Sweep picking

A technique in which the pick travels in one continuous direction across several strings while the fretting hand sounds one note per string, producing fast arpeggio runs.

It works because the hand does not alternate strokes for every note: a downward sweep across five strings sounds five notes with one motion, and an upward sweep returns. The difficulty is synchronisation, since each string must be fretted at exactly the moment the pick crosses it, and any note left ringing into the next produces an ugly blur. Damping with both hands is what makes the technique sound clean rather than noisy.

Example: a five-string minor arpeggio shape swept in one motion gives the smooth, rolling run typical of modern high-gain lead playing.

Sweep picking

See also