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.

3 Likes
#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