In the patterns I’ll demonstrate here, I add a fast triplet picking motion, down-up-down, followed by an upstroke and a quick hammer-on and pull-off. In this way, the fast triplet picking technique included on each beat functions almost like a trill, as it is a quick little embellishment that serves to make the licks sound more intricate and aggressive.
Let’s begin with phrases based on the minor pentatonic scale (1 b3 4 5 b7), sounding two notes per string. FIGURE 1 is a lick based on D minor pentatonic (D F G A C), and I begin with a fast 16th-note triplet rhythm, alternate picked, on the high D root note. I refer to this as a “whiplash” triplet because the pick hand needs to repeatedly whip through the triplet rhythm in a down-up-down motion. After the initial triplet, a second 16th-note triplet is played by picking the first note and sounding the next two via a hammer-on and pull-off. I then repeat this phrase on each lower string.
Now let’s expand the application of this technique to a three-notes-per-string shape: in FIGURE 2, I begin with the same alternate-picked-triplet attack on the high D root note, but I follow the subsequent D note with a double hammer-on up to F and G and then a double pull-off back down to F and D, resulting in a five-note phrase. This three-notes-per-string pattern is then repeated on each string, moving from high to low, with the “trill” picking technique beginning on the upbeats and the five-note legato sequence falling on the downbeats.
Now let’s examine two new twists to the basic idea, first by switching to a D major scale (D E F# G A B C#) and then by additionally starting on