Downward string escape run

[Ldubek10]

Downward string escape run

Any feedback helps! Trying to work on these kinda runs.

[Pepepicks66]

The last rep was the cleanest; the ones leading up to it had a note kinda "choked"out on the final group of notes. Are you happy with it?

[Jacklr]

Looks pretty good to me!

Your picking hand looks nice and locked in, the only thing that stood out to me is that your fretting hand fingers tend to fly away from the fretboard a little bit but I don’t think that’s a big deal, you occasionally see high level players who do the same

If you are comfortable with swiping here’s how I’d drill a lick like that:

16 April 2022

If not, keep doing what you’re doing!

[qwertygitarr]

Incredibly smooth! Is that USX with swiping?? Can’t hear the swipes at all. Well done!

[Jacklr]

Thanks man!

I played with what I thought was an USX wrist-forearm blend for ages but in reality it was a trapped motion. I feel like USX really shines if you can get a significant amount of forearm rotation involved but my motion came mostly from the wrist and felt quite taxing when playing swiped licks.

I made the switch to DSX last year and it feels much more natural, my escape is now very shallow but makes inside string changes require very little adjustment which is nice

[qwertygitarr]

Cool development then! It sounds great!

[tommo]

Good work so far! As I hinted at in the other thread I think you’ll be soon ripping through these DSX patterns.

The only small problem I see here is that hand sync is not always 100%. Do you feel it and most importantly hear it? That’s probably the first step to be able to fix it.

On the one hand, you can keep practicing this lick at different tempos and with different scale shapes to see if you get better.

On the other hand, I would not spend too much time just drilling a single type of lick. Diminishing returns kind of thing.

Try to pick and mix from a wider variety of DSX phrases . Maybe you can even write a little solo/etude that combines different DSX ideas in one musical piece — it will also be more fun

[Ldubek10]

I’m not familiar with swiping. Could you point me in the right direction? My left hand drives me nuts

[jzohrab]

@Ldubek10

My left hand drives me nuts

Can you elaborate? Cheers and great work so far. Z

[Ldubek10]

I feel like my fretting hand is completely out of control and is what’s preventing me from faster runs. My picking hand particular with downward string escape is very fast and comfortable so I don’t know how to make my fretting hand more efficient.

[Ldubek10]

CHECK THIS OUT.

Uke example

I’m sitting on vacation out of town and my cousin brings in a uke and im messing around with some ideas with an ascending 2nps lick. Watch what happens when I start with an upward string escape motion. Clearly doing a pull off (which again in the right context is totally cool and fine!)

I pause then switch to a downward string escape. It feels a little weird but it sounds so much smoother because I am actually picking every note.

All in all I think it’s great to be able to do both but I think you’re right. I need to embrace my strength and build a vocab on that method rather than change my playing completely.

[jzohrab]

@Ldubek10

I don’t know how to make my fretting hand more efficient

A great topic! There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll throw out a few thoughts, and you see what works for you.

In my opinion, when you have tension/too much effort in one hand, it will go to the other one as well. Both are managed by your brain and nervous system. So, your rough fretting may be a result of rough picking, and vice versa. It’s a tangle.

• First thing you can do is just be aware of where tension is. Monitoring and awareness is critical. See the notes on Tension and Relaxation. Fretting can be extremely light, depending on the situation. For something like what you’re picking, the melody comes from the fretting hand, but all the “juice” is coming from the picking hand. So, take out the extra effort from your fretting hand.
• I always recommend Hands Separate practicing for fretting hand issues. Don’t pick, just fret notes.
• A sometimes-useful exercise is Hammer Groups, where you just work on hammer-ons of all notes, small groups at a time. Sometimes I see people doing a funny “sort-of-pulloff” motion with their fretting hand, even when they’re picking every note. I don’t know if you’re doing that.
• Some people will say “do trills of each finger pair”, but I never recommend that. It’s easy to overdo that drill, and it’s never applicable as-is in real life. It can be helpful to do in very short, relaxed bursts, just to see how much excess effort you can remove.
• Don’t neglect Slow practice, even for your left hand. It’s part of the process of refining your nervous system pathways.

Insert usual disclaimers of I’m-not-Yngwie-this-is-my-opinion-only blah blah. See if anything here helps. Cheers! z

[joebegly]

@Ldubek10

I feel like my fretting hand is completely out of control and is what’s preventing me from faster runs.

Anyone who says this, I automatically recommend these topics:

Efficient Digital Cycles

I have been preparing a post about the left hand postures and fretting strategies I use in my playing, after reading through the following thread: That promised post is still in preparation, and I will present it when I’m satisfied with it. In preparing that post, I watched through several instructional videos and CTC interviews again. While re-watching Shawn Lane’s Power Licks for the first time in a while, I realized something about his fretting sequences that I felt was extremely interes…

The Fastest Lane - Video Lessons on Efficient Fretting Mechanics in Shawn Lane's "Power Licks"

It was suggested by our moderator @tommo that I come up with a title that more clearly reflected the content of my posts so they may be found more easily in future and which which may draw some more attention. The title I’ve come up with feels like clickbait to me, but I think it serves those ends specifically. I hope the content merits the lofty title. I present a series of videos on the concept of Efficient Digital Cycles, which is a principle I’ve discovered which underlies most of Shawn Lan…

Chances are, your fretting hand is plenty fast. It could be that you are using less than optimal fingerings or fretting posture.

Great work from what I’m seeing though, you’re clearly on your way. And let’s be honest, we all want to be better…but there are PLENTY of guitarists who love to be where you are right now We need to stay challenged to help foster new growth, but many of us could also do with some well deserved encouragement. Keep it up!