Eric Johnson's Left-Hand Hopping

Playing Technique
#1

Hello everyone, and welcome to my first post on this forum! I’ve noticed something interesting about Eric’s left-hand technique that, as far as I am aware, hasn’t gotten much attention in the Cascade seminar. It has perhaps received a bit more attention elsewhere, and I know Troy has observed this same phenomenon in the first season of cracking the code, but I’d like to discuss it more in-depth in this thread. Allow me to expound this observation.

I noticed that Troy can play just as fast as Eric does, and at times faster. They both play the same types of licks, but Eric’s technique differs from Troy’s when he plays at warp-speed on the lower strings. Troy stretches his middle finger as his ring finger comes in to aid. Eric, however, does not use his middle finger, and instead uses only his ring finger (and pointer). For example, when he does a descending fives lick that happens to be on the lower strings, he will not play the sequence using his middle and pointer fingers as his ring finger swoops in to catch the five. Instead, his ring finger briefly touches the string that the fourth note is being played on, and then to catch that fifth note, his ring finger will just quickly hop up to the fifth note, and then he will go on his merry way. He doesn’t flatten his ring finger to do a bar, either. It’s almost like he’s doing a very gentle, subtle pull-off motion. He puts pressure on the string with his ring finger for just a split second, and then hops up to the five in another split second.

Is his touch so gentle that he is able to just briefly “pet” the note and then let his ring finger to a “silent pull-off” type of thing? What are everyone’s thoughts on this odd left-hand phenomenon?

For an example of this phenomenon, observe Eric’s left hand at the slowest speed possible on YouTube from 1:23-1:26 during his Cliffs of Dover live performance:

Pay attention to when he reaches the lower strings of the guitar, and you will likely observe the same thing that I have.

EDIT: Another prime example of this phenomenon can be observed from 4:50-4:52 as well:

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#4

Hi! Just going through some posts we appear to have missed - sorry for the delay.

If you’re referring to the lowest three strings, these aren’t fives, they’re sixes. In other words, it’s not a silent pull-off, it’s making a sound - the second note on the E string. This is typical. Eric doesn’t usually do the fives thing on the lowest three strings, it’s usually the more common two note-per-string, six-note sequence.

Again, if I’m missing the question, apologies wouldn’t be the first time! But that’s what I’m hearing in these examples, and it’s how he usually does it.

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#5

Better late than never, Troy! This is very insightful, thank you!

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