DSX jazz lick example

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#1

Hey y’all!

Does anyone else play jazz with a DSX primary motion like me? I’ve come to understand it may be a bit atypical. I’ve been working on my USX with down stroke rest strokes to make my right hand more adaptable, but it’s been a bit of a slog since my left hand vocab is all centered around DSX string skips. It’s been interesting recently to explore how central that coordination is to the difficulties I’m experiencing in adopting a new approach.

Here’s a lick over C7 that I play sometimes. It’s actually not a great lick! The b3 and 4 happen on strong beats, but it’s a great example of something that’s in my vocabulary because it “lays well” on the fretboard and not because it’s super musical. Of course at high tempos like this it’s kind of tough to tell, but you can still get the feeling that it’s not “strong” musically.

Anyway, it’s a process! Sorry for the slight clicking in the audio, working on that.

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#2

I just have one comment to make: It looks like you’re trying to make small motions, but then the iterations of the lick that sound best use bigger motions!

#3

That’s a good point!! Ideally I’d like to be able to modulate that to get different vibes / feels / tones :slight_smile:

#4

Hey, let’s talk about that very cool looking guitar.

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#5

There’s actually a (metric) ton of jazz vocabulary you can do with DSX motion! This is an old but gold article that Troy wrote 6(!) years ago on the fretboard organization of a certain John McLaughlin :slight_smile:

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#6

Another great DSX jazz player is Ulf Wakenius:

#7

I haven’t listened to him much! He has some interesting finger upstroke type thing going on…

@Drew thanks, it is a moffa, I am absolutely loving it

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#8

I took a couple lessons maybe 15 years ago with a guy named Greg Duncan who was (is?) a BURNIN jazz player who at the time was primary DSX. He taught me about his technique all the way back then, before slanting and escape paths were part of many guitarists’ lexicon.

He regularly had a gig at Wally’s here in Boston and could just tear up any tempo.

At that time he was also trying to get better at USX (again, we weren’t using those terms back then) , not sure what he’s playing these days, stylstically or technique wise. Just tried googling him and did not find anything recent.

Jake Workman plays a bit of gypsy jazz stuff and is DSX.

I play jazz, and prefer USX but have been getting better at DSX, especially for descending things.

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#9

Didn’t know you were a Bostonian… or was this back in the day?

#10

Always been, never left!

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#11

There’s dozens of us. Dozens!

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#12

Ah cool - I’m in Arlington these days but spent nearly 20 years in Somerville. Eric and I have talked about this for a while and then just absolutely failed to follow through (which is probably my fault) but we ought to try to get some sort of a CtC get together going one of these days.

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