Sweep-pick like Frank Gambale

Here’s a short guitar lesson introducing a way of approaching sweep picking similar to the style of the great Australian guitarist Frank Gambale!

I’ve had quite a few students telling me that although they feel that they master the technique of sweep picking to some degree, they don’t feel that they are able to use the technique in a musical way.

The solution to this problem is to learn SMALLER sweeps, and work purposely to integrate them with your regular melodic ideas.

Practicing up and down two-octave-6-string sweeps is going to make you play just that, and though that too is nice to master, most players need to focus mostly on the 2,3 and 4 string sweeps.

In this mini guitar lesson I have several small sweeps put together into a larger structure, typical to how Frank Gambale would play. He often plays several small sweeps up and down to build tension, and then finish off the line with a huge finale – a 5 or 6 string monster sweep! That’s exactly what I’m doing in this lesson.

The tonality in this lesson is A Dorian (The backing track chords are Am7 and Em9), and the sweeps in the beginning of the lick are made up from perfect fourths instead of the major and minor thirds you’d find in regular arpeggios. This gives the beginning of lick a modern, kind of open sound. In the end, the huge finally, there is a regular Em7 arpeggio that stretches over more than two octaves!

I hope you have fun with this, and as I say in the video, try picking out small pieces of the lick, and practice incorporating it into your own phrases so that you make it your own, and it becomes a natural part of your playing.

Frank Gambale style sweeping video lesson: