Musical limits of DWPS

Playing Technique
#1

I apologize if this has been posted before, but I didn’t see anything exactly matching what I’m trying to go for with this post.

My question to the community is, what musical limits are there to downward pickslanting? Since discovering cracking the code, I’ve discovered that I’m very comfortable with downward pickslanting, but over the years I have found it very hard to get used to two-way pickslanting.

Point is, I’d be happy to play only DWPS for the rest of my life, but I’m worried about what limits there are to this choice. Can man get by on DWPS alone? Are there going to be a lot of songs I just won’t be able to play? I’m not particularly concerned about not being able to play MAB or Rusty Cooley songs, but I’d be concerned if I couldn’t play Metallica or Iron Maiden songs.

So, where are the hard limits on DWPS? How much popular guitar music is there that simply can’t be rearranged to fit DWPS? Is 2WPS so useful in so many ways that it’s worth going against what feels comfortable for me?

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#2

First we need the usual clarification - I guess you are really talking about upstroke-escape (USX) playing right? :slight_smile:

Regarding your question - as you probably suspect - only you may be able to answer! It totally depends on your musical goals :slight_smile:

More positively, I will add a little suggestion: you can go a very long way by using a USX-only approach plus little bits of hybrid picking here and there for the “outside ascending” string change! Feel free to ask more if interested!

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#3

I wouldn’t think of this as limits. It’s like saying, I’d be happy to speak Spanish my whole life but how will I sing all my favorite German metal songs? You can either translate them, if they are translatable or sing them in German!

These playing styles are like languages. They don’t have limits, per se, if by limit you mean “ability to express yourself”. But if you really mean, play everything exactly the way it’s played in the other style, no. Because not all words exist in all languages. If you want to play songs written in the downward pickslanting style, like Eric Johnson, I can say pretty confidently that you’re not really going to nail it any other way. You can get close. Many listeners think Joe Bonamassa sounds like EJ. But to me he sounds like a pure alternate guy adapting EJ lines. Different thing.

You won’t be able to translate all songs exactly but you can adapt them. Or you can learn those other playing styles if you want to play them exactly as they were played.

Language is really the best analogy here.

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