Sweep "finger"picking

[cris the man]

firstly , is it possible to sweep pick on a bass? im sure it is but ive never seen or met anyone who can do it...

then theres the issue of being a fussy bass player , not wanting to use a pic , is it possible to sweep pick using a relative fingering technique?

[bnt]

[quote name='cris the man' post='105724' date='Dec 18 2007, 08:20 AM']then theres the issue of being a fussy bass player , not wanting to use a pic , is it possible to sweep pick using a relative fingering technique?[/quote]
Don't see why not - if I understand the technique correctly, the key is the other (fretting) hand, the muting and unmuting of the right strings at the right time. If you get good enough at it, you might be able to produce notes so short, you can't tell what note it is.

[bremen]

[quote name='bnt' post='105736' date='Dec 18 2007, 08:35 AM']Don't see why not - if I understand the technique correctly, the key is the other (fretting) hand, the muting and unmuting of the right strings at the right time. If you get good enough at it, you might be able to produce notes so short, you can't tell what note it is. [/quote]

What is sweep picking?

[SJA]

Billy Sheehan demonstrates his version of sweep picking on his Bass Secrets vid-
turn your hand more parallel to the strings,
pick each string with each finger (using 3 fingers, and you could add your thumb and little finger- I think Abe Laboriel does this, maybe Matt Garrison, Wooten etc. too) going from low to high, and then you can tap high notes as well to extend the range of the sweep.

[cris the man]

[quote name='bremen' post='105764' date='Dec 18 2007, 09:40 AM']What is sweep picking?[/quote]



its when you would strum all/some strings of the guitar once but hammering on very quickly on the fretboard , its supposed to be the key to fast playing in bands such as dragonforce

at least , thats what i think it is

Edited December 18, 2007 by cris the man

[cris the man]

[quote name='SJA' post='105849' date='Dec 18 2007, 11:55 AM']Billy Sheehan demonstrates his version of sweep picking on his Bass Secrets vid-
turn your hand more parallel to the strings,
pick each string with each finger (using 3 fingers, and you could add your thumb and little finger- I think Abe Laboriel does this, maybe Matt Garrison, Wooten etc. too) going from low to high, and then you can tap high notes as well to extend the range of the sweep.[/quote]

ah right , ok

[Dood]

There are different ways of attacking sweep picking. The Billy Sheehan method is kinda like arepggios where some notes are tapped.I would prefer to call this 'sweep tapping' if anything..

Sweep picking is subtley different. Best way I can describe it is to show you a video:-

[url="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=63177036"]http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=63177036[/url]

My very good mate Andy James on guitar. I have played with him for a few years now and is a monster!

4th video down... you'll see at 42 seconds Andy is reaching across and tapping high notes after picking up an arpeggio, This is similar to the Billy Sheehan method, (except Billy obviously picks with his fingers) now move on to 52-53 seconds, watch Andy's right hand. It 'sweeps' right across the strings in a fluid downward motion. This is sweep picking. Obviously can be up and downstrokes). Go back and watch his left hand, fingering each note of the arpeggio in quick (very) succession.The rest of this vid from 1.39 is flawless shred.. Andy and I have played this song together and he is right on the button everytime!

While you're at it have a look at the rest of the vids, as they are littered with bass friendly techniques ;o)

[Wil]

Great version of Scarified! \m/

[Dood]

[quote name='Wil' post='106270' date='Dec 18 2007, 11:41 PM']Great version of Scarified! \m/[/quote]


Yee does rock! I was meant to do the bassline for it.. and then do the track live, but we never got round to it!!!! lol.. always the way!

[bnt]

I just did a YouTube search for "bass sweep picking"... first time I've seen any, but yeah, it's being done. Fingerstyle too.

[Finbar]

There's a video of Jean Baudin doing a very short sweep (the video is 3 seconds long) on a short scale 4 somewhere...

www.jeanbaudin.com/sweep.mov I think.

[bassbloke]

[quote name='bnt' post='106276' date='Dec 18 2007, 11:57 PM']I just did a YouTube search for "bass sweep picking"... first time I've seen any, but yeah, it's being done. Fingerstyle too.

[/quote]

Sweep picking invoves playing an arpeggio across all 4/5/6/7 strings, striking only the 1 note per string. The difficult bit, as demonstrated by the guy above is getting an accurate sweep in both directions- he can sweep upwards (towards body), but downwards is clearly causing him problems.

[Finbar]

Well technically, a sweep can be as little as playing two notes - a sweep only has to cover more than one string. And often more than one note is hit per string, using hammer ons.

[bassbloke]

I did say only striking one note per string and whilst technically a sweep can only involve two strings, I'd doubt you'd get many NAMM bookings if that's all there was in your repertoire.

[cris the man]

[quote name='bassbloke' post='106544' date='Dec 19 2007, 03:54 PM']I did say only striking one note per string and whilst technically a sweep can only involve two strings, I'd doubt you'd get many NAMM bookings if that's all there was in your repertoire.[/quote]

hmmm , its one of those techniques that MOSTLY doesnt sound very good - in that video above , sure it looks flash but i dont think it sounds very good.

Suppose its great for solo bass though

[cris the man]

[quote name='dood' post='106261' date='Dec 18 2007, 11:32 PM']There are different ways of attacking sweep picking. The Billy Sheehan method is kinda like arepggios where some notes are tapped.I would prefer to call this 'sweep tapping' if anything..

Sweep picking is subtley different. Best way I can describe it is to show you a video:-

[url="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=63177036"]<a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=63177036" target="_blank">http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=63177036[/url]</a>

My very good mate Andy James on guitar. I have played with him for a few years now and is a monster!

4th video down... you'll see at 42 seconds Andy is reaching across and tapping high notes after picking up an arpeggio, This is similar to the Billy Sheehan method, (except Billy obviously picks with his fingers) now move on to 52-53 seconds, watch Andy's right hand. It 'sweeps' right across the strings in a fluid downward motion. This is sweep picking. Obviously can be up and downstrokes). Go back and watch his left hand, fingering each note of the arpeggio in quick (very) succession.The rest of this vid from 1.39 is flawless shred.. Andy and I have played this song together and he is right on the button everytime!

While you're at it have a look at the rest of the vids, as they are littered with bass friendly techniques ;o)[/quote]

that is incredible!

[Alun]

Adam Nitti and Scott Hubbell both use sweeping a fair amount. This technique is discussed quite often on Talkbass so you might want to pop over and have a rummage.

Cheers,
Alun

[urb]

Kevin Glasgow - awesome Scottish bassist - is the one UK guy I know who's really got this stuff on a high level:



And yes, he's using a pick

[cris the man]

[quote name='urb' post='107470' date='Dec 21 2007, 09:23 AM']Kevin Glasgow - awesome Scottish bassist - is the one UK guy I know who's really got this stuff on a high level:



And yes, he's using a pick[/quote]

your right , hes really technical
sounds immense =)

[velvetkevorkian]

[quote name='Alun' post='107297' date='Dec 20 2007, 07:47 PM']Adam Nitti and Scott Hubbell both use sweeping a fair amount. This technique is discussed quite often on Talkbass so you might want to pop over and have a rummage.

Cheers,
Alun[/quote]
I ripped my sweeping technique pretty much wholesale from this Scott Hubbell lesson...

[url="http://www.scotthubbell.com/lessons/L13.htm"]http://www.scotthubbell.com/lessons/L13.htm[/url]

Its a technique that does take a looooooot of slow painful practice and is of limited usefulness in most musical contexts, although I must say I do love being to double my guitarists' sweeps.

[CPBass]

Ya know, I admire you for being so commited to learning these techniques.

I LOVE bass and have played for over 20 years but I still cant get my motivation to learn these intricate or micro techniques. it probably comes from my fascination with the groove as opposed to forcing the bass to make different noises. I usually get those rocks off when I play guitar.

My influences do include pretty pushy players i.e Claypool and Entwistle but once it gets to the micro techniques Im unconvinced the bass is the right instrument. Am I missing something?? I dunno, but good luck with the practice.

More power to ya.

[velvetkevorkian]

TBH you're entirely right, the time I've invested in stuff like sweeping would almost certainly have been better spent learning more practical stuff and keeping up my upright chops. It was just something I got a bit carried away with; that said, I do play in a band where there is actually opportunities to deploy stuff like this and I'm given free reign to do so, and the look on my guitarist's face the first time I doubled one of his sweeps was well worth the effort. If I was playing in a less technical outfit it would most probably have stayed a neat bedroom trick.

[Sibob]

The bass player in a Death Metal band called Origin does LOADS of doubling of the guitarists sweeping....on a 4 STRING lol

Slightly more tasteful i guess is Adam Nitti's sweeping, super clean and rather effortless looking. His technique is something i've hooked onto, using the thumb to rake down through the sweep and fingers to rake up back through it.

[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=B_a6zwI2Tmg"]
Origin
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[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-wxurZAFJWA&feature=related"]
Adam Nitti
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Si