Cascading Lick

Hello Jam Play member, this is Jim Deeming, and I want to show you a lick that I call a cascading lick. It’s taken from a Chet Adkins, and it also is used by Tommy Emmanuel. So here we go. I hope you like it. And that’s this right here. [Demonstration] And I’m going to show you how to pull that off literally. Chet Adkins is not the only one that uses. Tommy Emmanuel sneaks that in in several places in songs that he does. It also happens to work not only on the key of C, for a C chord as I did here. It also can be effectively used in A minor. Tommy will use it as a little bit of an interlude lick in his hot rod version of classical gas. It fits in here like this. [Demonstration] Because of where the notes lie and depending on how high you end it on the lower strings, you can end on a C or an A minor. I’m going to break that down for you. First of all, it starts on the first string on the C note up here and you use your pinkie. And once you get familiar with the pattern here, the pull off pattern, I think you’ll find that it’s actually not nearly as hard as it sounds. It’s a series of triplets. And what we’ll do is pull off from the pinkie down to the first finger. The pinkie starts out on the 9th fret, first finger would be on the 5th fret. This is all on the 1st string and it’s a triplet. So you pull from 9 down to 5, 5, open, and then you’re done. Just like that. You might have to spend a little time getting used to that. For some people, they’re familiar with pull offs or pulling off from the pinkie all the way down to the 1. It may take you a little bit of getting used to especially your pinkie dexterity there. Where the pinkie goes during that pull off, it gets yourself sort of ready to go to the second string again on the 9th fret. So it’s going to go like this. [Demonstration] And then, you’re going to pick this note again on the first string, 5th fret. So I’ll break it down slow. Those two go together sequentially. And then you just add another pull off. So let’s work on that just for a minute here. Kind of pretty. [Demonstration] And now, if you shift everything that we’ve just done to the next set of strings down, it repeats. So from 9, 5, open—although that time, we split first and second string, now, we’ll do it on the 2nd and 3rd. [Demonstration] And now, we go to here. This is where it starts to differ a little bit. We got a 9, 5, open, 1st and second strings are the same. Now, we shift on the third string, use your ring finger on the 8th fret, the 1st finger stays in here all the way. And the pattern again holds true that for the first time, you reach up and grab a next lower string. You go right back to the previous string for the pull off. Let’s see if that makes sense to you. [Demonstration] One step forward, one step back. It’s bouncing. [Demonstration] And now, we repeat again on the third string with the same fret. [Demonstration] Alright. So really, all that is changed is that on the first two strings, we used the pinkie here. On the next two strings down where you’re using the ring finger on the 3rd and 4th strings. We’re working, we’re cascading our way down to lower strings with pull offs. Alright, you can end on that C note right there if you want to. So pinkie on the first two strings. The rest of the way, it’s all one and three. It might look to you a little bit like a pentatonic scale at that point. [Demonstration] In cascade, it ends a little bit differently. Chet does to time that out with where it fits in the song. What I’m showing you here is how you start and end on a C on its two octaves that it’s covering. So that’s it. One more time slowly on the C pattern. [Demonstration] Now, let’s talk for a minute just what I’m doing on the right hand to accomplish this. Flat picking, this would be a challenge. It would be [Demonstration] It could be done. But what I’m doing with finger style is using the thumb and first finger, kind of a rapid almost chicken picking type of really rapid fire. If you watched this, I use the thumb. All three of the first notes are done with one thumb stroke. And then the thumb goes down here to the next string. When I grab that second string, I have the thumb get that note and my first finger is all cocked and ready to get those two sequential notes. [Demonstration] Hopefully, that gives you an idea now on what I’m doing. And also, it’s important to pay attention just to how often you actually are picking whether with a pick or a finger over here keeping in mind that a huge number of these notes are happening by the virtue of pull offs, not plucked. [Demonstration] So what you’ll have to do is coordinate yourself now and get used to the pattern, both in terms of frets and strings and then line up your right hand, whichever way you choose to pick it whether it’s thumb and first finger or flat picking style. And then just to briefly comment about how to end that on an A minor—if you’re in an A minor. [Demonstration] Start on the C again and see if it is a perfectly legitimate note in the A minor chord. [Demonstration] Up until there, the pattern is all the same. And the only thing I’m doing different—right here after we grab this string, that’s the E. When I pick that note back down the scale, I could go here. I want to end it like this, so an A minor. However, at the speed that we’re typically [Demonstration], that’s really hard with pull offs and I am picking to get you some pretty fast triplets. And to get this scale on a single string all the way down is hard. So we used another trick. After this E note, I get my D rather than going here. I come right back underneath it and get that open string. And while I’m picking that open string, that gives me time to transition down here to the C note on the third fret. [Demonstration] So all together, a little bit slower than I normally play it, it goes like this. [Demonstration] Alright. And then again, depending on what you’re doing with it in a song or where it is fitting, you may keep these at the same triplets speed, or you may drop them down to quarter notes. Your song or your use of the lick will dictate that. Okay. So there you go. There is a C chord finish and an A minor chord finish for the cascading lick. In the supplemental content, you’ll see the tablatures for both versions. They’re right on the same page there. I start with the C and finished with A minor, and it’s written out. You’ll see that they’re all written in triplets. And if you watch your timing and count that out, I think you’ll find it. That should help you map it out and figure this one out. Thanks. I hope you have fun with it.