USX Motion Checklist — Get Your Wrist Motion Happening

Playing Technique
#21

Not totally following you, but the way you switch from DSX to USX isn’t by turning your arm. It’s actually by changing the way the wrist is moving. You keep the arm stationary, and just move the wrist in a different diagonal direction. Just as an exmple, here’s what that looks like:

Notice that the arm doesn’t change its position, or not that much. But the motion changes. The upstroke escape motion moves from the upper right of the screen to the lower left. The downstroke escape motion moves from the lower right to the upper left. It’s magic!

But again, don’t worry about that too much right now. If you can do either one of these motions on a single string at 150bpm, then you can do it well enough to try it on some musical phrases. See if you can get your hands synchronized on some kind of simple musical phrase that you like, and see what happens. Knowing what it’s supposed to look like is helpful, for sure, so you can occasionally film yourself if you want to check your progress. But these changes between the motions are so slight that you may be able to suss them out by feel over time just by focusing on a feeling of smoothness, good sounding pick attack, and hand synchronization, and keeping in mind generally what is supposed to be happening at a mechanical level.

#22

Ah, you’re right. I did say “turning my hand” and meant to say “turning my wrist”.

I am hearing your suggestions about obtaining a good feeling of smoothness, good sounding pick attack, and hand synchronization and am not ignoring that advice. However, I would like to make sure you are understanding what I am asking.

Let’s say that I am playing 16th notes on the open A string at speed X using the DSX motion. While continuing to play 16th notes on the open A string, I should be able to switch to the USX motion. However, I can’t do that. What do you think I could work on to correct that?

Thanks,

–Brad

#23

I never worked on that. I just worked on musical phrases. I can do that now in demonstration videos like the one I linked to, but only because I worked on musical phrases that required it, then became more aware of what I was doing, then learned to recognize the feel of the two different motions, then learned to swap them on a single note a single string. So making videos like that is the last thing I was able to do, not the first. Switching wrist motions on a single note, when it’s not even required, It’s almost more of a party trick than something you’d do in actual playing.

Instead, what I’m suggesting is that by doing this more intuitive type of playing, where you just focus on trying to play the lines with smoothness, you can back into it the way I did. Intellectually, you know what is supposed to be happening. You could draw it on a napkin. That’s a big help. Most people go their whole lives never knowing that the wrist can even move in different directions like that. Just knowing that fact can help you become more aware of these things as you accidentally do them correctly in the course of more “intuitive” musical playing like that kind I’m recommending. Doing things right, somewhat by accident, and learning to identify it by feel afterward and reproduce it, is how I learned pretty much every technique I know.

So the suggestion here is twofold:

One, if you get all the other ingredients happening together, even if you never learn to switch motions at all, you may still get pretty good-sounding playing because the only note that would even have a chance of sounding “off” would be one string change out of every however many notes. And that might just not be that noticeable. Depending on the type of phrase.

And then, two, getting good at the single-motion type playing, may help make it more obvious when and how you need to learn to make those other string changes clean, thereby helping you clean up. Your hands may figure out some of this on their own, which you can then become more conscious of, and learn to do it more deliberately.

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#24

Thank you for the suggestions and thorough responses.

#25

Not a problem - let us know how you make out!

#26

How is muting done when playing on the B and E string? My thumb heel is comfortably muting the EAD string, but if I try to mute the G string I either lose contact with the low E string or also mute the B string.

I’ve been practicing my USX on this short section of Petrucci’s Happy Song where he bounces between the B and E string doing 2nps for a few bars:

On the B string I can mute the G string with my first finger, but when my first finger is on the E string I can sometimes hear the open G ringing out. I tried moving my picking hand a little extra so it mutes the G string when I’m on the high E but then I sometimes hear the low E ringing out as it’s left uncovered.

#27

It all depends on what part of the hand you are muting with and what you are muting for. Are you muting just to keep the strings quiet or muting to get a percussive staccato effect? If the later, it’s typically easier to mute with the other side of your hand. This is often more conducive to USX down wards pickslanting anyway since it tends to naturally put your hand in position for it.

If on the other hand you are just trying to dampen the strings so they don’t ring out, you can use your pinky to drape over the high strings while still maintaining the “thumb palm” muting in the low. Likewise you could also incorporate fretting hand muting as well for the higher strings.

#28

This was one of the only ‘intuitive’ things I stumbled upon all by myself. That was the only way I could keep my hi gain amp quiet. At least, the only way that worked for me. I’ve seen others get away with different dampening protocols. But that pronated thumb palm thing seemed to work great for me, with no extra effort.

It’s puts things into a position where DSX is strongly preferred by the body though. USX…probably pretty tough, at least for me. 2NPS stuff starting on a down stroke was always an Achilles heel of mine from that posture so I’m pretty sure I was brute force string hopping when attempting.

Great suggestion. MAB and Rusty Cooley both preach that approach.

#29

As does Paul Gilbert. I think the two hand muting is just good practice regardless of what you choose since it’s kind of that extra safety net.

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#30

Muting is something I’m struggling with at the moment. With the forearm and wrist resting on the bridge setup, the pinky heel is very close to the bridge and some noise can get through.

At the end of a phrase or during bends or vibrato I move the picking hand forward to clamp down on noise.

Im not too familiar with left hand muting techniques for muting noise on the strings lower in pitch…?

#31

If on the other hand you are just trying to dampen the strings so they don’t ring out, you can use your pinky to drape over the high strings while still maintaining the “thumb palm” muting in the low.

I don’t see how I can dampen the G string with my pinky while playing on the high E string (the string highest in pitch). Surely that would only work to mute e.g. the high E string while I was playing on e.g. the G string?

I haven’t seen either of these keep the first finger in contact with the G string continuously, for muting purposes, while playing on the high E string.

#32

It depends on how close to the bridge saddles you are. It really is a discipline in itself, and experimenting in finding the perfect spot is key. If you are too close to the string exit point on the bridge saddles particularly with a floyd rose, it’s tough to mute that way, and you will get more unintentional noise particularly on the lower strings. However this location tends to sound better for staccato playing in the higher ones. If you move to closer to the neck, it tends to choke everything too much. For me I have found it’s right in between the bridge pickup and where the strings exit the saddle and at somewhat of a slant if possible. You get the damping and chug on the low strings if you need it without choking too much out.

Typically it’s only done for those higher in pitch than the ones you’re playing. But I’ve seen Troy do it for lower too, but it’s most for end of phrase licks to dampen everything.

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#33

Are you asking about playing the B and E strings and muting those strings at the same time, as a percussive effect, like Al Di Meola? Or are you asking about muting the strings you’re not playing, i.e. for noise control?

#34

I’ll experiment with this and see how I get on. I got into the habit of moving the hand closer, if there is time, at the end of a phrase if bending etc, I’m not sure if that is a good habit to be getting into though… sort of like what Marty Friedman does, without having to rotate, just shifting forward on the lower strings.

#35

Muting the strings I’m not playing. EAD is covered by the thumb-heel, but the G string is giving me trouble. Either move my anchor toward the high E string and get it covered, but then the low E becomes uncovered and will ring out…

I don’t feel the left hand should be doing that job, as it’s awkward to keep contact with the G string while playing on the high E.

#36

A lot of people with this playing position use parts of the thumb itself for this. Some people even use parts of the wrist to dampen low strings.

To me this has always been an awkward playing position and always just use the opposite side of my hand (pinky side) to rest on the strings, as it can just cover more ground. But I’ve seen many people do these things (thumb and wrist) and make it work well.

#37

Gotcha. Remember there are three forms for wrist technique. Just to recap, here they are:

Which form are you using, Andy Wood / Di Meola? If so, the lower strings are all done with the side of the palm, not the pinky or the thumb. It is ok to use more of the side of the palm, and not just the heel, if necessary. This won’t interfere with the motion.

The string you are actually playing can also be muted with the side of the palm, to achieve the Di Meola effect. But you have to slide the whole hand down closer to the string you are playing, until that side of the palm rests on the string you are playing. This will place the remaining fingers past the strings, so you can’t use them for muting. This is how the Andy Wood / Di Meola / Gilbert form works.

#38

Bill Hall shows us the way! Pronated USX pentatonic:

This is just a 10:00 wrist motion, i.e. dart-thrower. I suspect if we filmed lots of people we’d probably find that a lot of people do this. Maybe it’s not as common as as Gypsy-style USX posture but I would bet I’ve done this myself on and off for years without realizing it.

#39

Yeah. I think maybe I’ve been mixing the forms up a little. The checklist said this:

You can either rest the palm heel anchors on the strings, or on some combination of the bridge and strings. If you choose the split method, the pinky heel rests on the bridge and the thumb heel rests on the strings.

And that would put the side of my palm behind the strings and thus not muting.

I’ve had a hard time escaping on the upstroke with an anchor on the strings before. Therefore, I’ve been experimenting on a telecaster with this split anchor, as the telecaster bridge and the split anchor helps in making the setup lightly supinated. Now I’m escaping, and it’s fast, but there’s noise :slight_smile:

#40

Try not to read into this list too closely. Note also that this list only applies to the Al Di Meola form, so it’s a little confusing / misleading and we’ll probably remove it at some point.

In order to mute the strings you need to touch them, so just place the hand on the strings so that some part of the right side of the palm mutes the strings you want to mute. There is very little to no difference in form between doing this and touching some portion of the bridge saddles with the right side of the palm, so there should be little no effect on whatever motions you are doing.

In very simple terms, the Di Meola / Wood form is just resting on the bridge or strings so that the right side of the heel or palm touches the strings, the thumb side of the palm touches less or not at all, and the arm has a very small amount of tilt (supination) to it. That’s really it. Any version of this where you can move fast is a good starting point.

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