Struggling with this simple pentatonic cascading lick... with video

[joebegly]

@lars

One thing you can try is to just mute the strings with the left hand, or just play the harmonics at the 12 fret by letting your fingers bar across. That way you can practice your right hand in isolation. If you can do right hand-only at a higher speed, then you know what the bottleneck is and you can start to experiment with alternate fingerings to unlock higher speeds. You see some examples of this kind of isolation work in the interview with Teemu. I personally find it quite helpful when it’s not entirely clear to me what’s holding me back.

Great advice here. I was going to suggest the exact same thing. But also do your left hand with “all hammers” lightly. See what the max speed with both is. Then you’ll know if you’ve truly got a fretting hand or picking hand issue.

Also, I just took a lesson with the amazing Peter C, the forum’s resident expert in EJ style playing. He prefers to think of the EJ ‘atom’ like this, for solving alternate picking issues:

|-15-12------15-12------15-12-------15-12---
|-------15---------15---------15----------15

I’ve left spaces intentionally, so it’s a galloping rhythm (16th-16th-8th). It allows you to focus on the string change at your max speed, while allowing you briefly reset/relax.

There’s another atom that addresses the ‘sweep’ but I’ll leave that alone since you aren’t doing any sweeping. That more applies to 5’s and you’re playing 6’s

Also, even though it’s uncomfortable, you might want to consider ditching the pinky and playing it with your index, middle and ring fingers. I’m not saying there aren’t people who can play this phrase quite fast with your finger choices, but Eric Johnson and Shawn Lane do not finger it the way you are. When those guys do something differently than I am, I have to immediately question my own leanings If you give it a try, you’ll need to adjust your left hand posture slightly. You need more of a “blues” grip where your pointer finger points more towards the bridge instead of straight up in the air.

Anyway, here’s some of Shawn Lane’s advice/demonstrations on playing fast pentatonics:

Shawn Lane // Power Solos

Again, he’s playing 5’s, not 6’s like you are…

Which is a nice segue into my final suggestion - why not try 5’s instead of 6’s? It sounds cool and should be easier to play once you get it under your fingers. It’s naturally more efficient because it contains a sweep, so the string changes are easier.

The Peter C recommended atom for helping with the sweeps part is this, which is to be played as a triplet:

|--------------------
|----12-15----12-15--
|-14-------14--------
  D  D  U  D   D  U  etc.

And for my final final suggestion ( ), Peter C gives lessons, in a one off fashion if needed. Maybe hit him up for some expert advice?

Lessons by Peter C

Hi all, As a way to give back to the community, I’d love to return the favor and offer forum members one-to-one skype lessons at a very fair rate. I can teach you: EJ style economy pentatonics/patterns/variations/runs Solid foundations in vibrato and string bending Basic improv over single chords and progressions Tone-making and above all, how to have fun while learning You may check out my short tributes playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBySypTY6QjnufTsu0vXTvFaKyHpLunG4 I…