The 3-1 cascade finishes by way of ingredients we’ve now seen several times: a three-finger legato shift to the box position, a sequence of fives, and the familiar sextuplet sequence — with root note cap, of course — to finish it off.
But this isn’t Eric’s most famous 3-1 cascading phrase. That honor of course goes to the one that powers the intro to his breakout hit, Cliffs of Dover:

Like the 3-1 that we just examined, this is really two licks in one. The first half is a self-contained box position phrase at the twelfth fret that kicks off with the famous thunderous open E:

He follows the open string with the world’s juciest 15th fret bend, as well as a few melodic devices we’ve already seen: the top-string melodic sequence from the pickups, the three-note stretch on the second string that powers the legato turnaround, and some more juicy bends.

From there, the action moves down to the third position of the pentatonic scale, skipping the fifth and fourth positions entirely. The 3-1 cascade then begins with the chromatic version of the third position motif, which ends just as we’ve come to expect, with the V-I anchor notes. But rather than pause for dramatic effect, this time the lick keeps moving — and picking up speed as it goes. In fact, the anchor notes themselves become the connection between the third position and the second.

But how exactly this happens is up for debate. Whether the middle finger — the final anchor note — actually slides down the B string to the third fret, or whether the index finger simply steps in behind it, is unclear. Sliding would of course be the more Johnson-esque solution, and there is indeed a tiny change in articulation on the recording that could support a slide to the third fret:

There are also several other examples on the Austin City Limits performance which support sliding away from the “motif” on the B string, albeit not at this kind of speed. So let’s call it… inconclusive!

Regardless, once at the second position, the home stretch is fairly straightforward: two sequences of five and one sequence of four cycle the pattern down to the D string. Then the nearly universal box- position sextuplet chunk drives the phrase to its finish on the open E string. Here’s what the whole sequence looks like fretted rather than sliding:

By themselves, the components of long, sophisticated phrases like this are relatively straightforward to execute. The picking patterns are already designed to be fast and efficient. And guitar fingerings don’t get much simpler than two pentatonic notes on a string. But burning these building blocks into long-term memory, so they can be linked like this on the fly, will take time. The broad similarity of most of Eric’s descending playing is the hint: these lines are simply not that different from one another. And many contain entire chains of identical phrases. What this means is that, while these lines appear spontaneous, it’s a bit of an illusion. The linking is, for the most part, memorized — burned in by rote as a result of years of repetition. This is how habits are formed, and how styles are built. Simply incorporating these fundamental patterns into everyday playing and composition, with no particular emphasis on speed, and no particular deadline for mastery, is how that burn-in happens.

The Slide Shift

Now that we know the landscape, the most obvious question is, how we do traverse it? As with most things Eric, the answer is: cleverly. Eric draws upon a range of mechanically efficient mechanisms for moving effortlessly from one position to the next. The most common of these devices involves a slide:

In this example, two notes from the starting position are played with alternate pickstrokes — down, then up — and followed by a slide on the same string. The slide is the mechanism that moves the hand to the next lower position, where the picking structure resets and the line continues. In most cases, this means initiating a new phrase with a down-up alternate picking sequence on the same string, as in this example.

This type of slide shift, where the slide follows the initial picked notes on the string, is the most common form of positional shift in Eric’s vocabulary. In a slide shift, the slide itself is almost always one whole tone in distance, but doesn’t target a literal pitch, since the finger usually lifts before the destination. In this respect, it’s more like a grace note or other ornament of articulation. However it is unlike a grace note in that the slide reserves at least some of its own time rather than subtracting it from the surrounding notes. In the free-time world of Eric’s lead playing, where musical thoughts proceed blissfully at their own light speed, the brief ebb in the lyrical flow caused by sliding from one position to the next simply serves to unlink the line even further from the meter.

The Split Shift

Sliding shifts can also split the picked notes on string:

In the split shift, a string’s two alternate pickstrokes are divided by the position shift. The split shift’s target is also more literal than that of the slide shift: it’s the middle note of a three-note sequence, and is played with the same duration as the other two notes in the phrase. The third note of the sequence, which occurs after the slide, is the upstroke that moves the line to a new string.

Like the legato turnaround we’ve already seen, the split shift phrase contains two picked notes and one that is unpicked. But because of its placement inside the phrase rather than at the end of it, and because of its execution as slide rather than a pull-off, it’s completely different in feel to execute. The phrase itself is entirely buttoned up — bounded by a picked note at its beginning and end — and so in some sense it is similar in feel to any continuous dwps phrase that begins on a downstroke and switches strings after an upstroke.

The Sweep Shift / Sweep Slide Shift

The third type of sliding shift is the most cryptic:

In the sweep slide, a two-string phrase of only three notes, rather than the usual four, initiates the sliding sequence. The two notes on the top string are picked as you’d expect, in a traditional down-up dwps sequence. But the third pickstroke — the downstroke on the lower string — plays both the third note of the phrase and the first note of the new phrase in the lower position. The sweep pickstroke and the position shift happen simultaneously, so that as the sweep arrives at the higher string, the hand arrives at the lower position.

Even stranger, it’s often the same finger that plays both notes as well, sliding from one string to another, and from a higher fret to a lower one, in synch with the downward sweep of the pick. Once in the lower position, the sweep downstroke initiates a new down-up sequence on the top string, and the phrase continues on its way.

As strange as the whole sequence sounds on paper, it’s really just the familiar two-string sweep from the fives sequence, except spread across two positions. The fact that the same fretting finger can often be used to do this sounds more difficult than it actually is. In fact, this kind of finger reuse is just an extreme form of fretting hand economy, almost like sweeping for the left hand. Because of the unusual number of notes involved, and the seamlessness of the transition, the sweep slide position shift is yet another melodic device intended to subvert any sense of regular time in the flow of the line.

The Legato Shift

This theme of subversion continues in the fourth type of position shift:

This three-finger shift utilizes the familiar down-up-legato technique to blend adjacent positions via two picked notes and a pull-off. The connection begins in the higher position, fretted with the pinky, and picked with a downstroke, to set up the three-note sequence. The middle note, fretted with the middle finger, is the upstroke, followed by the pull-off to the index finger, which is now one position lower. From there, the phrase continues on a lower string, very often with a single note swept back to the higher string, as in this example.

Because this shift utilizes a pull-off, it’s sonically stealthier than shifts that lean on audible sliding. It also typically employs unison notes that further blur the distinction between positions. In this example, the third through sixth notes of the lick are the same as the four notes that follow, just on different strings. This makes it difficult to tell by sound alone that a position shift is even happening.

The Straight Shift

Finally, one of the simplest types of position shifts in Eric’s style is strangely also the least common:

The straight shift is executed with pure two-note-per-string alternate picking and no overt sliding. And it’s interesting to note that when it does occur, it most frequently does so while ascending. Even though sliding up the fretboard is certainly possible, as we’ve seen with the pentatonic pickups we’ve already examined, it’s interesting to wonder why, within his free-form soloing, it’s not more common.

The Western Flyer Cascade

Like base pairs in a strand of DNA, this simple alphabet of transitional movements can be combined to create sophisticated chains of fretboard navigation. Often this involves finding a pathway from the box position to some strategic lower position:

One of the most heavily-trafficked routes in Eric’s cascading style links the box position to the third pentatonic position below it. In this example, the amazing sophistication of Eric’s improvisational versatility is on obvious display, with almost all the lead playing devices we’ve examined so far present in full flower. The pentatonic pickup leads to the legato turnaround figure, and almost immediately into a sequence of position shifts: a split shift from the box position to the fifth position, and then a slide shift from the fifth to the fourth positions. The fourth position’s box-like fingerings on strings 3, 4, and 5 lead to a three-finger legato transition down to position three. A sequence of overlapping sweep figures, including a unit of fives, cycles us to our target — the ring-finger root. And then a minor third melodic figure caps the phrase with interest and authority.

This example follows essentially the same route as the Western Flyer Cascade, but swaps out some of the components along the way:

Notably, the lick trades the usual box-position pickup for the fifth- position pickup, an interesting phrase that uses a lesser-traveled pentatonic position and a wider stretch to power a purely alternate- picked turnaround on the top string. This leads to a straight shift upward, to the box position, and it’s from here that the lick begins its cascading descent. It does so initially by way of the sweep-slide: a single downward sweep and a single fretting finger that join forces to play notes on two different strings, in two different positions. It’s such an unlikely maneuver, both in terms of picking and fretting mechanics, that you’d really be hard pressed to guess what’s actually happening by sound alone.

The rest of the lick plays out as we’ve come to expect: a slide shift from the fifth to the fourth, a box sequence in the fourth, and a sequences of fives in the third. Once again, the lick finds the third- finger root by way of a sweep, and punctuates its arrival with authoritative vibrato.

Traversing the lower half of the fretboard requires moving through some relatively less common pentatonic shapes, and for Eric this represents a trove of melodic opportunity:

This is a really fantastic example of drawing musical creativity from mechanical diversity. Position three of the pentatonic scale is a study in divergent ergonomics: convenient adjacent fingerings on the lowest three strings, awkward offset fingerings on the third and second strings, and a comfortable whole-step interval on the top string.

The Third Position Motif

And from this unusual fretboard arrangement, a staple motif in Eric’s lead playing arises:

This is a recurrent motif in Eric’s playing, and it stands out among the pentatonic colors of Eric’s lead playing not only for its identifiable melody, but also its rare use of chromaticism. This three-note chromatic blues sequence, found here on the top string, is yet another unique feature of the third pentatonic position. And adding a fourth pickup note lets Eric create a highly efficient alternate-picked turnaround on the top string that switches strings after an upstroke. This is essentially the same melodic intent, and the same picking pattern, and the fifth-position pickup we’ve already seen, but with a fretboard layout that is friendlier to smaller hands.

This blues turnaround leads to a sweep sequence between the third and second string — the same staple device we see throughout Eric’s lead playing — and serves to reverse the direction of the melody yet again. The distinctive final two notes of the phrase are the melodic climax, essentially outlining a V-I sequence in natural minor, like a mini Beethoven’s Fifth. They are played slightly slower and more emphatically than the rest of the phrase, in maestoso fashion. And befitting this extra emphasis, they are almost always executed by bounce, with repeated downstrokes.

Given their important role as anchor point of the melody, these two final notes recur in all the lick’s variations:

In this version, Eric use a stair-stepping pattern to descend the natural minor scale. This is a common melodic sequence in rock playing, and one of the few examples of switching strings after downstrokes in Eric’s lead vocabulary. As such, it is not typically played as quickly as the more efficiently organized pentatonic cascade phrases, and is instead mined for emphasis much like the two melodic anchor notes.
The most emphatic of all the phrase’s variations strips away all extra adornment:

In this skeletal version of the third position motif, only the key melody notes are present, with no stair-stepping, chromaticism, or other flash. Accordingly, the entire phrase is now executed by bounce. And this offers a window into the link between the mechanical and the creative in Eric’s mind. While the bounce technique is a solution to otherwise awkward string changes, it is also inseparable from its role as a type of musical exclamation point for melodically important ideas — either parts of phrases, or entire phrases.

The Up-Legato-Up String Change

The second half of the 3-1 cascade is really a entirely new melodic statement that takes over where the third position motif leaves off. It begins with yet another example of a clever top-string turnaround:

In this five-note turnaround sequence, a half-step descending slide plays the role usually assigned to a pulloff in Yngwie’s technique: it’s the unpicked note that forces the upstroke. Thus, the phrase contains five notes, but only four picked notes, and efficiently finishes on an upstroke. It’s the ideal combination of mechanically necessary and melodically interesting. The ascending whole step figure is counterbalanced by the descending half-step figure in almost contrapuntal fashion. But it’s only when we arrive at the next string of the sequence that we fully appreciate the cleverness of this sequence:

The extra time afforded by the upstroke-slide string change on the top string lets us do something that is normally off-limits within a purely alternate picked, downward pickslanting phrase: start a new string on an upstroke. And this, in turn, lets us play an odd number of notes on the new string, and still finish on an upstroke for string changing purposes. In this instance, Eric plays just one note — a single upstroke — and then immediately moves to the next lower string on a downstroke.

In fact, this entire sequence of three strings is precisely the same one we saw in Yngwie’s three-string arpeggio mechanic, in which both the first and second strings of the pattern start on upstrokes, with a pull-off in between, and the third string is the downstroke. And just like Yngwie’s solution, Eric uses that third-string downstroke to return to the second string by simply continuing it as a sweep:

The fact that Yngwie and Eric’s solutions here are so similar isn’t just a coincidence. The upstroke-legato-upstroke string change is a fundamental building block of downward pickslanting-based lead playing that lets downward pickslanters execute odd-numbered descending lines with extreme efficiency. It is widespread in jazz, especially in bop, where one-note-per-string intervallic sequences in both directions are common. Tal Farlow in particular used slide- and pull-off powered upstroke string changes to stunning effect, building a portfolio of virtuosic turnarounds and arpeggiated signature phrases that sound as space-age now as they did sixty years ago.

Between the chunks, turnarounds, shifts, cascades, and more, we’ve built an entire arsenal of Eric-style weaponry. Let’s see how many of them we can squeeze into one passage:

Ok that was more like three or four passages. But still. It’s remarkable how much of Eric’s persona we can evoke with a few core techniques, and no more than a couple of his stock phrases. And this is not a knock on his creativity. It’s the proof of it. When a thing can be distilled to the sparest collection of its parts, and still be instantly recognizable, that tells you something. Think of Yngwie’s arpeggios. Or Eddie’s tapping. Or for that matter, think of Michael Jackson’s white glove, and Elvis’ sideburns. If the most influential voices throughout musical history have always been so easily imitated, it’s only because of their incredible uniqueness.

We can recall Jimi Hendrix’s musical persona so vividly with nothing more than the first six notes of the Star Spangled Banner. And we can recall Eric’s ethereal soundscapes with one thunderous open E-string. But it doesn’t mean he had only that little to say to us. It simply means that embedded within that one characterful note, like a kind of musical DNA, was the complete power of his creativity. And that’s pretty amazing.

As it happens, in the years since the Austin City Limits performance, Eric released a pair of successful instructional videos through Hot Licks — Total Guitar, and The Fine Art of Guitar. Apart from Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, Eric was among perhaps the most mass-market names in virtuoso guitar. And so these videos became instant best- sellers on the instructional shelves of music stores everywhere.

In a widely disseminated passage on Total Guitar, Eric discusses his approach to picking technique. And despite his renown as a paragon of speed and fluidity, he begins, ironically, with a description of his use of stringhopping:

“One technique that’s very essential to me, playing with a pick, is what I call the ‘bounce’ technique. It’s where, actually, it improves the tone, I think. It’s achieved by the correct up and downstrokes, rather than playing side-by-side. It’s a question of… You’re actually going from the pickguard up [imitates angled picking motion]. So you’re brushing the string. And the idea of the bounce comes in when you’re playing fast [plays the fives sequence].”

In one nearly impenetrable paragraph, Eric manages to conflate just about every fundamental technique in picking mechanics into one mega-concept, where stringhopping (“the bounce”) equals downward pickslanting (“from the pickguard up”) equals edge picking (“it improves the tone… brushing the string”) equals high-speed string- switching efficiency (“comes in when you’re playing fast”).

Of course none of this was strictly logical — edge picking had nothing to do with downward pickslanting. They were two different pick angles. Edge picking altered the part of the pick that contacted the string, to promote smoother sliding over the string during the pickstroke, and also for tonal control. And pickslanting changed the trajectory of the pickstroke itself, causing it to move out of the plane of the strings — “from the pickguard up”, as Eric correctly put it.

And most paradoxically of all, the bounce technique didn’t “come in when you’re playing fast” — it was actually the exact opposite of that. It went away when he was playing fast. And the lick he played to demonstrate this — the familiar fives sequence — was nothing if not a perfect example of exactly this disappearance in action.

But, in a weird way, things were also starting to make sense. What was the difference between the obvious stringhopping of the “bounce” technique, and the hyper efficiency of sweeping, in Eric’s playing? Well come to think of it, I had never actually heard Eric use the term “sweeping”, or “economy picking”, or anything similar. Not in interviews, or on either of these quite extensive instructional videos, for that matter. Maybe what he was really telling us here is that there was no difference in his mind between the various ways he moved from one string to another.

In fact, for all I knew, Eric might not have even been aware he was using sweeping at all. As far as Eric was concerned, it may very well be that he thinks he’s always using repeated pickstrokes, and doesn’t realize that his trademark light-speed fluidity is attained precisely by eliminating them. This is really the only reason I could think of to explain why anyone would even try to maintain stringhopping at breakneck soloing speeds — especially when the alternative was not only easier, but something you were practically already doing in the first place.