Are chords usually dual-escaped?

[kgk]

Just a dumb question, really, but are most chords dual-escaped, i.e., something like cross-picking three or four strings? I never thought much about it until this afternoon. I note that the funk guitarists seem to have a very cool forearm rotation thing going for their chords, but I never looked to see what the jazz cats do, etc., and I’m sure that this is common knowledge and known by everybody except me.

I also note that @Troy has studied the single note in meticulous detail (and I am so thankful), but he dosn’t seem to say that much, at least that I’ve seen, about chords… (for me a chord is 3 or 4 strings).

[Troy]

Not a dumb question at all! The short answer is no, you don’t have to double-escape to play multiple strings. Just as in sweeping, you can use a trapped pickstroke that goes back and forth. This is how double- and triple-stop tremolo works.

Strumming motions however are usually double-escaped, and we’ve looked at them a fair amount in our interviews. In Joscho’s interview, I specifically spent a good five or ten minutes on this with him:

In Andy Wood’s acoustic workshop from last year, we again addressed strumming motions on both guitar and mandolin:

Andy Wood

For slow-motion and tablature of this amazing display of funkalicious mandolin, go here:

Funky Strummer

In the guitar portion we addressed this for a good ten minutes or so. Lots of examples of this in the conversation:

Boom Chuckin' Medley

[NTC]