An Observation about Pickslant and Pentatonics!

Playing Technique
#1

When I started playing (late 80s), pentatonics were how people were introduced to soloing. There is alot you can do with pentatonics and there are fewer notes to contend with, making them perfect for beginners.

Most pentatonic patterns are 2NPS.

If you start any pentatonic lick with a downstroke (like most people do), you will not have any string collisions if you have a downward pickslant. If you want to play pentatonics with a primary upslant, you will need to start every pentatonic phrase on an upstroke.

I wonder if there is a correlation with primary pickslant and ability to play pentatonics? If a young player is never introduced to pentatonics and blues licks, he might start out with upslanting, in which case pentatonics might feel alien. (Unless he also trains to start everything with an upstroke.)

For this reason alone, should primary downward pickslanting be favored? There is a whole blues lexicon that generally favors downslanting, while everything else can be done with either. Additionally, most metal rythym is primarily downstrokes, so starting phrases with a downstroke is second nature.

If someone starts with 3nps (modal) patterns, the first string switch benefits an upslant. Which might explain why people are primary upslant players.

IOW, if you are teaching a young student to pick, should he be encouraged to adopt a mild downward slant to avoid potential “dexterity” issues later on?

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#2

I think Eric Johnson might have a different opinion on that subject…

#3

I think the answer is in your question here : ‘for this reason alone’. IMHO there should not be an ‘alone reason’ that dictates how you play (or more specifically here: the mechanic you work on).

Btw there is nothing wrong in starting a 2nps phrase with an upstroke. Also I believe that players who are naturally inclined (pun intended) to uwps are the ones to switch more easily to the opposite slant. An example of that is Andy Wood who would very often play 2nps starting on an upstroke, but also do the opposite (more in a crosspicking kind of way).

Actually when you are uwps, you do a lot of downstroke-based stuffs too, because that’s part of the basic guitar vocabulary. For example, you would do a simple strum you usually start with down. The pick grip itself of uwps players is often (deceptively) a downward grip.

#4

I do both. I started with dwps and learned uwps when I started 3nps patterns years ago.

I think someone who is an uwps is someone who first learned dwps and then changed. This is probably why you believe uwps can more easily do both. (support?) There are a group of new players who cant play blues/pentatonics; I was wondering if its because they skipped them early on and never learned dwps.

#5

I’ve always been an uwps player (as it turned out to me after I became aware of Troy’s concepts). And still what I started playing guitar with were pentatonics :slight_smile: But I think I played ascending pentatonics with legato, or with all downstrokes. Later I discovered that it feels more convenient to start with an upstroke though.

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