The cascading waterfall of sound that is Eric Johnson's lead playing has captivated players and listeners for 30 years. In Johnson's ethereal soundscape, all the edges are smoothed away. Even the distinction between scales and arpeggios seems to blur. His patterns tumble imperceptibly through positions. And his limitless supply of sparsely voiced diatonic chord substitutions only enhances the vertigo.
The cascading waterfall of sound that is Eric Johnson's lead playing has captivated players and listeners for 30 years.
Sonically, it's an almost formless wash of sunshine. In Johnson's ethereal soundscape, all the edges are smoothed away.
Even the distinction between scales and arpeggios seems to blur. His patterns tumble imperceptibly through positions, like falling through clouds. And his limitless supply of sparsely voiced diatonic chord substitutions only enhances the vertigo. And it's the seemingly imperturbable precision of Johnson's right hand that makes it all possible.
And now, armed with a modern understanding of picking mechanics, we can actually begin to understand and recreate Johnson's wondrous style.
The foundational skill of Johnson's lead style is the ability to play two-note-per-string passages at high speed. And of course, the ideal mechanical system for playing this is downward pickslanting.
Wait a minute, downward what?
Getting Straight with the Slant
If you haven't watched Season 2, Episode 1 of Cracking the Code, now might be a good time to do so! Because it turns out the secret to Johnson's picking technique is precisely the same one that powers Yngwie Malmsteen's legendary scalar accuracy. And it is ingenious and easy to replicate.
By simply rotating the picking hand downward, toward the floor, Johnson and Malmsteen create a subtle but powerful change in the pick's travel.
In this position, called downward pickslanting, downstrokes tend to bury themselves between the strings.