How does one practice ascending sixes?

Playing Technique
#1

As a downstroke escape player, I’m ready to try some descending phrases when the escape is on the upstroke. I am not sure how to practice this though. It is not an option to slow down, as then I’d be using a different picking technique, but if I try to play at speed (currently 120bpm sixes), I end up swiping in a horrible way - it’s not just a tiny brush of the lower string, I barrel through it with a lot of force, like a really emphasized rake. I don’t think this is what we mean by swiping; plus, it is a speed bump and throws me off.

How do I practice this, if I can’t slow it down? What exercises have y’all used to practice your disadvantaged escape?

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#2

So, funny story.

I joined Cracking the Code because I was a pretty solid legato player, but mediocre-at-best at alternate picking and since I was about to take a forced hiatus for shoulder surgery thought I’d try to re-learn the right way when I came back. Villain origin story aside, I joined and figured out I was also an escaped downstroke player. Simply knowing what sort of phrases I SHOULD be able to play really helped, but I also had some kinks in my technique I wanted to smooth out. One of them in particular, I could feel my arm “winding up” on a few pickstrokes for some reason, like cocking the pick back somehow, and I knew that it couldn’t possibly be mechanically efficient. Turns out, I was only doing that when I needed to change strings after an upstroke, and what that “winding up” feeling was, was my wrist rotating with the upstroke to pull the pick up above the plane of the strings, facilitating an escaped upstroke, and while maybe it wasn’t technically speaking purely mechanically efficient in the sense it would have been hard to do repeatedly at tempo, it was a “helper” motion that let me add in the odd escaped upstroke in an otherwise escaped downstroke run.

All that said - I’d bet you a burrito (my standard unit of wager) that you’re already doing something that works, and you just need to figure out what it is and stop fighting it.

2 Likes
#3

Can you record a clip of yourself playing this pattern? If so, you can send it here or open a TC. I’d be happy to help you with that.

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#4

Thank you Joao. Here you go:

Full speed: https://youtube.com/shorts/_I2VnQD0Kfs

Slow motion, but the audio is fully out of sync with the video for some reason, might be better for visuals only: https://youtube.com/shorts/mbtjpJW0xIA

#5

They’re set to private.

1 Like
#6

Bah, I forgot the difference between private and unlisted. Send me back to preschool. It’s corrected now.

#7

Thanks for recording the video, it’s really good!

You’re doing the change from the B string to the E string correctly and only “mistake” the last string change of each pattern. That’s because you’re simply keeping DSX for everything.
Well, Paul Gilbert does it this way. So it’s far from wrong.
But if you want to play this really clean, you’ll have to do it like this:

DSX – DSX – DSX – DSX – TRAPPED – USX

https://youtube.com/shorts/IvfJ3hE9JfE?si=-ISANvu7QiUS1qGA

These movements are “anti-swiping” and consistent once you internalize them through repetition. Here’s a good example:

https://youtube.com/shorts/CpAkait63Fo?si=VkMyvua8Jd9vTId2

Besides, swiping isn’t a bad thing. But for some reason, for some patterns, swiping in a USX form works better because it’s not messy at all. Here’s another good example of this:

An interesting thing is that when changing strings where the USX is present, this escape can become DBX. But for some reason, thinking of DBX to apply to this pattern at the right time can be very difficult and even confusing, so to simplify it, it’s easier to think of USX, because you’ll be “forced” to do a tilt to get a clean escape. Unlike DBX, where you’d have to rely on luck, perhaps.

Summary:

To correct and be able to play ascending sixes cleanly, simply include two different movements on the last two notes. The fifth note is trapped (if you do DSX, it can look strange and even turn into stringhopping, as you’ll have to compensate for the movement with a semicircle) and the sixth is USX. With this, your body will learn to create a beautiful 2wps for you to use whenever you want!

Well, if you want more details on the subject, you can open a TC and we can delve deeper into it.

Let me know what you think.

3 Likes
#8

Why is the trapped pickstroke on the fifth note necessary? Preparation for the USX stroke, or something else?

1 Like
#9

That’s it! It’s a preparation.

1 Like
#10

How does this stack up against the fact that I’m pretty sure you can use an almost identical approach for Gilberts (only one note on the higher string), inside or outside, which gives no time for the preparation?

(I don’t mean to come out swinging! I’m trying to understand what seems to me like a fine point)

#11

Just to make sure I understand correctly, are you referring to this lick?

1 Like
#12

Yes! Exactly. Both inside and outside versions.

#13

Thank you for the very detailed explanation! I appreciate the time you put into this. Am I able to practice the sequence you posted (DSX – DSX – DSX – DSX – TRAPPED – USX) slowly, say at 120bpm 16ths? I remember some videos by Troy saying that slowing down too much means you revert back to an inefficient technique, because efficiency is not needed, and that practicing at slower tempos does not help with high speed picking. I wish I could find the videos but I don’t have a subscription at the moment.

And also, out of curiosity, does Paul Gilbert swipe this string change then?

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#14

I’m not João, of course, but I don’t think Paul ever plays this sort of thing where he picks all the notes. He does down hammer hammer on the first string, then up down up on the next. Whether or not the string change is always clean, I don’t know, but I’d bet it was at least most of the time, back in the day.

#15

You can slow down the technique you use at higher tempos as long as you make sure to use the same technique. It’s starting at a slower tempo that may cause issues as you may use a different technique than you would at tempo.

As for Paul Gilbert swiping the Gilbert sixes, yes, he swipes it. He talks about that pick stroke being the most difficult one in that sequence in one of his videos (Intense Rock, I think it was).

I tend to swipe it, too, and have found it easier and cleaner if I start with an upstroke. There’s nothing wrong with the swipe if it works, but every once in a while I’ll get a harmonic that jumps out on the swipe, so I try to avoid that.

1 Like