https://www.instagram.com/p/COS8IrNCXNc/
Seriously, I’ll never understand how people are good at improvising with a one way escape picking. I recorded something like 30 minutes of jamming and was able to find one minute that wouldn’t contain the amount of fuckups that disqualifies it from being shared publicly. Mostly 2nps stuff starting on upstrokes + descending sweep.
Very centrifugal funk vibe going on there, nice!
Awesome playing!
John McLaughlin, Joe Pass and Eric Johnson immediately come to my mind. All great improvisers, all one-way escape players. Maybe instead of thinking on the negative, think through what you did here and capitalize on it??? For example:
This is the exact opposite of Eric Johnson’s entire vocabulary and he’s done ok 
I mean, everything in your clip sounded fresh, non-stock, and the phrasing was nice. I completely empathize with you on being drawn to work on things I’m not good at. The more I find out about all of our heroes, I really don’t think they went that route. I think they found things that worked ‘for them’ and rolled with it. I should do this myself except…I’m not really good at anything so I don’t have much to roll with lol!
Anyway, again, killer playing. Thanks for posting! I really enjoyed your playing.
@Twangsta
Thanks, I thought some lines sounded really Gambale-ish.
@joebegly
Thank you! I definitely write much better stuff compared to what I can improvise and that’s my main focus. Improv was never my strong point and I don’t take it seriously anymore.
A lot of the vocabulary I use stems from imitating EJ lines with DSX and descending sweep, I’ve done it for years, it’s mostly 6s and 5s. I’m just trying to use different shapes, stretching and a lot of position shifting to include wider intervals.
This is really nice stuff. Great playing. I appreciate your candour in how tough it is to get something usable when improvising.
Amazing playing. Jealousy mode: on.
I know that feeling as well. I was trained in composition/theory in college and mostly did classical music. I’ve put way more energy into writing than improvising even in a rock context. So, I’ve always felt (possibly due to being such a poor improviser) that I can ‘write’ a better solo and improvising attempts would just pale in comparison. Plus, I find that even players I like a lot, like EJ, I almost always prefer the recording to his live stuff. I’ve talked to others who think the opposite lol!
Even so, I wouldn’t class anything in your clip as ‘bad’ improvising, even though you had to cherry pick from much more content. If you can play through stuff like that on the fly, I’m sure your written out stuff is amazing. Keep up the great work!!
I’ve always been like that too. I usually don’t really feel like I’m being creative and doing something worthwile when improvising, I hardly ever work on improv nowadays. Composing stuff is the total opposite.
I did a raw demo of one of my song ideas last month and I know I could never improvise stuff on that level. Working title is “Elevator Porn Music Anime Fusion”.
I love your playing! I have a similar problem, however mine is more like i might get 3 seconds of good sounding licks followed by 3 minites of utter nonsense! Seriously though great playing, i think from what you are saying, i have a similar approach, reverse EJ is how i think of it!
I hate to use the term “jeezum crow” cause I know it’s a swear word. But jeezum crow don’t be so hard on yourself. Sounded very nice.
Great playing. I really like the funky audio clip 
A question though. Do you attempt to play USX as well?
My strongest motion is DSX but I’m constantly trying to find a USX that works as I feel I’m missing out. Unfortunately though I canf find anything that feels as natural as DSX.
Do you do this and have you had any success?
I have really weird problems with USX and DBX. You can read about some of them in this thread:
In general I do get better at USX but it feels like climbing a really long ladder and being able to move from one step to another once in a few months. For the last 2,5 years I’ve spent way more time than I’d like to admit trying to learn USX and I still can’t do it. I can’t even find a motion that feels 100% comfortable and my muscle memory refuses to save it so every day is different. I do have some moments of fast USX or even mixed escape but it always feels tensiony and I get forearm/elbow knuckle soreness trying to do it after a while.
So for me learning USX didn’t result in actually learning it. It taught me to be more pragmatic in my approach to developing as a musician. Now instead of frantically trying to learn USX/DBX I put most of the music I’ve written for the past 10 years on a shelf and I’m writing new music that I can play with my current technique. If I ever crack the code I can go back to the music I’ve always wanted to make but for now pursuing it is counterproductive because it may never happen. I’m currently learning a little bit about production and writing my own stuff, I do try USX once in a while but while keeping in mind that it may never happen and I should focus on different stuff.
I can’t see the video … 