Michael Angelo Batio - Sweep Picking 101

For tabs of this lesson, go to : Hello again, Guitar World readers. It’s nice to be back! I’d like to begin this new series of columns by talking about getting started with sweep picking, which is a very useful and exciting technique that I often use to perform fast arpeggio-based licks and runs. Let’s get started with the basic mechanics of sweep picking, and then I’ll move on to more complex applications of the technique. An arpeggio is the notes of a chord played individually and in succession. In FIGURE 1, I’m fretting a first-position Am chord and, starting on the open A string, picking each note one at a time, moving to the first string and then back down to the fifth string. The idea is that the notes of the chord are played melodically, as opposed to being strummed together. Sweep picking entails dragging the pick across several adjacent strings in a single str