A little EJ/Joe Bonamassa inspired cascading run to practice your USX chops! Tabs included

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#1

I see a lot of threads looking for resources on EJ cascading type runs and how to break out of running up and down single box positions and was discussing some similar stuff with @jzohrab so here’s a good one to get you learning/using your pentatonic positions all the way up the neck. In E, the undisputed best key for guitar :joy:

I didn’t notate the pickstrokes since I figured the whole EJ USX system is pretty common knowledge around here, but you have a couple of option as far as picking goes - you can slide the position shifts on an upstroke, or you can pick everything and sweep into the next box position on a downstroke. For the first shift in the video I just slide it but for all the others I’m picking straight through; try it both ways and see which feels better.

You can take this lick and move it wherever you have room for it - here’s another video playing pretty much the same thing up in the highest A minor pentatonic position.

Give it a whirl and enjoy!

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#2

@Philausopher, you’re my kind of cat. Thanks very much, I’m going to get this into my short technique practice queue. Cheers! z

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#3

Oh wow! Really good! lol I think I am in trouble, I do the EJ/Lane/Bonamassa pentatonic 5’s and sixes stuff but they look nothing like how you guys play them…

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#4

I don’t think it really matters too much what it looks like as long as you like the sound of it :slightly_smiling_face:

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#5

Always good stuff from you, thanks for sharing!

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#6

@Philausopher, looking for some insight. Haven’t started this one yet but it appears that you do a USX motion mostly, but also economy pick to join things together when hitting a single note on a lower string followed by the next descending pattern. Is that right? Cheers! Z

#7

That’s exactly right! Tried to keep it all very EJ style for the articulation on this lick for to make it a good cascade practice drill for those who want it, but sometimes I’ll use pull-offs on an upstroke to switch strings as well with these types of licks if I’m ad libbing it

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#8

I’m a few months late for this l’il party, but my screen says the tabs are private.

No worries if they are, just want to make sure I’m not doing something wrong,

Cool stuff, BTW. Philausopher.

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#9

The score is listed as public so it should be viewable by anyone! Here’s a screenshot in case it still doesn’t work:

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#10

It is showing up now – I probably had the tab open for a few days and the website didn’t like that.

Thanks for taking the effort to repost it for me – very kind.

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