descending chickin' pickin' lick...

[bonefish]

what's a quick, "burton-esque" way to get from, let's say, 7th position E to open E? i can almost hear it...arrrrgh!

[bonefish]

kinda like from 1:43-1:47 on this track...

[Offshore Angler]

What timing and how many measures?

[Offshore Angler]

When chicken' picken, if in doubt I use the open string of the tonic and a harp tone ( in this case a B ) and then just use the major scale of the key I'm in descending or ascending as required - using the open as a pedal.

F'instance - let's say Im in E, at the 7th fret and I wanna go home to set up for a James Burton lick. I would :

E ------ 0 ------0------0------0
B ----0------0-------0------0
G 9-------8-------6------4 , etc, until I got to the 2 which would be



B -----0
G ---2
D 4


and then the first position E chord as a dismount. Just add repeats of the ascending triplets anywhere you need to fit the timing. Add in whatever you want.

It's an old trick, but it's a good one and honestly, the basis of most chicken' picken. It's usually done in A and sometimes G, but as you can see, with a little practice it works in E quite well too.

This also makes a cool tag on song. Or a whole song if your Greenday.

[pauln]

That lick is beginning from the position at the 12th fret. He starts descending by playing little two note hops from the G string to the E string down the neck. Here is the whole sequence down to the nut - in the linked example he actually steps out of the "standard" sequence as he reaches the bottom and does something a little different... once you know where the sequence is for what you are playing it is very cool to step into or out off the sequence when ever you want.

The sequence for E from the 12 position:
()()()(13)()(12)
()()()(11)()(10)
()()()(9)()(9)
()()()(7)()(7)
()()()(6)()(5)
()()()(4)()(4)
()()()(2)()(2)
()()()(1)()(0)

To do it from D or A, just use the same pattern starting likewise from the corresponding position for that chord, and notice that the sequence repeats each octave so when you know it well you can dive into it anywhere, anytime you want, starting and ending anyplace, going either up or down...

There is another identical sequence that uses the very same pattern except the two strings used are the D and the B strings. For doing it in E, instead of starting at the 12 position, start at the 5th like this:

The sequence for E from the 5 position:
()()(6)()(5)()
()()(4)()(3)()
()()(2)()(2)()
()()(0)()(0)()
and continuing down from the top
()()(12)()(12)() same as previous
()()(11)()(10)()
()()(9)()(9)()
()()(7)()(7)()

So, what we have is a simple two note sequence that can be played on the two strings of your choice depending on where you are on the neck (convenience of position), and both of them are the same pattern, just a different pair of strings in a different position - easy to learn, remember, and execute - and very cool sounding.

Once you learn and become comfortable playing both string sets to do the sequence up and down the neck for any particular chord, switching the sequence from chord to chord becomes easy and no matter what you are playing at any time in the song or any position on the neck you'll always be able to see where you could jump into the appropriate sequence for the current chord at any time in a song. This sequence is the fundamental basis for innumerable riffs in lots of songs, worth exploring for any guitarist. It is a very "guitar specific" sounding riff that is not common in other instruments.

Hope this helps.