Stubbornness has cost me 3 years

Playing Technique
#21

Thank you for sharing @shredDon ! Sounds like we have a lot in common and I hope you are progressing too. Actually as my Dsx gets smoother I’m getting better tone and learning a lot more about my pick and the Dsx motion itself, and trying to push those bluegrass licks up past 120bpm, purely because I’m able to play more notes and not getting trapped in the strings after an upstroke.

I have a couple of questions for you if I may:

  1. What is Swybrid?

  2. Those rolls you figured out sound interesting, would you have time to tab an example out or a quick video?

Thank you!!

#22

Do you feel like you’re at a permanent wall with DBX or could taking a less rigid approach with finding a DBX movement via a combo of experimentation and some of Troy’s material might work for you still? It seems like the best approach would be focusing on that DSX work for a while, but maybe throwing in some DBX work in a more trial and error way without rigid instruction, where you throw it out for a while if it doesn’t start working within a few days, could help if you haven’t gone that route.

#23

Swybrid is Marshall Harrison’s term for his style of sweeping/economy and hybrid picking. I’ve tabbed a bunch of those rolls using a site called Flat.io. Here’s a shareable link to the file: Hybrid Picking Roll Patterns - Sheet music for Acoustic Guitar

Most of this was transcribed over a year or so, adding patterns that progressively worked better and better for me. Measure 14 is the roll pattern of choice for me (it’s based on a pattern Molly Tuttle does with pure crosspicking in one of her versions of “White Freightliner Blues”.

#24

Thank you @shredDon that looks cool - that’s a really neat way of doing it. I think I saw a video with Lessons With Marcel where he said that there are lots of ways of doing these roll patterns - not everybody alternate picks them, so this is case in point.

@cmcgee11235 At the moment, I am at a wall with DBX which has lasted 3 years. The only USX change I can do is this kind:

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I guess this is an outside change. It’s the inside changes that really break the flow for me.

I think I’m going to do the trial and error way and just mod as many USX changes as I can so I can just get playing fiddle tunes, and maybe the DBX will eventually just happen? what do you think?

It kinda feels like cheating but at this point I’m done with trying to do it “correctly”! If it’s good enough for Ywinge/Bryan Sutton set then that’s enough for me, I need all the help I can get!

3 Likes
#25

On the one hand “yes” :smiley: , on the other hand nobody said you have to practice one thing 100% of the time. Depending on your priorities, you could dedicate some (I’d say the majority, at least for now) of your guitar time to making the most out of your DSX motion: building repertoire, making sure it sounds and feels good, etc. Then, you can have a little “disposable” time dedicated to experimenting with new motions.

“I have to learn / master technique XYZ before I can enjoy guitar” is probably one of the safest recipes to… not enjoy guitar!

2 Likes
#26

That’s only an outside change if it starts on an upstroke. Inside changes would be easier to accomplish with DSX, but they may feel funny at first.

#27

@Fossegrim - ah yes thank you for clarifying.

Yes it’s odd - i can do that change above, but the following has had me in knots for 3 years

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I think I can do changes sometimes (mainly on b and e strings) where I am moving from high pitched string to a lower pitched string, but not other way round. I’m using legato for these now (as does Bryan Sutton a lot of the time)

@Tommo yes I am only just learning this now :frowning: Thank you for the encouragement!

1 Like
#28

The two circled string changes are after upstrokes, so a DSX motion won’t work with them without some “escape hatch.” The second one requires a DBX mechanic because it’s one note on the string! It might be worth moving the g to the D string in the second measure and in the first, hold on…

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This should be the same line, but playable with no “escape hatches” using DSX only.

1 Like
#29

wow yes that is a nice way of doing it. I’m playing it on the acoustic, so do I need to use my pinky to do the first string change, then some shift to play the 7-4? looks hard!

1 Like
#30

I would finger it … 0 1 3 (string switch) 2 1 2 4 2 (next bar) 1 3 4 1 0 (string switch) 2 0 1, where “0” means open string. But you could also do something like 0 1 1 (switch) 2 1 2 4 2? I can’t pick up guitar right now to check, but that’s a couple of ideas at least :slight_smile:

1 Like
#31

thanks! I’ll give this a try

#32

I will often experiment with different fingerings like @eric_divers 's version, but my lazy way of doing this is to throw in a few of right hand fingerpicks, a sweep here, a hammer-on/pull-off there…

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#33

There’s myriads of ways to avoid have to use a form of DBX for those lines. If you want to alternate pick everything rearranging it like Eric showed is the best way to do it. likewise incorporating sweeps and pulloffs works too if rearranging results in a more difficult fingering.

1 Like
#34

Yeah I was thinking along the same lines as @tommo - also, there’s diminishing returns depending on how much time you have to really practice - if it’s a lot, it’s good to diversify your time with a few different things. You make more overall progress that way.

2 Likes
#35

So at my stage, given I get maybe 90 mins daily to practice, to just work on my DSX, and the variety come from perhaps working on 3 tunes at the same time? Ie work on different licks and phrases from each as I go through them?

Or something else?

1 Like
#36

Sounds like a reasonable approach to practice. I’m going to work on tunes as well, rearranging them to work with my picking style. Here’s an example, a rearrangement of “Wildwood Flower” that I based off of Molly Tuttle’s arrangement I saw in Acoustic Guitar Magazine:

Wildwood Flower - Arranged by Molly Tuttle - Rearranged for Swybrid Picking

#37

So, let me ask something. Do you feel like a lot of the problem with the posted example was a picking hand problem or a sync issue? Say for example, if you rearranged the lick so that it cycles and flips between outside and inside picking like this:

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And you picked an easy enough tempo like 120bpm

Do you still have issues? And are the issues knocking into strings themselves during crosses, or is it possibly a sync and timing issue?

#38

Thank you @Fossegrim!

Ok so here is the thing. If I play that pattern with no fretting hand, Then my right hand can do all the changes at 120bpm NO Problem!

As soon as I bring in the fretting hand, I have sync issues AND my right hand feels tense and awkward as soon as I get to the USX string changes.

Shall I post a clip?

#39

I’m not positive you actually wasted 3 years, especially if you have no problems doing it with open strings. It very well may be a sync issue of sorts not a right hand picking problem - possibly which finger you are expecting the down beat on especially since it occurs on open strings twice.

2 Likes
#40

Ok great! So any tips on working on my left hand/sync issues, say with this particular phrase? Do I need to work on single string sync for a while?

Help!!