Trying to to make a lick from this in DSX

Playing Technique
#1

hey ive been trying to learn the lick thats in the solo to this song thats around 2:45. i mainly am a dsx player and since this lick has some parts where one note is played on one string i struggle to make it pure alternate picking where the string escape is always downwards. or sometimes i need play a note where the escape is the opposite direction so i have to string hop.

i found that some type of economy picking works but its not completely smooth

any advice on what to do?

i chose this song to push myself for my exam so i really want to get better at this lick especially

#2

If the tab on Songsterr is right then the majority of the string changes use inside picking which tend to work quite well with DSX, I think Gary was a DSX guy judging from his setup and choice of phrases so that would make sense.

Personally I would try and alternate pick the whole thing, starting with a downstroke. I think economy picking might just overcomplicate it :slight_smile:

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#3

Wow, I was unfamiliar with Songsterr, it seems to have quite a bit of TAB.

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#4

DSX guy here - Honestly - for ascending/descending 4’s type stuff playing it to fit into a 3nps kind of thing is usually problematic. I have 2 options for myself if that is the sort of thing I want to play, hopefully this helps?

  1. Try to practice it as is (fig 1), and this will take me to advanced stringhopping territory, I messed with it a bit and it was considerable effort on the RH at about 130bpm (16ths) lol It would be nice to be able to do this in position, but it doesn’t really work out so I won’t waste time on it, got stuff to do hahaha

  2. (fig 2) I could keep the LH fingering intact and mess with the pickstrokes and as well add a hybrid pluck, but it’s going to take considerable effort to smooth it out and it will never have the tight attack and muted 16th note groove that Gary has. Could get it close, though - and this technique is powerful so it’s worth pursuing for me. Could be a couple variations available.

  3. (fig 3) Even number of notes per string works for any escape. There are 3 “moves” in this sequence, so I simply do 3 groups of 4 on a single string, then jump to the next string. Starting on an upstroke enables me to escape on a downstroke. This is a bit of LH movement, but meh it sounds great and I got it up to a decent clip in about 10 minutes. Bit of LH shifting though…

Anyways, good luck, man!

4s

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