Sweep Picking 8 finger tapping

The ultimate guitar technique

Niels vejlyt

Introduction

Can you imagine yourself playing techniques that are so over the top and outrageus that

everyone who see or hear them will be blown away thinking to themselves this should not

be humanly possible. Do you want to be able to pick up a guitar and make anyone drop

their jaws in awe of what can be done on a guitar. In this program I want you to destroy all

limitations in your thoughts on what can be done physical.

I will completely dissect the technique for you to easily imply them into your own playing.

So this way something that looks pretty much impossible suddenly becomes something

that you practice like you practiced your first scales and chops.

I will give you the plan that secures the goal we set here in the program so following the

direction I give you manifests the

In this program I want to delve deep into a very specific and interesting technique. Sweep

picking combined with eight finger tapping. The eight finger tapping part is actually left

hand hammering on and pulling off with four fingers and the right hand is tapping with four

fingers. This technique is the product of me thinking what is the most outrageus technique

I can come up with ? and the answer was sweep picking combined with eight finger

tapping. So here I want to go into detail and show you precisely what to do to master this

fun and completely over the top technique.

Try to think back to when you where were a beginner how hard it was making the fretting

hand do as you wanted? Looking at experienced guitar players making it seem so easy.

To some degree you are starting over with the tapping hand. If you have some experience

with tapping with one finger then you probably use the long finger so if you feel

comfortable doing this the same kind of dexterity and needs to be worked up in the ring

and little finger

First of all I will refer to the fretting hand and the tapping hand instead of right and left to

avoid misunderstandings

The mechanics

To be able to use all four fingers and play sweep picking is not possible unless you drop

the pick once the sweep picking part is done or you in some way attach the pick to one of

the fingers and I did not want to create some kind of apparatus to do so I have always

been a believer in playing guitar and be able to do as much as possible without being

attached to some kind of utility or effect. So I came up with the technique of sliding the pick

up on the index finger with the thumb. Pretty sweet technique ! this way I could play a

technique that makes use of the pick and at the same time tap with all four fingers. So

after coming up with the idea for this madness I needed to find out how it worked in praxis,

and in the beginning I felt that the technique was very influenced by how well I was

warmed up in the tapping hand also very much in if I had dry hands or sweaty hands. Very

dry hands made it hard to control the pick with the thumb and very sweaty hands made the

pick stick to the index finger. But fortunately after I repeated the same movements

thousands of time I eventually was able to do it in any situation. The worst was that the

first few hundred times I did it I dropped the pick on the floor which made the technique

very unsuited to use in a band or live situation. But today I actually use the technique all

the time even when I improvise. This is pretty magical because when I first came up with

the technique I could not imagine do something as insane as this in a real music situation

like playing with a band or even more far out in a improvisation situation.

Finger sliding drill

This technique is an essential skill of making sweep picking tapping possible so we need

to drill it thoroughly. As I touched upon earlier I definitively had some difficulties mastering

this technique just holding on to the pick seemed pretty much impossible the first few

weeks I did it. But as with all other techniques you already mastered after a number of

repetitions you will start to get momentum and eventually feel really natural doing such an

outrageous technique as this. In this beginning stage you might feel the benefit of washing

and drying your hands and drying well because you don’t want to have wet hands doing

this technique because that makes the pick become stuck on the index finger. Of course

the condition of the hands after washing and drying them does not last forever but I

experienced that just keeping on keeping on with the movement made me being able to do

the technique without a hassle in any situation even playing live which is the ultimate

situation you can be in because you probably will be sweating from the stage light and

maybe being nervous. So the repetitions will conquer all and make you play the technique

in the most extreme environment.

The tapping hand

You might have experience with using one or more fingers tapping but no matter what the

precision of the fingers on the tapping hand is certainly not as precise and agile as the

ones on the fretting hand since in most cases you are using all the fingers on the fretting

hand 95 procent of the time you play guitar so we need to get the tapping hand fingers

moving and being able to do individual work as in the fretting hand. I want you to start out

really gentle by just playing a chromatic drill with the tapping hand and whats special in

this lesson is that you have to be aware if all the notes tapped are equally clear. Its not

about speed at all, only about getting individual notes of each finger. You might experience

that its hard to play all the notes equally long, this is a problem we will go more into detail

with in a lesson a little later on in this program. The other thing I want you to pay attention

to is that the fingers on the tapping hand does keep as close as possible to the string while

it is still possible to create sound from the tapping to increase the precission. Youll see that

many of the concepts used by the fretting hand goes for the tapping hand.

The little finger

One of the first things I noticed when I first started to involve all my fingers when tapping

was that especially the little finger on the tapping hand was really weak and even when the

8 finger tapping started to make some progress there was no doubt that the descending

part of the tapping pattern was very weak so I created several drills to work exclusively on

this part and I want to give you a very effective one here. I have chosen to do the lesson

way up on the neck because I want you to be challenged with a few different tapping

shapes and opening with the whole tone pattern where the level of difficulty is pretty high

since you need to be able to do the same amount of stretch between all the fingers and for

me the biggest problem is between the long and little finger. That being said since in most

cases the hand that you tap with is also the hand you use for pretty much everything and

therefore I belive it is for most also the strongest and maybe that is also why it is not as

difficult to stretch between the fingers as it is for the fretting hand. One thing you should

really be aware of is when you do these drills is that it is very tempting to use the tapping

hands´ thumb to get extra control by resting it on the side of the neck but remember that

this is not possible when you are playing sweep picking 8 finger tapping since the thumb is

then holding the pick on the side of the index finger. So continue the drill with the control

coming from the lower arm is resting on the top of the guitar body(vis dette på mini screen)

now lets try a new interval where we play a seminote between the little finger and the ring

finger. Next it’s the semi note between the ring and long finger and finally between the long

finger and index finger.

The combination of sweep picking and 8 finger tapping

When combining long lines of legato and sweep picking there is definitively the possibility

of a difference in speed between the two. Because once you get the 8 finger tapping down

and it works and sounds great then you don’t have a problem with the speed in that

technique per se. now sweep picking is another story since you only have on note per

string and maximum two notes in the sweep picking patterns plus the pick is also a part of

that technique so we need to drill the combination of the two to a metronome to get the

timing down.

Another thing is that the shorter the sweep picking pattrn is the quicker you need to be

when you move from using the pick into the tapping technique. So I created a drill

specifically for this. You will notice that I did not use four notes in the fretting hand this time

and the reason for this is that when I only have two notes in the fretting hand I have to be

even quicker moving into the tapping part so theres actually a huge difference between

two and four notes in the fretting hand because these two extra notes gives quite a bit of

extra time to move the pick to the edge of the index finger on the tapping hand so you can

tap with all to get the tapping hand in position

Serious business

Now I want you to try this lesson which both is an important drill and also a killer lick. It is a

combination of the dubble descending style tapping that we did in the previous drill but put

into a sweep picking context as well. The reason that I want this to be a drill as opposed

exclusively a lick is that in this lick you also get the experience of what I have talked about

the possibility that the tapping part can easily become faster than the sweep picking and

that is also the reason that I made the sweep pickinf pattern a four string pattern so you

really get to work on specifically that part

Playing on the fretboard

Another challenge in the combination of sweep picking tapping is evidently the shift from

the sweep picking technique to the tapping technique. In many cases it is because there is

a large area between the spot where the picking hand is positioned compared to where the

fretting hand is located. So the time it takes for you to do the hammer on that you do in

sweep picking arpeggios on the high E string in most cases. The time it takes for you to do

the hammer on is the only time you have to get the tapping hand in position so the less

notes you have in the hammer on part of the sweep picking pattern the faster you have to

be with the positioning of the tapping hand

The sweep picking shortcut

Legato part

I will give you three techniques to choose between to make the process a little easier to

get from one technique. The first obvious one is the obvious one that we already touched

upon, the idea of adding notes to the legato part of sweep picking 8 finger tapping.

Diagonal sweep picking

This is an idea I came up with when I started to create and play a lot of sweep picking

tapping. I start the pattern out in the way I would normally do if I was just playing regular

sweep picking with no tapping added but as soon as the sweep picking progresses down

the strings my picking hand slowly moves towards the fret board and this way getting

closer and closer to the part of the fret board where the tapping is taking place

This is a really usefull technique especially for situations where you are making use of

several different techniques like in improvising

Fret board sweep picking

This is a technique that takes some getting used to, it was for me anyway. The theory of

this technique is simply to keep the picking hand as close as possible to the fretting hand

without being in the way of course.

The rason that this technique in my opinion takes a little more work than it might seem is

that there is less possibility of getting points of control for the picking hand when you are

playing with the picking hand on the fret board. Actually the only control you have is from

the side of the guitar body.

I really felt that I had very little control of the pic when I started using the technique but I

also saw the benefits of mastering the technique so I kept working on it until I felt

comfortable with it and I want you to do the same.

The fretting hand intervals

Its funny how the fretting hand is the one doing most of the crazy stuff on the fret board but

stretching wise also the less flexible one. The intervals that are the hardest to play are not

necessarily the ones with the widest stretches. And I think that it varies from person to

person what are the most challenging but for me personally it is actually when I play four

notes per string patterns with the interval from the index finger being whole note between

index and long finger, whole note between long finger and ringer and then half step

between the ring and little finger and actually I think its much easier to do a whole step

between all the fingers. Its simply because the first example I gave you requires quite a lot

of control of the ring and little finger and as you probably know already the ring finger is

the one with the least amount of control. Even though the little finger is smaller than the

ringer finger it is much easier to control it for most people.

So here is a little legato lesson that will help develop the control of your fretting hand

fingers especially for playing four notes per string. This is not a lesson that I want you to

spend large amounts of time on but just a little lesson that can help kick your fretting hand

control in the butt. And you can just do it a few minutes here and there before and after the

lessons in this program.

Individual finger work

A lot of people experience a big difference in the quality of the sound between each finger.

Especially the pinkie and ring finger. So try this little drill. You place all four fingers on the

fretboard, anywhere you want and the start tapping with only the little finger and don’t use

force its only the technique you are working up and the precission.

Next try the same with the ring finger and when both the hammer on and the pull of make

equal amount of sound. Also keep in mind that there still is a difference between doing this

drill and then playing the licks using the technique first of all because the tapping has to

work first time in a fast pace. So if you do this lesson and the tapping starts sounding

good after a few times then you know why it does not necessarily sound good in the licks

every time.

Licks

The time has come to introduce you to some killer chops utilizing the amazing technique

sweep picking 8 finger tapping. They are all four note arpeggios with at least a complete

scale in the tapping part. In these licks I will make use of the “fret board sweep picking

technique” as we discussed earlier in the program. The first lick is a C major seven lick

where the sweep picking part is played over four strings and makes use of quite a few

hammer on´s and pull off´s to be able to add the seventh in the arpeggio and this is also

the reason for the specific fingering im using. First I want you to do the lick by playing it

once back and fourth because this way is the biggest challenge in the technique of moving

quickly from one technique to another. Now try to play the same lick but when you reach

the high E string do the hammer on and pull off part twice and see how it feels to get more

time to do the sliding of the pick over the index finger.

Lick 1

Lick 2

Diminished 7 lick

This lick is a five string sweep picking arpeggio combined with the diminished scale which

is made up of eight notes so contrary to the two previous licks we don’t repeat the octave

of the root in the scale. Lets talk a little about the sweep picking part for a while because

as in the previous sweep picking arpeggios this also requires a particular fingering to make

it work. This pattern is pretty new to me but I was just tired of the old three string sweep

picking arpeggios and I wanted something that I could compare to the major and minor

triads that are extremely flexible in the different ways they can be played as three, four five

and six string sweep picking arpeggios. This particular shape is really awesome I think and

it did take me something like a week or so to make it work at a fast pace. Its interesting

and a bit unorthodox because you play two notes on the high E string and on the D string

but only one on the A string which is the lowest note you play in this shape. Another thing

is that since we are making use of the Dimished or eight note scale which is a symmetric

scale we can play two different scale patterns on the high E string one that is the

traditional diminished scale which starts with the whole note step and the one that starts

with the half note step that often is used as a altered scale that can easily be used over a

dominant chord

So lets go though both those scale examples to get the most out of the diminished or eight

note scale.

Lick 2 example 2

Lick 3

Lick 4

Minor 7 lick

The minor 7 sweep picking 8 finger tapping lick again requires a quite unorthodox fingering

and the reason is to get all four notes of the arpeggio crammed into this little shape and

preferably played more than once. Again I tap the complete scale pertaining to the

arpeggio which in this case is the Aeolian scale. In this example I also prefer to play on the

fretboard with the pick so I am again as close as possible to the tapping part and this is

often the case when you are playing scales as opposed to continuing the arpeggio in the

tapping part. The technique sweep picking 8 finger tapping will in most cases be a

combination of an arpeggio played with with sweep picking and a scale played with the

use of Legato and tapping. Since we are playing 8 finger tapping it is mostly not possible

to play arpeggios because often times arpeggios have larger intervals than scales and if

we want to use all four fingers of the tapping hand we had to have an extremely large hand

to play something like a triad arpeggios or four note arpeggio for that matter.

Sweep Picking 8 finger tapping

Original concepts

Now I want to show you some of the different awesome possibilities you can make use of in this

technique.

Ex. 1

This one is really cool, it’s a new way of combining sweep picking with 8 finger tapping. The sweep

picking patterns are shorter in order to cram 8 finger tapping patterns on the way to the end of

the sweep picking patterns end. It’s a standard A minor triad but we both add an 8 finger tapping

pattern on the G string and then continue the rest of the sweep picking pattern from the G string.

Actually what happens in the first tapping pattern and legato pattern is that you play a complete C

major scale, of course the A minor and C major scales share notes so you keep the sound of the A

major throughout the lick. And on the high E string you play the minor scale completely. Then

something interesting happens because you need to go into the next inversion of the A minor triad

but since the 8 finger tapping patterns cover so much of the fret board so to move into the next

inversion of the triad we have to utilize this weird fingering where you pull off from the little finger

to the index finger over just two frets

Ex. 2

This lick consist mostly of 8 finger tapping since once you have played the ascending A minor triad

arpeggio all the descending part solely is tapping and legato and sliding. In this lesson I want to

make a big deal about the eight finger tapping part because you need to learn to start a pattern

with the little finger on the D string

Tapping Drill

Lets make a drill that works on the 8 finger tapping between the high E string and the D string.

One of the things I find very challenging in this lick or drill apart from starting a phrase with the

little finger is making sure all the intervals are correct. Its very easy to by accident play the same

intervals in all the four finger patterns if you are not carefull.

Legato drill

In this legato drill I want to just play four notes per string back and forth between the D and A

string and we can also add the slide and next four notes per string pattern on the A string to take it

to the next level

Ex. 3

This one actually starts with a minor seven arpeggio sweep picking pattern as opposed to the

previous that are all triad arpeggio sweep picking patterns. In this one you also get the sound of

the Phrygian scale which is also called Spanish minor with good reason I think. You also get

introduced to the concept of a large interval sliding between two 8 finger tapping patterns which

really sounds awesome. And if that wasn´t enough you will also learn to combine a four notes per

string with a sweep picking pattern that continues into a slide with the same finger… quite

extreme. We do the entire Phrygian scale again on the G string once we go back from that last E

minor triad sweep picking arpeggio

Legato sweep slide with the same finger drill

This is something that needs extra attention to play satisfyingly so lets just do this movement a

few times before attempting to do the whole lick

Ex. 4

This lick starts off with a three octave 8 finger tapping pattern and I found especially the part from

the G string to the high E string to be challenging. After this we are again challenged with

something new, combining four notes per string with there notes per string in order to move into

the sweep picking pattern which then ends in another 8 finger tapping patter which actually also

ends in a three notes per string pattern

Drilling the 8 finger tapping pattern

Lets do a little drill where we do a combination of the E – G and high E string and then on

between the G and high E string which I find is the hardest.

Ex. 5

This one is a lot of fun I think and we get to play a whole lot of legato in this one and if you are not

used to playing four notes per string patterns you will definitively also be challenged by this

one.and as in the previous one we need to learn to adjust the index finger when ending the legato

part so you can move into the sweep picking pattern without getting a little break or losing a note

because you will not be able to cover all three strings with the index finger if you don’t learn this

little adjustment. I also suggest rehearsing the legato part alone if this is something new to you

Drilling the legato

What you need to focus on here is the strtching between the fingers on the fretting hand so you

don’t lose quality of the notes which will happen if you struggle doing this kind of stretch

Ex. 6

So here is the first major scale lick. Its in C and we start it out with a triad sweep picking arpeggios

which later becomes a major seventh one octave higher. Once we hit the G string we play a

mixolydian scale with 8 finger tapping but compared to the C arpeggio it still is just a Ionian scale.

We get a bit of a strange fingering doing the major seven arpeggio, or it was to me anyway when I

first tried it. Because I use the ring finger on the G string but then I use the Index finger on the high

E string in order to do the four notes per string pattern on the same string. If I was not combining

the sweep picking arpeggio with a four notes pattern I woul have continued using the ring finger

on the high E string but sometimes to play these patterns they call for untraditional methods.

Ex. 7

In this one I play again a C major seven arpeggio but in two octaves and again a little untraditional

fingering on the B string before I slide into a quite challenging descending pattern that is solely

sweep picking and sliding and in these patterns we get the crazy slides where you need to adjust

yout sliding finger in order to be able to roll with that same finger into the next string. I found it

very benefitial to drill only the descending part

Descending part drill

I really needed to drill this part perfect the sliding and rolling of the same finger