Do you have motion mechanic envy?

[Tom_Gilroy]

@carranoj25

And I believe you and I commented this on another thread awhile back; how we both had these unrealistic expectations that all the “elite” guitar players can play every line, every style, lick, etc… which is just not true.

Absolutely. When I was younger, I totally believed my favourite players could play anything.

I’ve realised that I judged players “level” of technique by how difficult I found their playing to emulate with my form. I thought Eric Johnson was impossibly good, because everything he played was a poor fit for my mechanics (both picking and fretting hands). I didn’t realise it at the time, but I was forcing square pegs into round holes.

When you believe some people can play anything and you know that you can’t, you start imagining that they’re just different to you. Better than you are or could ever be. I only focused on the comparisons where I came out lesser.

Getting Total Electric Guitar, The Fine Art of Guitar and the '88 Austin City Limits performance when they were released on DVD was huge for me.

@joebegly

What’s pretty interesting is that one of the most versatile players, in terms of the genres he can dabble in, is one of the most mechanically “limited” (huge air quotes on that word) players, and that’s Eric Johnson.

Eric Johnson is a living guitar highlight reel.

@joebegly

What initially attracted me to his playing was how convincingly he could do rock, classic rock, country, blues, acoustic fingerstyle, and even some “jazzy” ( I won’t call him a jazz player because he isn’t) stuff too.

Sometimes I think people forget, or maybe never fully appreciated how good Eric actually was (and is). The synergies between his picking and fretting mechanics, his fretboard organisation and his line construction were ridiculous. Some of the things he has done are near impossible if you try to play them any way other than how he played it, and are almost distrurbingly easy to do when you do as he did. This convinced me that when you can imitate the method, you can imitate the results.

There’s no one perfect guitarist, but there are perfect guitarists and Eric is one of them.

@joebegly

On the surface, he can do it all. Mechanically, he’s near 100% USX and that’s it. If you forced him to cover Tumeni Notes, he’d probably hybrid and economy pick it. Hypothetically, of course lol!

This isn’t entirely true, Eric has a DBX form what he demonstrated briefly on Total Electric Guitar. It’s not the most robust DBX form (not likely up to playing Tumeni Notes, for example), but it’s not stringhopping either. There are also clear examples of phrases using wrist and finger helper motions situationally. But you’re absolutely right that the overwhelming majority of Eric’s playing is USX.

[joebegly]

@Tom_Gilroy

There’s no one perfect guitarist, but there are perfect guitarists and Eric is one of them.

Well said. Him at his peak…I could listen to just his playing and no other guitarists. I’d of course be missing out, but I’d also be satisfied.

@Tom_Gilroy

@joebegly

On the surface, he can do it all. Mechanically, he’s near 100% USX and that’s it. If you forced him to cover Tumeni Notes, he’d probably hybrid and economy pick it. Hypothetically, of course lol!

This isn’t entirely true, Eric has a DBX form what he demonstrated briefly on Total Electric Guitar. It’s not the most robust DBX form (not likely up to playing Tumeni Notes, for example), but it’s not stringhopping either. There are also clear examples of phrases using wrist and finger helper motions situationally. But you’re absolutely right that the overwhelming majority of Eric’s playing is USX.

Can we say 95% then?

[Frylock]

@Tom_Gilroy

There’s no one perfect guitarist, but there are perfect guitarists and Eric is one of them.

This isn’t really related to your point, but that line reminded me of a very good Malcolm Gladwell talk:

Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce | Malcolm Gladwell

[carranoj25]

@Tom_Gilroy

Some of the things he has done are near impossible if you try to play them any way other than how he played it, and are almost distrurbingly easy to do when you do as he did

Like what? I’ve recently built a more solid downward sweep EJ motion but when I first learned cascading/pentatonic 4s & 5s, i natively leaned on my weird upstroke sweep on the previous string. In the heat of the moment I usually still default to that.

[Tom_Gilroy]

@carranoj25

Like what?

Some of the lines he played on Desert Rose (studio and live) in the Ah Via Musicom era always stand out to me. With Eric’s picking and fretting mechanics and sequences, those lines range from effortless to totally manageable. With almost any other approach, they range from difficult to damn near impossible.

[joebegly]

@Tom_Gilroy

With Eric’s picking and fretting mechanics and sequences, those lines range from effortless to totally manageable.

Hmm that is interesting. I’d agree that pre CtC most of what he played seemed impossible to me. Like you mentioned, my technique was a square peg to his round hole. (Gosh that sounds dirty). I was attempting to shoehorn 3nps pentatonics, mainly because I couldn’t fathom anyone playing 2nps fast lol! I had seen very little footage of him and was doing all this by attempting to reverse engineer his playing just from the audio recordings. Pretty frustrating.

I’m at the point now where plenty of his phrases feel very comfortable. Others still seem quite challenging though. I know enough to make sure I’m following the USX rules, but there’s a good chance I’m missing some fundamentals of his fretting mechanics and that’s the missing link. I recall reading a column of his in guitar world where he mentioned on position shifts that he tried to slide 2 frets (in pentatonic playing we’ll either shift 2 frets or 3 frets) and that makes sense.

I also have experienced times where I’ve tried just sort of improvising some 2nps pentatonic phrases and I feel really locked in. I am NOT a good improviser at all, but I get these pockets where it feels really good. I need to try to step back and abstract away from what I’m playing and try to understand what’s different during these phrases that feel great. One thing I know is that during these times I feel my fretting hand is loose but powerful…almost like I’m smacking the frets (i.e. if I weren’t plugged in, I’d hear a lot of harmonics). I haven’t determined if there’s a relationship between finger choices (index → middle vs index → ring (or pinky) ) when changing strings, and possibly different considerations when ascending vs descending. For example it feels easier to ascend playing index → middle, then on the next (higher/thinner) string following that with index → ring…that’s probably not always possible. Anyway I’d bet there’s a happy path there too.

[Tom_Gilroy]

@joebegly

I had seen very little footage of him and was doing all this by attempting to reverse engineer his playing just from the audio recordings. Pretty frustrating.

The only footage I had of him prior to the DVD releases of TEG, TFAoG and the '88 ACL performance was his spot on the first G3 DVD. I loved his playing on the G3 DVD but it didn’t offer much technical insight at the time. When the DVDs were available, I was constantly rewinding and going frame by frame to work out what was happening. Now there are upscaled videos of peak EJ at 1080p and 60fps on YouTube.

@joebegly

I know enough to make sure I’m following the USX rules, but there’s a good chance I’m missing some fundamentals of his fretting mechanics and that’s the missing link. I recall reading a column of his in guitar world where he mentioned on position shifts that he tried to slide 2 frets (in pentatonic playing we’ll either shift 2 frets or 3 frets) and that makes sense.

Eric’s fretting mechanics have a huge impact on what he can and can’t do comfortably. I’ll write up a longer post or make a short video on it for you over the next few days.

[joebegly]

@Tom_Gilroy

Eric’s fretting mechanics have a huge impact on what he can and can’t do comfortably. I’ll write up a longer post or make a short video on it for you over the next few days.

That would be much appreciated.

[carranoj25]

Yes I would like to see that as well

[joebegly]

@carranoj25

I would like to see that as well

The Waiting

[carranoj25]

Were you planning to make the EJ fretting mechanics post a private message or public post? Hopefully public

[joebegly]

Sorry, it’s private. I’ll take these secrets with me to my grave.

Jk

Hmmm pretty sure it’s supposed to be Daniel “San”…

[Frylock]

@joebegly

Hmmm pretty sure it’s supposed to be Daniel “San”…

Next you’ll try to convince me it wasn’t “Whacks on. Whacks off.”

[Tom_Gilroy]

It will be a public post with an accompanying video. It will take some time together, but I’ve started gathering ideas and organising my thoughts.

[joebegly]

That made me laugh pretty hard! According to the entity that will soon render me unemployed (i.e. ChatGPT), I’m not wrong though:

It also says it’s not uncommon to hear it like you did though, so you’re in good company

[Frylock]

Instead of a tangent into the story of how Microsoft’s “Tay” chatbot got trolled by twitter users a few years ago, here’s a link to an abridged version of the Community episode where Annie and Chang get cast in a stage adaptation of The Karate Kid:

chang karate kid

[Fossegrim]

There is no option for “shrugs, don’t know”.

[Ibanez_RG]

USX !!! Nothing else worked as well for me