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Crosspicked Cascades By Ray DeTone As a session guitarist I've had to spit out variety of styles on demand
and as authentically as possible with the intent of keeping my clients
as happy as possible. The most challenging and most fun addition to my
keep the client happy" bag of tricks(sometimes shortened to "keep the
client" when dealing with producers with low budgetsand tight schedules)
is the blue-grass or country crosspicking style.
As a progressive, blues, rock, metal, fusion, pop, funk player I
had always found this sound fascinating but never really had the need to
exploit it until I was asked to do a countrysession where the original
demos were guitared by one of NYC's top session players.As great as I know
this player to be, upon listening to this demo, I found that he had not
captured the essence of that "country sound".
The first thing I did was to figure out what gives this "country
sound" its signature sound. It is the crosspicked technique which employs
the ringing drone of the open strings coupled with that clean Strat or
Tele plugged into a Twin with about a 65msec slapback sound.
So with Strat in hand I worked this concept out by using
the open string keys (E<A<D<G) in various scale forms ( major,
minor ,and their pentatonic scales) using this crosspicking technique.
Note: A well placed capo will allow you to bring these ideas easily into
the non open string keys.
I derived the crosspicked sound by taking some country sounding licks
(you know the ones I mean- those major pentatonic riffs) in an open key
and replacing all the closed notes that happened to be open string notes
with the open strings. This is gonna sound more country if you are not
playing in the open/ 1st position because as you move up the neck you'll
notice that the open notes will be ringing along with the next note in
the scale which will add a certain amount of tension to the riff. This
is also why these riffs stand out more with a clean guitar sound, as these
close intervals ringing at once tend to just get muddier and more indistinct
as you add more and more distortion.
A picture is worth a thousand words so here's a typical G major
pentatonic lick with this open string technique applied. It starts on the
root than goes thru the 2nd, m3rd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, octave. Typical country
fare. Try playing it closed first (fig.1) to get the sound of the line
then use the crosspicked fingering (fig.2) and listen to it come to life.
Start on the 6th string but play the A open then play the m3rd to major
3rd as a hammeron (blues style) on the 6th string. The 5th is D played
open while the E is played on the 5th string and then resolve the riff
to the octave open G.
Fig.1
Fig.2
Lets take a look at a lick in E that will use this same crosspicked
style to travel down the scale instead of up.
Fig.3
When creating your own riffs keep in mind that a good starting pattern
when you are moving down a scale or riff is to start closed on the highest
string , play the next note closed on the next lower string then go back
to the higher string open all the while keeping the noters in your phrase
going downward. Thus you are actually "crosspicking" to a higher string
to play a lower note. Now go to the 2nd highest string and repeat this
pattern again all the while keep each successive note lower than the previous.
Here's one in A that includes the flatted 5th (Eb) in order to keep
that 2 string down, one back up pattern intact. I came up with this one
for the fusion rock tune, Ray's Stew.
Fig.4
And lastly we have the closing riff from Country Thang, at tune on my
CD "Once More...With Feeling!!! This riff won Lick Of The Month in
Guitar Player magazine.
Fig.5
Note that all these riffs can be played with strict flatpicking though
most country pickers
will actually use more of a banjo roll technique which incorporates
your middle finger
with your flat pick. With these concepts, your own creative energy
and a few hours of practice hopefully you'll never have to shy away from
those country sessons again.
...And don't forget to do some grinnin' while you're a' pickin'.