Impellitteri, double-escape

Playing Technique
#1

Hi, it’s my first post after my first three days of membership. I’ve been through all the Pickslanting Primer, the Antigravity seminar, and the Steve Morse interview. Now it’s time to “practise” and come back with some results. But until then…

I just wanted to say that, if there was one guitarist whose technique I wish I could transplant Matrix-style, it’s Chris Impetllitteri. That’s based purely on the sound he gets, his solos from a songwriting perspective, and his kick-ass rhythm playing. I’m surprised he hasn’t been mentioned in the material and just a handful of times in the forum.

My other favourite shred guitarists are:

  • YJM
  • Shawn Lane
  • Jason Becker
  • Paul Gilbert
  • Michael Romeo

Now that I’ve joined in on this pickslanting deep-dive, I must say that “swiping” kinda scares me and I always consciously avoided doing it. It’s so interesting to learn that MAB and Gilbert do it (especially Gilbert whose playing I have loved for a long time).

Anywho, I was wondering if anyone can comment on Impellitteri’s technique, although he has several that he excels at.

In relation to that, are there any other shredders who excel at the double-escape technique and use this to alternate pick through arpeggios? Like this:

Best regards

#2

Welcome to the forum!

Troy has interviewed Martin Miller and Andy Wood and they are both great DBX players. Their interviews both have many tabbed examples where they alternate picking arpeggios.

Anton Oparin is awesome at DBX arpeggios too. He takes it to a level I haven’t seen others do in terms of string skipping. You also mentioned Morse, the pioneer of alternate picked arpeggios :slight_smile:

#3

Thanks! Can you recommend any particular videos of Anton Oparin to check out?

#4

In this video he demonstrates 3 different techniques he uses:

If I had to guess I would say the first looks like wrist DBX for his alternate picked arpeggios, the second looks like a floating wrist-forearm USX for his pentatonic playing and the third (which I associate most with Chris) looks like elbow DSX with lots of swiping for his more scalar playing, giving him that insane attack he is famous for!

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#5

This is probably my favorite but honestly you can just search him on youtube. Any of his videos have amazing alternate picking in them

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#6

Cool, great insight. And yes, that attack - and also dynamic control - is what sets him apart to my ears.

#7

(This is probably the best cover I’ve heard to date of the 5th caprice, a thing of beauty.)

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#8

I’m looking forward to being able to get some of his courses. His default motion is my most natural motion, too. His helper motions are also fairly natural for me, but I feel like I’m missing some things. This guy absolutely baffles me.

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#9

@EddieEdogawa here’s a pretty impressive clip cued up to some arpeggios spanning 6 string with skips in the middle:

Troy has an updated section in the pickslanting primer that shows how to use the super efficient Reverse Dart Thrower wrist motion and how to access all escapes with it, including double escape:

#10

His hand/wrist motion looks like MAB. Is that the same picking motion?

#11

If you’re referring to the technique Chris uses at the beginning of the video, that’s actually reverse dart wrist motion. It’s being done with a flexed form, similar to what Gypsy players use during strumming. Yes there’s some elbow joint motion but the hand is definitely moving independently of the elbow joint.

After that Chris switches to elbow. This is what his fast playing has looked like for years. The flexed form thing, I don’t recall him doing that. Maybe it’s newer, but it’s possible I just haven’t noticed.

I don’t really know what Mike’s technique is. But Mike’s fingers are anchored to the body, so if there is a wrist component, it’s not what we usually think of from a wrist player where the hand goes back and forth like Chris is doing in the beginning of the clip. I also don’t think Mike’s technique is one thing in particular. There are examples he played in our interview which are clearly finger joint motion, like this:

His single note lead playing also frequently looks like finger joint motion — even more so back in the day. His old Star Licks video has tons of it:

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#12

That’s the same form Zakk Wylde uses, right? I think Zakk does a wrist/elbow hybrid form like that.

#13

Not exactly. Zakk appears to have two techniques.

One is mainly reverse dart wrist. You might see a small amount of forearm but it’s mainly the hand moving so I would call this wrist motion:

The second one is elbow plus some other joint, possibly rotator cuff. That’s what I think anyway:

I actually do this motion, but I’m still not completely sure what is causing the upstroke escape. There is probably a second joint helping out. I suppose it could be wrist, but if that’s what it is, it’s not super obvious that there’s independent motion of the hand happening at the same time:

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#14

I mean I can be a pretty aggresive guy at times, but I just feel I don’t have the aggression in me or the ability to control it. This takes some serious controlled aggressive finesse at these tempos. :+1: you were cookin thats 15 nps right? way up there :smiley: