I’ll experiment with pick grip and post a video of the new lick in the next couple days. Thank you.
Hmmn Thought I’d post a run at Fossegrim’s lick - the first one. Not sure what to change or try at this point. I will say though that the dialogue here is inspiring enough to try ‘something’ lol I had pretty much almost settled into having “given up” because of how bloody intangible this is…
Not sure what tempo this is I am playing at, but it’s just on the verge of falling apart, or completely disintegrating into a swishy strum. Although I am trying to mute and keep it so that it sounds somewhat like music so maybe that’s part of the problem too… Another annoying thing is that I keep hitting my volume knob and turning the volume down! So probably 16ths at around 100-110 range. Ah well, funny stuff. Maybe Parkerlicks sees something that I am doing that will help him NOT to do and therefore succeed hahahaha
I’m no Troy Grady and I’m struggling with this myself so take this with a grain of salt but to me it looks like you might be mixing string hopping with actual crosspicking esque motions. Some of the slow motion movements look like you are using extension on both strokes and others flatter. It is at a speed that you can’t rule out stringhopping at so maybe try just flooring it with a different roll pattern. I definitely have some sort of movement I can do at speeds that are past the stringhopping threshold, albeit not very accurately or consistently so maybe that’s a good first step. Can you do a single escape movement quickly and fluidly?
I’ll be able to post a video of the new lick and different pick grip on Friday, very busy ATM but appreciate all the help.
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Hey thanks for checking it out man! Yeah, I know it’s pretty rough! Imagine my dilemma- I am the guy who can’t even crosspick or DBX or 2waypickslant or whatever!
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You know, I’ll try to do another video but maybe be a little more descriptive on the how’s. I sort of rushed it the other night just because I wanted to get at least something up before people just gave up and moved on. I relied too much on visual queues and not enough on actually explaining anything.
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You have the polar opposite issue of @ParkerLicks. If you guys traded a little of each other’s hand motion, you would both have it down. Scott, you are a bit overzealous with the motions, almost like an early morning late for work cortisol rush. If you notice, even with my video of the over exaggeration of rotation, it still is quite tame compared to what you are doing, and up to speed it doesn’t even look like it’s there.
I want to work with both of you guys more in the next couple of days.
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Heck yeah, let’s do it!
Thanks @Fossegrim for all the voluntary work 
Quick update for @ParkerLicks → I had a brief chat with Troy about your recent vids and TLDR:
The 26 March vid is a great starting point, you definitely do both escapes at speed at least in some of the reps. Therefore, your worry that you can’t do downstroke escape is unfounded.
Of course there is a lack of consistency in that video, which brings me to the next topic: it would be good to find out whether some lack of consistency is also found in your “DWPS-USX” style of playing, or if it’s specific to these more “cross-picky” styles that can’t be done with a single escape.
Of course your USX sounds awesome, so the musical results are not in question here. We’d just like to see if — for example — you are always picking all the notes you are intending to pick, or if there are maybe some pulloffs and similar that you are not aware of.
To do so, it would be great if you could film some of your blazing USX in “magnet perspective” and using high framerate, if possible. Instructions attached: Filming Your Playing – Cracking the Code
As usual, 10-20secs of playing focussed on one or two examples will be plenty.
More generally: Troy and I agree that you should focus on a variety of patterns and not obsess over a single challenge (e.g. picking chords one-note-per string). The latter approach typically leads to stagnation.
You could check out some fiddle tunes that feature kinda “unpredictable” patterns on the guitar, with varying numbers of notes per string. That’s what Andy Wood used to develop his chops, for example 
As someone who has tried to cross pick for a very long time, I honestly believe it’s the most difficult technique by far and you only really get good at it when you practise it a lot. It’s something you quickly lose the ability to do if you stop practising it every day in my experience.
Tumeni Notes has got the be the greatest example of elite cross picking I’ve ever come across (the first two sections, clean and distorted). It’s also well documented.
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I would agree it’s probably the hardest technique to do, let alone master. There are so many things against it being an easy technique to grasp, it’s combining all the hardest aspects of guitar in one.
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Personally, I think that two-way slanting is a better way of achieving the same results that cross-picking or DBX does. At least it’s a better way of thinking about it, IMO. It seems to me that the end goal is to be able to skip strings and think less about picking when playing.
Btw, there are a few different ways to do the 2WPS, as outlined in CTC and other videos on here. The “just-in-time 2WPS with a primary motion, or the Batio way” or changing the slant on each string.
Personally, I use the Batio way, and tend to mostly be primary USX when ascending and primary DSX when descending. Again, just rotating once every 6 notes on 3nps passages.
Okay, now I am right confused… 2way pickslanting? Hasn’t that terminology been changed to double escape? Same with “crosspicking”?
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Yeah. I heard Troy mention that there is such a thing as 2way pickslanting and he referenced Frank Gambale as an example. So, during his ascending/descending sweeps, he actually changes the slant and it’s part of his system.
The problem as I understood it was that other ways it was used was this blanket term for any time people did stuff that wasn’t total USX or total DSX. The result was people trying to mimic playing phrases that required both escapes and flip flopping their hands and causing more harm than good. What was really needed in most of those cases was a helper motion. This is “mixed escape” where there is a primary escape, but every once in a while, when needed, an event happens that allows the pick to briefly escape the other direction. The whole slant (if one was even present to begin with) doesn’t need to change. It could be as subtle as some finger motion just when needed.
That’s different than DBX, which is a core motion that is curved and allows escapes in both directions at all times. Crosspicking is a DBX motion.
Again, that’s my understanding of where things are now, right or wrong
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The stuff I’m trying to play requires double escape picking since it involves 1nps. Not just the bluegrass arpeggios but jazz stuff like Jerry begonzi pentatonic patterns. Mixed escape isn’t something I’ve felt super compelled to learn because I like the sound of mixing in hammer ons and pull offs to maintain a USX motion.
Ill post more videos tomorrow, been super busy with school.
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Hang in there broski!
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I’ve been struggling with this technique for months too, but watching videos of myself and others definitely is a good thing to do. In my experience sooner or later you usually figure it out.