Rain

sharke

Rain

 
I've started integrating a tiny bit of sweep in my playing this year, little sweeps over 3 strings, but I don't think I'll truly master the technique. There are many other things I want to accomplish before that. 

That Robert Johnson blues is 100x more difficult to master than sweep picking. I have a book of transcriptions and some of it is pretty heavy going stuff - even if you can get the feel of it down. 

Well, part of it is due very unorthodox - imho,  a bit like watching somebody fall down a long flight of stairs and try to duplicate their fall. I admire his intensity, and how inventive he is, but I don't think I'd want to emulate every aspect of his playing. Anyway, I think it would be missing the point. 
 
I remember you mentioning Danny Gatton a few years ago - now that's someone I'm hoping to someday be able to start learning from, even if I have no illusion to get anywhere near that level. But in the meantime, a bit of sweep picking here and there adds a bit of spice.
 
Plus, I'm still disappointed that I couldn't play Painkiller with my wife - that's one of the reasons I've started dabbling with it. The other is that I like to try and work on things I suck at. :P
 

I think I'd go mad trying to play like Danny Gatton, that's an insane level of mastery. I did however pick up some level of right hand rolling proficiency from watching him, and he did inspire a level of chickin' pickin' in my playing which I've since developed in my own style. I think that's the best thing to take home from these players....not exactly trying to emulate them, but take away a few concepts that you can put your own stamp on. 

Moshkito
hi,
 
???? ... don't McLaughlin, Holdsworth and others do this? And you can find it a lot in Spanish music. Ingwie? ... geeeeezzzzzzzzzz ..... !!!!

I'm not so sure about McLaughlin because he always sounded to me like he was just alternate picking like a demon. People like Holdsworth and Frank Gambale probably sweep pick like crazy though. And yes, the jazz guys were doing it long before the rock shredders, but I guess the shredders made it "a thing" in the 80's. Once thing you have to give the metal shredders credit for is in inspiring a culture of virtuosity among young players (even if many abused it to the point of just becoming playing machines). 
 
I guess what the metal guys did as well was turn it into a whole style of playing (almost a style for the sake of it), whereas the jazz guys did it without thinking about it much. It was just another tool in their technique box, a way of getting from note A to note B efficiently. 
 
Even though the 80's did give birth to a culture of guitar mastery & heavy practice, it always kind of bugged me when some people talked as if these shredders were the first guitar virtuoso's. That ship had sailed with the classical guys years ago. I did a little of that shredding in the 80's and early 90's (I was in a thrash band for a while), but the most intense guitar workout I ever had was in studying Bach, especially some of the fugues in which you're playing 3 or 4 independent parts at once (and reading them too). That music was never written with guitar in mind and so it ties your fingers in knots. During all the hours I practiced my thrash guitar shredding I never had so much as a twinge in the fingers, but after a couple of years of playing Bach my hands and tendons were in a friggin' mess! I had to lay off for a couple of years and I still feel pain when I play now. 

Moshkito
hi,
 
???? ... don't McLaughlin, Holdsworth and others do this? And you can find it a lot in Spanish music. Ingwie? ... geeeeezzzzzzzzzz ..... !!!!

no, to holdsworth.
 
probably no to mcLaughlin

yngwie is the epitome of mastery of sweep picking,
also gambale.
 

I've "hated" and discarded Yngwie and his style for a long time. I guess it was a protective mechanism at work - his style was (and still is) just so way out of reach. Since I couldn't play like that, I fooled myself into believing that I didn't want to play like that and that his style was crap...
 
As Bat says, he is the epitome of sweep, but the truth is, there's much more to Malmsteen than sweep picking. That's only one of the (picking) techniques he uses (see economy picking). I also love his vibrato and many other aspects of his playing.
 
I really like his first 5 studio albums. I am not so sure about the production, but there's some fine music and amazing performances on those. The more recent albums I've heard suffered from an even worst production/mastering, so I didn't really pursue. 
 

I like Yngwie, but can only take his stuff in small doses before my ears and brain need a rest! 

I think I just took instant dislike to Yngwie's ego when I was a teenager. Nobody likes a big head.

Like when he unleashes the f-bomb fury?  (From an infamous in-flight recording of him after a stewardess spilled hot coffee on him - lol!)

sharke
I think I just took instant dislike to Yngwie's ego when I was a teenager. Nobody likes a big head.

Oh, that I agree with. 
 
On the other hand, I remember reading an interview w/ him in a guitar magazine where he was criticizing popular artists and bands.
 
At the time, I though he sounded like a prick and was unbearably condescending.
 
Re-reading this interview a few years ago, I realized that I actually agreed with a lot of what he said - from a technical point of view.
 
Maybe the way he put it wasn't exactly nice, but, having learned and naturally refined my ear over the years, I certainly got what he meant when he criticized this or that guy's intonation or phrasing or vibrato or whatever. He was harsh, but right on the money.
 
Impeccable ear. 
 
His tastes and manners - or lack thereof - are a different story I suppose.