Connections on a technique

First, listen to Paul Gilbert talk about warming up his picking hand. The nutshell is this: You're doing up-up-down picking on the E B and G strings.

E -0-----0-----0-----0-----0-----0------
B ---0-----0-----0-----0-----0-----0----
G -----0-----0-----0-----0-----0-----0--
D --------------------------------------
A --------------------------------------
E -------------------------------------- 

Paul then moves it up to the fifth fret, where it moves from an E minor to an A minor

E -5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5------
B ---5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5----
G -----5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5--
D --------------------------------------
A --------------------------------------
E -------------------------------------- 

He then suggests you try it with other A minor forms, with ornamental notes, to keep your ear and left hand from being bored.

E -5-----8-----12----8-----11----8------
B ---5----10-----13----10---10-----10---
G -----5-----9-----14----9-----9-----9--
D --------------------------------------
A --------------------------------------
E -------------------------------------- 

Which is all sort of interesting in and of itself. But I first saw this pattern (up-up-down, or UUD) on an Al Dimeola instructional video from 1992. He put that pattern somewhere else.

E --------------------------------------
B --------------------------------------
G --------------------------------------
D -5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5------
A ---5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5----
E -----4-----4-----4-----4-----4-----4-- 

That is G,D and G#, for those keeping up at home. That's G# flat-5 major-7. Or Gminor2? Any way, there's lots of tension that gets relieved when you drop it back to G5.

E --------------------------------------
B --------------------------------------
G --------------------------------------
D -5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5------
A ---5-----5-----5-----5-----5-----5----
E -----4-----4-----4-----3-----3-----3-- 

Now, remember my term for that? I have been drawn toward bluegrass, and specifically flatpicking. You have heard me go on about Clarence White, and from the guitars I have pointed to and the videos I have linked to, you might have thought he was just a chicken-pickin' country rock guy. He started out being a bluegrass picker, a master of the crosspicking style, where you use one flatpick to mimic the fingerpick style of banjo players.

"Bury Me Beneath The Willows" from 33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals

Listen to the first verse, where by controlling his picking dynamics, the melody is clearly hearable above the stream of notes. Listen to the third verse, where the floodgates are loosed and the notes fly out as fast and hard as bullets from a machine gun. They generally work from the D G and B strings, where the open strings for a major triad, unlike Paul Gilbert's minor triad from the video.

E --------------------------------------
B -----0-----0-----0-----0-----0-----0--
G ---0-----0-----0-----0-----0-----0----
D -0-----0-----0-----0-----0-----0------
A --------------------------------------
E -------------------------------------- 

Do you see it? Do you see the change here? They generally are trending down instead of up. The Gilbert style would be considered a "backwards roll". And there are generally two schools of thought in the flatpicking community: pick down-down-up, basically reversing the Gilbert/DiMeola order and the straight alternate picking people. In short, there's DDU ...

E --------------------------------------
B -----u-----u-----u-----u-----u-----u--
G ---d-----d-----d-----d-----d-----d----
D -d-----d-----d-----d-----d-----d------
A --------------------------------------
E -------------------------------------- 

And there's DUDU ...

E --------------------------------------
B -----d-----u-----d-----u-----d-----u--
G ---u-----d-----u-----d-----u-----d----
D -d-----u-----d-----u-----d-----u------
A --------------------------------------
E -------------------------------------- 

I have tried to pick up DUDU and DU (On Flatpick-L, you're no part of nothin' if you don't do DUDU), but I have never been able to get any power or even much accuracy with those techniques. But I am able to get decent speed, accuracy and power with the Gilbert-DiMeola UDD method. Which is interesting.