Rough example of DSX pentatonic stuff

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#1

Okay, so I have been really working hard on getting my playing together following some new (to me) rules/guidelines. Just playing one lick bores me to tears - I really love creating a piece of music that focuses on the challenges at hand. One thing that’s nice is that for the most part I understand the CTC terminology and how it applies to my own playing. Thanks Tom G and Troy G for your patience. At some point I will be ready for a MIM membership and then I’ll really get this technical side of playing better dialled in! Also, I realize now, that it’s not too bad of a starting point, and I definitely am of the opinion that being a single escape player isn’t so bad! There’s an entire universe of cool stuff out there to explore!

hahaha This is far from perfect, and it pretty much sucks all over the place but there’s a glimmer of hope here and there and because of that I wanted to share it. Hopefully y’all can suffer through the many clams and my dog$#@% improv moments! hahaha nasty!

Okay, so it’s a combination of applying a bunch of the stuff Tom Gilroy and I have discussed over the last couple of months, and me sussing through a lot of CTC material that I’ve collected as well as 40+ years of practice, playing and study not to mention music school education. it can’t all get used, so I have really been focused on pentatonic stuff! the main theme is basically a pentatonic 5’s thing; one pass ascending and descending as straight 16ths, then as odd note groupings of 5:4. The “verse” is a kind of improvised bit punctuated by a 6ths thing, one time ascending, another descending. Then there’s a Gmaj7 arpeggio (again sequenced in 5’s using the same concept as my pentatonic 5’s) followed by a sequenced descending Dmajor arpeggio. First ending is an F#min7b5 arpeggio, second ending is a pentatonic arpeggio cluster$#%@$ hahaha The whole thing is diatonic to Gmajor/Eminor - 1# (F#) in the key signature - well there IS those bum notes in there that may reside outside of the key signature…

Okay, now let me begin my 3 part apology for that guitar solo - I’m still not quite 100% on what the heck I want to play so i sort of just went for it. hahahaha Crash and BUUUUUUUUUURN! Also, there’s some of Tom Gilroy’s EDC licks in there, but I am still defaulting to old fingering habits. I am confident that the more music I make using this stuff the better it will get.

Also, I gotta say - How the eff do you guys do such solid playthroughs? I must have played this 300 times and finally I just took the one that was consistently competent sounding… OK, have a great day guys. Feel free to get right mean about my playing! :grinning:

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#2

This was awesome! There were some pretty ripping phrases in there. The tune has a cool groove too. And this is all a “new” motion for you, correct?

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#3

Hey thanks, Joe! I really appreciate you taking a sec to watch/listen!

Yeah, it’s a completely new “re-working” of my picking strategy. The setup is new also. Trailing edge grip, pronated DSX using sweep/economy when appropriate/effective and hybrid picking to fill in the gaps left by those strategies. Initially, I wanted to learn how to do double escape but I got distracted from that when I realized that single escape is extremely powerful, and when sweep/hybrid/legato are in the mix there’s really no limits. Lots of options.

Right now I am kind of figuring out my vocabulary - I have been spending a lot of time on 2 NPS things and solutions for things like pentatonic 5’s so I guess I am kind of a beginner again/still. it’s good fun exploring, though!

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#4

Yeah DBX can be a huge rabbit hole. So far I’ve only found one thing (that is, that I want to play) where DBX is required. Pretty much everything else we can get by with single escape and the other techniques you mentioned.

Before, were you mostly an elbow player? If so and this wrist motion is new to you I’d bet DBX would be pretty easy to get into now that you have more familiarity with this joint.

It is almost in “magic trick” category from my experience. That gentle curve just sort of takes care of itself and all we have to do is move the hand/wrist back and forth. I guess I should qualify that in saying that is the case when the DBX is achieved through the reverse dart thrower motion (and also assuming there are not giant string skips involved, as that can be a different animal). There are probably other ways of doing DBX that I’m not familiar with where the motion is more intentionally curved. I’d bet the wrist motion you are using would transition pretty naturally to DBX.

Keep it up though! I’ve always loved your playing. Glad you have found something that looks and feels relaxed and jibes with patterns you enjoy playing.

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#5

Yeah, magic trick/voodoo indeed! That elusive double escape…

I was an elbow player, but with heaps of background tension which was really the limiting factor there. I could/can play a lot of stuff using elbow but Tom and I agreed that we should perhaps pursue something a bit different just so that I could hopefully not slide into those tensions. It worked!

Tom and I did work a bit on some DBX, just kind of got my feet wet with it but I decided to really go all in on my wrist driven, Pronated, DSX with my trailing edge pick grip. I will get it, hahaha it’s just a matter of time! lol

What’s really helped tremendously is that I understand the lingo a lot better, and how it applies to me. Getting better, slowly but surely! Thanks, Joe!

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