DSX Wrist player here. After watching the Escape Motion Series I’ve been trying to find a “secondary” motion that’ll help me hop out for the next string when I’m stuck. I’ve tried using a slight rotation from my forearm (just like EVH tremolo), but doesn’t work. Can someone share what actually worked for you? Can’t see my way out of this
One suggestion is to film what you’re doing and get some feedback.
I’ve actually been messing with this myself though on some excerpts from Paganini’s 5th Caprice. I chose the same helper motion you’re talking about but it’s got to be very subtle. I’m making exaggerated motions in the video but they smooth out when I speed up
The whole first theme is here:
Explanation on the scalar stuff here:
Explanation on the arpeggios below.
At first I was crosspicking those, but then I had this idea that the whole thing is DSX, just with the 2nd 16th note of each group needing the helper motion. So I thought maybe it would be more efficient to lean into the primary motions since that solves 75% of the problems. It’s a work in progress for me but I think I’m starting to get it.
Troy lists some concepts here:
I was watching the Andy Wood interviews (again) and I noticed this place where Andy actually does the same thing I’m working on, which is (where possible) preceding the helper motion required upstroke with a downstroke that is a rest stroke.
I slowed it down and looped it to make the point lol!
Good luck!
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OP, I’m also a primary dsx wrist player and initially attempted to learn a usx helper motion. I didn’t get very far with that. What did work for me is learning continuous usx (8 months of focused practice so far) then applying that feeling to the kind of lines you’re talking about. It’s like my body needed the repetition of a million zillion usx strokes to get it, whereas doing a bunch of dsx with the occasional usx helper attempt thrown in there wasn’t enough usx to actually learn the motion. So somehow after 8 months straight of working on continuous usx, I actually recently stumbled upon the fact that I can do dsx with a usx helper now and I owe it to practicing continuous usx.
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I’m dsx wrist player aswell and what helped me was a couple of things.
- Being relaxed. I avoided any motion that flet tense or fatiguing and payed extra attention when switching strings.
- Picking more to the uhlnar side. This is a bit hard to explain over text but i experimented with moving my pick more towards the bridge after the string change. This really helped me to get a continues side to side feeling without it being disrupted after switching string on an upstroke which was a struggle for me for a long time.
- Focus more on the left hand and just ‘‘feel’’ the right hand instead of looking at it. Still paying attention to tension.
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Ha I honestly don’t know! My camera is not great and I have bad overhead lighting in my office/practice room so it probably overdrives the colors. To me it’s just a very normal ‘red’. This was my very first guitar and I just started playing it again the other week. $225 fender squier, the year was 1993 I think.
At some point I put sperzel locking tuners on it and bought some (at the time) upgraded Lace Sensor pickups. I think those mods exceeded the purchase price lol
Since my late teens I’ve only bought mostly PRS’s in the $2k range, and last year I got my first Ibanez for around $1800. I thought I should stop being a snob and get back to my roots 
It could be all the years with it my hands or nostalgia, but something about that cheap squier just feels really nice. And with the Lace Sensors I don’t think it actually sounds that much inferior to the PRS’s and Ibanez I have. Surely not as good, but better than I think most would expect given the huge price gap.
That’s interesting, I don’t think I’ve seen a squire with such a big Fender logo
Maybe fender was ashamed of squier back then??? lol! OR…squier was trying to downplay themselves. Not sure who gets the final say on print design stuff like that.
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Do you have any video when you’re trying to play a scale with alternate picking that requires both type of escapes? Any 3 note per string diatonic scale f.e. I had immense problems with any line that contained an usx ascending for years and no matter how much i practiced it didn’t help, so i understand how frustrating it can be and i want to help. I can’t promise anything but i hope that i might be able to give you any tips or head you in the right direction
Bit of a shameless plug to follow
In my opinion, the easiest way for DSX players to play 3nps scales is this: Chapter 15 – Legato Escape Scales – Cracking the Code
Even if you prefer the all-picked approach, this is a method that you’ll be able to use here and now, and has a very low error rate. You can always keep the fully picked approach as a side project.
Honestly, nowadays I’d opt for this whenever I have the option.
For those without MIM subrscription, you can see a quick demonstration of the picking pattern at approx 0:42 here:
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