Sweep Picking Tapping Guitar Arpeggios

Sweep picking tapping guitar arpeggios (AKA Hy-peggios). This one is just for fun ( . . or so I thought!) until after practicing it for a while. I was playing a gig with a few really hot blues players when after loosening up enough I threw a few in to my solos without really thinking about it. It blew me away how good it sounded to use this lick before going to a long sustained note or just a slower run.

It was good enough to catch the appreciation of the other players I was working with. I know these guys. If they don’t like something they’re nice enough to keep their mouths shut and they’d never compliment you if they didn’t mean it.

Try this out yourself but give it some time. This type of lick doesn’t come over night (at least for me!) Work it hard but slowly until you can get a smooth sound out of it. I just hope that you enjoy this sound as much as I have!

Major Sweep Picking Tapping Guitar Arpeggios

The III Position C Major Hy-peggio

Start by placing your 1st finger (left hand) on the 3rd fret of the 6th string. Pick that note, hammer on the 2nd note at the 8th fret with your 4th finger. Sweep the pick across the neck for the notes on the 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st string. Hammer on the second note of the first string at the 8th fret and tap the highest note on the first string at the 12th fret with one of the fingers of the right hand.

Return by pulling off the tapped note, then the middle note on the first string to the lowest note on the first string, reverse sweep across the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th string. Pull off to the lowest note on the 6th string at the third fret.

THE NUMBERS INDICATE WHICH FINGER TO USE. THE NUMBERS IN RED INDICATE THE ROOT OF THE ARPEGGIO, AND “T” MEANS TAP.

Below is the hy-peggio written in what I call “cyber-tab” which is tablature as seen on cyber space.

Make sure to sweep the pick properly while using this arpeggio. If you need to, look up “hammer-on/pull-offs“, “tapping” and “sweep picking” before doing this exercise. A few minutes of study can save you a lot of grief on this, one of the harder arpeggios!