Do any of you purposely practice swiping?

Playing Technique
#1

I was messing around with swiping, but I just can’t get my head around it. I get that you just push your pick through a muted string to hit a note on the next string, but my brain gets confused and I’m expecting the muted swiped note to make the pitch that should be the fretted note. Hopefully this makes sense!

With this in mind, do any of you have licks that you practice swiping or do you just play any lick that requires a two way motion and you play it with a single escape motion? How do you get over the mental hurdle of hitting a string but it not making the pitch?

1 Like
#2

I actually did have a thing where there were some licks where I should have been able to swipe that I would get mentally hung up on somehow.

My solution was to slow WAY down and practice mentally “bundling” the swiped note into the previous note, such as:

n x n → (n x) n
rather than
n x n → n (x n)

Now I try as hard as I can not to think about it and hope it works out. :laughing:

1 Like
#3

so you’re thinking about chunking it all together? Say you’re playing 16ths, you’re hitting 5 notes instead of 4, but you’re mentally jamming them all into one beat and thinking about those 4 notes? I find this really hard to explain! :joy:

#4

oh no, what I’m getting at is that I don’t think of the swiped note as being a “note that is played” at all! If I do, I’m doomed.

1 Like
#5

Latter half of Antigravity discusses systematic swiping, though it does not talk about practicing but rather the result of the easiest, most efficient motion-swiping in the direction pickslant.

Perhaps practicing changing strings in direction of pickslant and filming to see if you are swiping or not will be informative!

2 Likes
#6

Agreed. I suspect that a LOT of very gentle swiping, particularly when playing USX, is only detectable under the Magnet.

1 Like
#7

Yes to me swiping is only possible with USX. In DSX swiping through a thicker string both feels and sounds like a mistake. But in USX it works really well and sounds acceptable. I have definitely practiced it for the Gilbert lick for example although Paul himself probably does it more DSX. But truth be told it takes some warming up to feel really effortless.

#8

Batio has incredible muting when swiping while descending as a DSX player. When he demos his muting in Antigravity and from one of the earlier interviews (one with orange guitar I believe), I did not notice a difference from the muted higher string and the muted lower string. Could it be that he keeps his gain relatively low as he describes?

#9

Yes agreed. And yes maybe sound has something to do with it but at the same time I think it would sound great using different amounts of gain.

To be clear, what I meant was “for me” and my playing. I think you can really get great swiping the other way if you find the right approach.

1 Like
#10

What “type” of swiping do you want to practice? Swiping for USX or DSX?

I believe one of the easiest licks to play with swiping is Paul Gilbert’s! And in that same lick you can play both categories.

3 Likes
#11

Totally understood. 'Wanted to provide the Batio scenario for benefit of others reading

1 Like
#12

Great thread. My experience is similar to AustinK’s. When I first went through Antigravity i assumed this “technique” was mostly a high gain thing (I don’t think Troy presents it as a technique per se as much as an artifact). So at higher speeds in a two-way pickslanting run, the amount of slant on a specific string change might not be enough to clear the the string and there is contact. But it is typically so brief and often light that it is barely perceptible. I was amazed to see this even in “no gain” playing as presented in fast 3NPS runs in Strunz and Farah interview (on nylon strings!). My current feeling is that as 2WPS starts to become embedded in motor memory for specific chunks you will notice in your magnet videos that it will happen less. We are talking about very minute changes in slant angle here. It is incredible to watch via magnet slo-mo.

2 Likes
#13

I can’t wait to start clearing the strings! I am currently working on Gilbert 6s starting with DSX for descending and USX for ascending to get used to changing motions and have enough time to think about it. The scalar chunk still alludes me right now. I’m still problem solving, but hoping for breakthrough soon.

1 Like
#14

6s are a great place to start. The 2WPS dimension to this finally broke through to me doing 3NPS modal scale practice but initially focusing on the first 6 notes. So starting on down stroke: DSX (D-U-D), USX (U-D-U). Sit on couch, put on college football, repeat, rinse, recognize that for the scale you are doing the same minute slant modification applies across all 6 strings in 2 string sets. The slant adjustment will be barely perciptible but the note articulation will do nothing but improve. This is a realization and technique progress that took me ~3 years MiM study to really sink in (i suspect it never stops sinking in once the awareness happens). You have unlocked Paul Gilbert “Widdly Widdly” stage. Don’t rush it just let it happen … :slight_smile:

1 Like
#15

I do get glimpses of playing the scalar chunk cleanly. Last few times i did, I remembered to pause for a bit, reflect on the feeling of the motion. I haven’t gotten it under the magnet yet. Hopefully soon once I have gotten consistent and clean so I can see what I’m doing.

1 Like
#16

I don’t have a concrete practice routine for it, but I do definitely look at swiping as something that I do intentionally.

I typically play single escape lines with a helper motion to change strings, but there are lines I play where I very specifically swipe some notes instead of changing strings “cleanly” because there is a slight tonal difference and it’s a fun way to accent a note.

1 Like
#17

I just tried the Gilbert lick with both USX and DSX to try to understand why it doesn’t work with DSX for me. And maybe it also has something to do with the motion being too powerful and therefore creating the sense of actually playing the muted string. I’m not sure this is how you perceive it as well?

USX for me is a much lighter motion which glides over the strings more easily. You can clearly hear the swiping noise still but it somehow doesn’t feel like a problem and with more gain it gets masked somewhat.

6 Likes
#18

Interesting contrast between swiping with both setups.

#19

Yes! Do you have any footage of your attempts? Would be interesting to see and maybe we could see something that can help you.

#20

Wow, these are both ferocious (laudatory).

I’m no swiping expert (or anything else for that matter), but it seems plausible to me that you’re doing a pseudo-DBX movement for the string changes when running USX, but not for DSX, making the swipe sound more pronounced on the latter. Also the well-known left-handed muting advantage with the USX version can’t hurt :triumph:

1 Like