’m not much help there.
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Yeah I’m talking about sweep picking specifically. Slow vs fast motion for sweep picking seems more similar than slow vs fast alternate picking, which is why I’m wondering about the best approach for sweep arpeggios (across 5 strings specifically). 3 strings I can get pretty fast now without major issues but doing like a 5 string sequence up and down with a tap thrown in on the top at a certain point just generates a lot of noise for me.
Slow is the way to go there.
Cool, I was feeling like that is the way to go here, but the gains have been slow and wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
Gains are typically slow with most things when you really are trying to perfect them. Sweeping is one of those things you really want to take your time with if you want really locked in sweeps. Some people just focus on the first and last note, but I personally like it all locked in.
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