I’m going to upload later in the week and hopefully get some feedback 
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Sounds great with your USX!
ETA: Wow! Just started working on this, and it’s pretty cool. I will need to work on my sync but very efficient. Going to keep work on USX downstroke swiping and DSX upstroke swiping too. I will need to review these clips from Antigravity too
I’ll probably work on a single string version sliding with pointer finger as well. More tools in the toolbox
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Yup, I intentionally use swiping for various things. I can do a whole bunch of different motions, DSX/USX/DBX/2WPS, but my most comfortable technique has always been a forearm/wrist USX motion. At slower speeds I can do a passable DBX with it, but at anything above a moderate tempo I can’t. So, there are times when I just swipe a note here or there because it’s just an easy, comfortable way to achieve what I’m after.
I had kind of a mental block about it for awhile - like it was cheating, and I was just taking the easy way out. But once I accepted that it sounded fine, and it allowed me to easily play things that were giving me a ton of trouble before, I started looking at it as just another tool in the toolbox.
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So what are you doing here exactly and how did you practice it? It looks like you’re doing USX, but how exactly is the swipe working? You’re muting the string above with your left hand?
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I thought. THOUGHT I had it down, many, many years ago. And then I came here and posted it thinking I had 'er nailed, nope. Swipe city. hah! I didn’t even know it! Anyways, I can do my half-assed swipe version pretty easily still… My apologies for the ummm terribleness… Anyways…
I swipe on upstrokes, or when I don’t want to do a very good downstroke! lol I mute a lot with my left hand. To avoid swiping I guess something “else” needs to be done, but I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t just say screw it and try to get a lot better at swiping? hahahaha I don’t know how one would go about “practicing” it systematically.
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It doesn’t sound good when you’re playing slow, but when you speed up it’s not really that noticeable. I’m guessing this is because when you’re playing slow the pick is really dragging the string more than when you’re hitting it with speed?
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@Scottulus sounds great when you’re ripping like @aliendough said. I am not good at the one string version and need to practice that.
Since I have been working at this with swiping I relate to Troy’s latest comments on another post: if you have good hand sync across the strings, with out knowing about picking escape, you’d sound pretty good. So I’m working on immaculate sync
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Just wondiner what kind of pick you’re using? I’m wondering what kind of effect the pick material has on the swiping sound?
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Sounds great @Scottulus.
When I was a teenager, I was always upset that I couldn’t get the Gilbert licks to “snarl” the way they do when Paul plays them. It turns out that the snarl was swiping noise.
I was upset because I wasn’t swiping, but I didn’t know that swiping was something that could work si well and feel and sound good. I thought any contact with other strings would very obviously feel and sound like a mistake.
Strangely enough, I knew about playing through muted strings for articulations like scream bends, etc, but I never connected the dots.
Since learning about swiping from CTC, I’ve experimented a little with deliberate swiping in my mixed-escape RDT form. This form has always had a hard, percussive attack and quite a cutting tone, which I don’t like in every context. I spent a lot of time trying to change the sonic character without much success.
I’ve since discovered mechanics that naturally have the sonic characteristics I had been trying to achieve, and when I use the mixed-escape RDT form now, I actually prefer to accentuate its aggressive sound. For me, the swiping adds to that, though I can still avoid swiping if I want to.
Also, I notice that with the dart-thrower USX and rotator cuff and elbow USX motions with the trailing edge grip, the downstroke swipes are much less audible than the upstroke swipes with the mixed-escape RDT form. I wouldn’t be able to hear or feel the swipe at some of the speeds these movements can reach.
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@aliendough See start of primer for everything regarding picks: size shape material and effect of edge picking
I’d say that it’s a bit rough because of two things; 1) It’s me playing it and 2) I haven’t really played like this in a very, very long time. I suppose that it’s kind of good that it’s at my disposal, and it represents a sort of “base” should I need to draw upon it. The “swipe” whether it’s muted, or just a string noise (which happens more often than not when I do this, as my form isn’t great for RH muting) adds a sort of inherent, umm “slop” or “messy” sound I think. Speed kind of blurs things. When it’s slowed down, it’s definitely there! Passable, but it comes at that “less than clean” price!
Nylon Flow 1.34. It helps out a lot with “chirp” but I don’t know that it makes swiping sound any better or worse. I think for that, a detailed audio scrub in Logic or protools or whatever and remove any offending noises and then put THAT audio in your video. I don’t do that, 'cause I am a man and I am at peace with playing what I played even if it sounds like crap from time to time.
Me either, but I am getting better with time spent on it. I find that even though some things (like this) are initially feeling a bit, ummm awkward… I really appreciate that if it’s in line with my form, and my escape, then it’s is something that will likely improve pretty quickly, and as well it will kind of dovetail with some other “DSX moves” as well, and other things will improve this and vice versa - if that makes sense.
@Tom_Gilroy Thanks for the kind words, and I always appreciate your insightful posts. Detail! hahaha
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@Scottulus I’ll say this: if swiping is a “snarl” as @Tom_Gilroy rightly describes, then the one string with position change is “yowl” with the slide adding a distinct warble effect. I could see it being awesome with the right effects like wah or something noisy like all the silly sounding chorus noise pedals they are making now as to take advantage of what the slide brings with overtones and harmonics.
Taking the easy path: I’ve been working on sliding my pointer because it’s cleaner than my pinky right now. Easiest path: tapping it: by far my fastest speed lol
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I think that we can describe Troy‘s discovery of swiping as an escape hatch where one is playing a chord that has some muted strings in it.
Therefore, it would seem to me that one should practice the swipe exactly as if it is a chord, and one could notate it as a chord diagram with X’s to kill string(s).
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I don’t practise swiping for single-note playing as such; but I do regularly run through drop-2 and drop-3 chord voicings and all of my drop-3 voicings’ fingerings include damped strings. Also, in a big band rehearsal I regularly use 3 note 7th chord voicings with just the root, 3rd and 7th. Some of these are related to the drop-3 voicings just mentioned (i.e. with the 5th omitted); so they also have damped strings. It does seem as you get to single-note playing that hits a damped string “in passing” that would generate a percussive click that might be more prominent and potentially intrusive, particularly since some players/ styles use playing damped strings on their own as an effect. But apparently not.
hahah I can tap and hammer pretty quick also, but there’s just something about picking… keeps me coming back and beating my head against the wall! First finger and pinky slides for me were honed by working on Malmsteen single-string stuff!
Speaking of the “easy path” heh
I have given this thread a lot of thought, and arrived at the conclusion that I swipe the best, when I have to. That means that when it’s a true escape hatch, and the only way to make a “thing” work, THAT is when it works best - for me. Case in point, is how I play Tumeni Notes. You know the part, it’s the stuff nightmares are made of! hahah!
The only way I can get even close to playing it at a reasonable tempo with it not sounding totally terrible is with a combination of my regular DSX, some hybrid picking, and then to make sure the right pickstroke is happening to begin the cycle anew, I need to strike the A string with an upstroke, but time it so that I punch through the Low E, while simultaneously muting that sucker so that it’s not too too bad. RH fingers do fatigue though, so too many repetitions of this and I am done for! hahaha And yes, of course I recognize that it’s not that great a demonstration of this piece of music, but it’s the best I can currently do with the tools and knowledge I have.
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Soz for delay. Been wanting to reply to this thread for a while but never got around to it.
I think the famous / infamous PG lick is a good demonstration of the power of swiping, both in its USX and DSX variants. The USX version is perhaps slightly easier to make sound clean, thanks to having two muting points.
If you know that you are doing a strictly USX or DSX motion, and you try this lick, the swiping is going to happen regardless of you “practicing” it or not. So better be careful with your fretting hand muting!
HEre’s a magnet vid with the details due to the proximity of the strings to the camera mic, it should be easier to see / hear the swipes. Even so, The USX version is almost inaudible:
And here’s a demo of the USX swiping recorded with a wider camera angle and “room sound” captured by the phone. Perhaps there’s one or two spots where you can hear something. But if I posted this on Instagram saying “OMG LOOK AT ME NOT HITTING ANY WRONG STRINGS”, most people would probably believe it:
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Thanks, @tommo. As you say, unless you pointed out that you are swiping, most people would not notice it - especially when you speed it up.
I think swiping feels strange because you’re hitting a muted string yet you’re expecting to hear a note. I think that if you just relax and go for it, let your ears be the judge, that’s the secret. Trouble is actually doing this!!
Not quite! It’s not so much like hitting separate notes, more like a bigger pickstroke that hits two strings at once. One is the “correct” string for the note you are playing, the other is the muted string that sets the pick up for wherever it needs to be next
EDIT: so what I’m trying to say is that the swipe should not feel like a separate motion. I mention this because you said that you feel weird not hearing an extra note. This suggests to me you may be trying to execute the swipe as a separate motion. As usual if you want you can add a swipe example in your ongoing TC and we can take a look - planning to clear my TC queue between this afternoon and tomorrow
As you say, the best way is to pretend the “wrong” string is not there at all
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Thanks again, Tommo.
I find that because I’m getting the feeling of the pick hitting the muted string my brain thinks “ok, you’ve hit a string therefore it must be that note you wanted to hit!” It’s a bit of a mind game imo.
I think we’ll leave swiping out of the TC for the time being, thank you. I want to get that pesky higher string uncomfortable picking issue sorted first
I will take a look at the swiping at a later date though.
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