Sophie Lloyd’s pyrotechnic style will banish six-string imposter syndrome and teach you to shredify any song, any time

Sophie Lloyd is one of the UK’s most prolific and successful YouTube guitarists. Her unique shred guitar covers and lesson videos have garnered millions of views and earned her an extremely loyal fanbase.

She is now touring with Machine Gun Kelly and released her first solo album, Imposter Syndrome in 2023. The album is filled with heavy rock swagger, metal riffs and solos. Sophie is joined by guest vocalists like Lizzy Hale, Matt Heafy and Michael Starr, affirming the respect Sophie has gained within a few short years.

One of the most impressive aspects of Sophie’s playing is her creative propensity to combine techniques while maintaining a logical musical thread. Here we will focus on some of the techniques Sophie employs, from legato, to sweeping, to tapping, and finally combining them seamlessly.

Sophie’s style is smooth and flowing, which makes fretting-hand hammer-ons, pull-offs and legato a good place to begin. These techniques are helped with plenty of gain and a low action, but try practicing with a clean tone first as this will highlight any unevenness, where you may have a weaker finger, or are picking too heavily. Once you have identified weak areas, play examples 1 and 2 slowly and accurately to build the required tools. 

Now switch to distortion and work on keeping the licks clean by using the tips and underside of your fretting fingers and also your picking palm to touch the unused strings to keep them muted, so the played notes come through cleanly.

Example 3 is a sweep-picked arpeggio sequence utilising three and five-string triad arpeggio shapes. These shapes are built from the 1st, 3rd and 5th intervals of the chord over which they are played. A good habit to form is to name the intervals you are playing as well as the note names. This will build a full understanding of the musical context of what you are playing, beyond placing your fingers on the correct frets.

Good sweep picking depends heavily on muting unused strings so only one note at a time is heard. Once your fretting hand is working efficiently, the sweep picking becomes a lot easier. Use the edge of your pick to push through the string, rather than striking it with a flat pick and use a controlled motion from the wrist, rather than the elbow or arm.

For example 4 we move on to two-handed tapping, an extension of legato technique. The same rules apply, except now the notes are split between the two hands, switching the focus to coordination and timing. 

Finally we combine all of these techniques with example 5. The challenge here is to switch from legato, to sweeping, to tapping, to picking without disrupting the flow or timing of the notes, as Sophie does so well. Remember to start each example slowly and build up the tempo gradually using a metronome. Happy shredding! 

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 8, Bass 6, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 2

Sophie’s main axe is her Kiesel signature guitar, based on their Aries model, with Kiesel Lithium bridge humbucker and a Sustainiac at the neck. Sophie favours a Diezel VH4 for her high-gain tone. 

The Lloyd tone is precise with plenty of gain and high end which easily cuts through the mix. Go for a high-gain tone with plenty of attitude and edge, with a touch of reverb or delay.

Example 1. Pentatonic legato

This lick ascends various E minor pentatonic positions (1-b3-4-5-b7) with hammer-ons and pull-offs. Start with the first finger and use the second, third and fourth fingers to hammer-on and pull-off on each string. Next ascend the neck on the highest two strings and finish with a third finger tone bend on the 22nd fret.

Example 2. Legato using three notes per string

Based in the A Aeolian mode (A-B-C-D-E-F-G), this lick is played with three-notes-per-string legato in a sextuplet feel. Keep your touch light to allow your fingers to smoothly and seamlessly move from one position to the next. Be sure to pick lightly (consider all downstrokes) to match the volume of picked and legato notes.

Example 3. Sweep picking arpeggios

This lick uses sweep-picked arpeggios based in E minor. The arpeggio shapes follow the chord progression Em-C-D -B and are each played with a two-note pull-off on the first string, followed by one-note-per-string on the second to fourth strings. Use the pick strokes indicated and focus on matching your fingers to the pick.

Example 4. Tapping and legato

This lick use two-handed tapping on the first string to play notes from the D blues scale (1-b3-4-b5-5-b7) in quick succession. Use the first, third and fourth fingers of your fretting hand to play the root, b3 and 5th intervals and use first or second finger of your fretting/tapping hand to play the moving notes.

Example 5. Mixing it up

This E harmonic minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D#) lick starts with a three-notes-per-string legato run, then switches to sweep-picked three-string diminished arpeggios followed by three-notes-per-string tapped diminished arpeggios. Finally, use alternate picking to descend the fourth string and finish with a semitone bend.

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