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How you doing? Justin here
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In this lesson today we're
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going to check out mini
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sweep picking arpeggios.
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Now a lot of you guys
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have been asking
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for sweep picking lessons.
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I'm not really very good
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at doing the proper big really very good
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sweep picking. I am practicing right now,
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so maybe in the future, I'll get good
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enough to teach you lads, but right now,
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I'm not. Now, little mini sweep picking,
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like what I'm going to show you now is the
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same technique and by practicing this it
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will help you to develop your proper big
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full sweep picking patterns, if that's
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what you want. The reason I never really
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got good at the big ones is because I find
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them difficult to use
because they're so big.
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You have to kind of play, stop for a bit,
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then go in to a big sweep, and then get
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into whatever else, whatever
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licks you'replaying.
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Whereas these little mini ones
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are easier to use and really good to get
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lots of variations of them, so you're able
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to use them in lots of different
circumstances
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be they rock, metal, Jazz whatever you
like.
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So, uhm, lets get to a close up. We're
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going to be doing all of these ones in the
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key of A minor. We're just going to be
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learning a really basic little shape.
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I'm going to show you how to do some
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variations of that. And I'm going to
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show you how to link it to this other one.
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So you can just play the kind of lick that
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I just played there at the start. So,
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Let's get to a close up look at the left
hand.
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Don't worry about the picking for now
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We're just looking at the notes.
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We've got here the 12th fret on the 3rd
string, 1st finger
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14th fret, 3 rd finger
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13 th fret, second finger, on the B
string
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1st finger on the 12th fret of the inner
string
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And little finger on the 15th fret of the
finish string
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What I'd recommend is that you spend a
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bit of time just playing this now, over
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and over again. Don't worry about the
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picking, don't start to try and sweep
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just get the notes under your fingers.
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So your fingers know what they're doing
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In a second, we're going to have to
concentrate
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on the other hand, and you can't
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concentrate on two things at once.
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Ok. Now we're looking at the sweeping
part.
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So checking out here, we've got the same
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pattern all of the time now. We're gonna
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be doing this. Down.
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Hammer.
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Down.
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Down.
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Up.
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Flick off.
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Up
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Up.
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Down
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Hammer.
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Down.
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Down.
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Up.
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Flick off.
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Up.
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Up.
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Down
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Hammer
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Down.
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Down.
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Up.
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Flick off.
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Up.
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Up.
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What you're after here, is trying to get
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the pick to move nice and slowly and
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evenly through the strings. Not like
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doing a separate down pick and an up pick
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for each one. That would be wrong.
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Try and get it to just kind of glide
through.
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You see eventually it's just like a little
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to making that motion.
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It's just making that one little
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sweeping movement.
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As with most things on the guitar.
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If you want to play them fast, the trick
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is to practice really slowly a lot.
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And gradually build the speed up.
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And this kind of sweep picking is no
different
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However, there does come a point where
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you have to try to get the actual flow of
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the sweep working. And it never really
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works until you just go for it.
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So, what I'd really recommend that you do
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is practice doing that one pattern really
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really slowly a lot.
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I mean slowly like...
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That kind of speed, maybe even slower.
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Just really watch your pick hand,
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try and get that motion to be really
smooth.
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Practice it like that for a half an hour
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or an hour or something, you know.
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If you don't practice that long, 15 mins
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every day for a week or two. Just really
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try and get that motion so it's really
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smooth and flowing together properly, and
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then every now and again, have a little
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burst and see if you can do it really
quick.
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It's kind of, you have to have done it
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slowly enough times otherwise the muscle
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memory won't be there.
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But you will find that if you've practice
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it slowly enough, there will come a point
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where you just suddenly start doing it,
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and the picking will just flow.
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And that's essentially what you're looking
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for, for any of these kind of these common
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or sweep picking kind of techniques.
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Now as I mentioned before, there are a lot
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of different ways of exploring this idea.
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Now we've just looked at an A minor
arpeggio.
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I'm just going to show you up close now,
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a couple of ways of exploring that one
shape.
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If you go, through a little bit more
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advanced, you might want to try playing
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around with some of these ideas
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Let's go to a close up, and look at some
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variations that use the same technique in
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the same pattern, but slightly different
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finger combinations.
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So the one we looked at already was this
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nice simple A minor 7 arpeggio.
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Couple of nice little variations that you
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might want to try. One is to turn it into
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a minor 7 flat 5 arpeggio. Exactly
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the same notes, but this first finger drop
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down to the 11th fret.
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Now this would work, over an F chord.
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Cause really it's a minor 7 flat 5.
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Which works out as being an F9, and so,
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that's our first funky one to check out.
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Now you could always use this same shape
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for a diminished arpeggio.
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Yeah, 12, 15, 14, 12, 15.
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Any of you guys into ?? would know that
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one already.
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And this one moves around in thirds, so
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whatever the finger was at the end, here
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down three frets. Goes down three frets
again.
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And down 3 frets again. And that's where
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you get a lot of those heavier metal licks
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So a lick like that...
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Down, hammer, down, down, up flick off
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up, up, down, slide, hammer, down, down,
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up, flick off, up, up, down.
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Slide, hammer, down, down,
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Up, flick off, up, up, down, down
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Ok, so far we've only been looking at
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the finished 3 strings, but if we just
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take that simple minor 7 arpeggio that
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we've been looking at already in A, and
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move it over to the next 3 strings,
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We end up with the middle part of an E7
arpeggio
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Which is of course useful to think of it
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that way. You could also come up with
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arpeggios on the next 3 strings using the
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5th, 4th and 3rd string. This was one
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that I was using in the beginning. That
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first lick I played you here.
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This is an A minor 6 arpeggio. We're
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starting on the note F sharp, but
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the 9th fret, 12, 10, 9, 12.
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And what I really like about this shape is
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that it joins onto the other one we've got
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if we go down, up, hammer, down, down,
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slide, hammer,down, down, now we're into
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that middle one.
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We can use the little slide
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I hope you've enjoyed a look at these
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mini sweep picking arpeggios. They're
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a lot of fun, they're very useful because
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they're like a little bite size chunk.
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You shouldn't have to much trouble
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working them into your playing,
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and that's kind of the point now.
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Once you've learned the shape, you have
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to try to work out how you're going to get
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into it. Uhm, it's always the hardest
thing.
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The starting and finishing with these
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things because they usually tend to sound
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like you kind of playing away. Doing
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your licks or whatever and then suddenly
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you stop and suddenly go into a sweep pick
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and then you stop again and do something
else.
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It always tends to sound a bit lame.
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The guys who do it really good are the
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guys that just kind of effortlessly flow
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into these monster licks and then they
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flow out again.
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I must admit, I must be honest here, I
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have a lot of trouble doing that, you know
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I'm not really good at that really fast
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technical kind of stuff. That's why it's
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taken me so long to give you guys a lesson
on it.
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Because I don't like teaching stuff I
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can't do very well. But, I made a bit of
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an exception here. This is a really good
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fun thing to do, you know.
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And it's quite a usable little trick.
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I think a lot more usable than the really
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big sweeping shapes, and uh, I think with
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a little bit of practice you'll be able
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to tear these up all over the finger board
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At least I hope so.
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I hope you enjoyed that.
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Take care of yourselves.
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Plenty more advice and some more hints on
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how to use this stuff on the webpage.
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Just look it up in the index.
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of course, on the website justinguitar.com
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I'll see you for another lesson real soon.
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Take care of yourselves, bye bye.