TrueFire Foundry courses are independently produced courses presented by a hand-picked selection of top-notch artists and educators from around the world. Filmed in the educator’s own studio, Foundry courses bring fresh educational concepts and very effective teaching methodologies to TrueFire Students. Terry Syrek’s Foundry course, Fretboard Freedom Fighter will show you how to play any arpeggio, on any string, in any position.
Hello I'm Terry Syrek — welcome to my TrueFire Foundry course, Lord of the Strings: Sweep Picking, which I produced in my own studio.
There is, perhaps, no other technique for guitar that is associated more with virtuosity than sweep picking. It has enabled guitarists to perform violin caprices and piano concertos alike and is a primary component in moving rock guitar a quantum leap forward, out of the pentatonic and blues tried and true idiom, and into levels of performance only classical virtuosos had been associated with, previously. ??
For me, it was a difficult technique to acquire. I made probably 4 or 5 attempts, over the period of a few years, with little success, quickly abandoning each endeavor with rationalizing statements like “everyone is sweep picking, now. I’ll just be different, or “there’s just no emotion in it.”??
But I just couldn’t let go the idea of how cool it sounded! I worked and worked and found my path to gaining control of the elusive (and often mis-taught and mis-practiced) technique. And I am so glad I did! It has opened so many doors to me on the instrument and pushed my own playing into directions I would have never gone in if I hadn’t learned the technique. It’s definitely become one of the most valuable tools in my toolbox.
??Lord of the Strings: Sweep Picking is an intensive journey into the realm of all things sweep picking. Designed for the intermediate to advanced player who wants to dominate in this integral technique of higher level rock guitar playing. This course will take you on a quest for true guitar wizardry.
Sweeping means more to me than just a fast arpeggio! You’ll explore concepts which include: sweeping, sweep tapping, legato sweeping, double upstroke rolls, economy picking and more.
Then you’ll journey further in to the realms of advanced doom in a progressive manner; from relatively easy ideas, moving later into chaining multiple ideas together and finally culminating in a 3-minute performance challenge worthy of a true guitar wizard, utilizing many of the ideas and techniques presented along the way.??If you want to demystify the secrets of sweeping, take your playing to the next level, or maybe just brush up on your sweep picking and get some new ideas to escape ruts, this course will get you there!
?Ready to get started? Grab your guitar and let’s finally get sweep picking into your own toolbox!
NOTE! Terry Syrek organized the course into 8 weekly sections for those students that prefer to have a specified regimen of material across a specified time schedule. However, for those students who prefer to work at their own pace, or even skip around you are certainly encouraged to approach the course in that way as well.
Welcome to Lord of the Strings: Sweep Picking. In this video, we'll discuss what will happen in the course, how to approach the material, and what to look out for.
2Intro to Sweeps
In this video, I'll give you an intro to sweeping and the basic double upstroke roll. I'll also show you a great and very simple exercise to practice. Learn it well, as we'll see it come back in force, later in the course.
3Diminished
Here's a classic Yngwie diminished arpeggio pattern, submitted for your approval.
4E Minor Sequence
E minor diatonic arpeggio sequence. We'll take several arpeggios in the key of E min and create a cool practice sequence.
5Advanced Diminished
And for the bonus challenge, advanced diminished! Building off our Yngwie diminished and using new sweep picking skills, we'll challenge ourselves to a more difficult pattern.
6Arp Sequence
Brief arpeggio sequence playthrough, basic A minor shape, basic A major shape. Here, we'll learn some basic arpeggio shapes you should know.
7Ninja Looping
Ninja three-string loop technique; a technique that enables us to add a cool idea to the top ends of arpeggios and solve some difficult issues that usually happen in this area.
Excellent lesson, the master Terry Syrek does a spectacular job with the guitar. The content of the lesson is varied, the concepts and explanation are understandable, but to be able to master the movements and techniques in this way requires extensive and continuous practice. It's a material that can be very useful to increase your speed and diversity with the guitar. If your goal is to achieve these skills this lesson is the right one, a very good and recommendable content.
J
JohnSmithers
Verified buyer
03/21/21
Learning to sweep
I really liked this course,as it gave me various insights into the sweep style.The material is interesting and well laid out. Slow it down to learn the stuff and
see if you can then get up to speed. You will learn a lot of sweeps and increase you technical skills
with this course.
L
luckymojo
12/04/19
Wizard Level Sweep Magic
Terry Syrek is a beast. I enjoyed many of the creative sweep patterns and sequences in this course. Definitely Not just a list of arpeggio shapes ascending and descending. Along with Rusty Cooley, this is some of the most advanced shred material on Truefire.
Only downside IMO is that many phrases and sequences are not tabbed/notated - also no soundslice. I guess if you're at the level of technical ability to play this stuff, you can figure out what he's doing - but it would be more complete to have an accurate transcription of the concepts being taught.
