Sweep picking with speed and precision is based on mastering the rocking technique in the fret hand. By mastering this technique, you can play notes on adjacent strings, on the same fret, and with the same finger without them mixing up and sounding sloppy.

Having a great swinging technique means:

*Have a good understanding of the mechanics of the technique to know how to practice it correctly.

*Avoid guitar practice mistakes that make rolling more difficult than necessary.

*Know how to see when you are practicing something correctly, so that picking sweep at fast speeds becomes easy.

Poor finger rolling technique usually occurs for these reasons:

Sloppy Sweep Picking Cause #1: Playing with a bar instead of rotating your finger dynamically

You have to fret every note on the roll at once. This helps your sweep selection stay clean even when playing at high levels of distortion and volume.

When you play multiple strings at once with a measure, the notes sound together. This makes the sweep selection sound very sloppy. Watch the video around 2:20 to hear what this sounds like and why it makes the sweep select sound so bad.

How to fix this:

Step 1. Practice isolating the rocking motion as you fold/unfold the knuckles of each finger of the fret hand.

Step 2. Once you can successfully use the roll technique in isolation, work on using it within the context of different arpeggios. Don’t make the mistake of practicing too much in isolation; this takes away from you the ability to integrate technique into your guitar playing (for when you need to play real music). Train in isolation, but over time, continue to integrate this movement into your playing.

Sloppy Sweep Picking Cause #2: String action is too low

The distance between the strings and the fretboard (also known as the action) is a major factor in how difficult it is to use the balance effectively. When the strings are closer to the fretboard, it’s harder to keep them from rolling. Every time you collapse your knuckles, the note you previously played tends to keep ringing.

How to fix this:

Take the time to plan your action. This makes it easier to keep notes from ringing out while you roll.

Sloppy Sweep Collection Cause #3: Can’t hear errors at high speed

Your mind has to keep up with the notes you’re playing and the mistakes you’re making in real time in order to play accurately. Doing this makes guitar practice more effective and helps improve your sweep selection faster.

Training your mind to listen for mistakes while playing fast is made up of:

1. Listen to the mistakes you make at high speeds. It’s not enough to simply know you’re not playing fair; you need to identify the specific mistakes you are making without having to play at a slower pace.

2. Actively train yourself to listen to music at high speed. This can be trained in the same way you would train your hands to play fast. Create an arpeggio using some kind of music software and play it yourself at high speed. Repeat this same sample many times.

Using headphones, listen to each note in the arpeggio.

Shift your focus through different notes in the arpeggio. This trains your brain to keep up with what you’re playing.

Careless Sweep Collection Cause #4: Not Tracking/Measuring Progress

Many guitarists only think about playing as fast as possible. Very few think about other important aspects of their playing, such as:

*The speed at which you can play a particular item without error, with complete consistency, with precision, and with your hands out of sync.

*The skill gap between these things and your highest game speed.

If you play guitar and make a lot of mistakes, it doesn’t really matter if you can play fast. Master the sweep and roll pick technique by finding the maximum speed at which you can sweep and collect cleanly and bringing it up to your overall maximum speed.