The Metronomic Rock series is an homage to a time when hair was big, string skips were bigger, and guitar heroes subdivided the beat with metronomic precision!

This first installment in the Metronomic Rock series explores one of the most popular mechanically efficient picking styles of all time: DSX Motion. Used by everyone from picking pioneers to modern virtuosos, the DSX picking style is based on a type of “single escape” motion where downstrokes contain string-switching power, and musical phrases are designed to capitalize on this.

Legendary self-taught players like Paul Gilbert and Vinnie Moore learned to perform these technological feats subconsciously by streamlining their vocabulary to fit their mechanics. In MR|DSX, host Tommaso Tufarelli from the Cracking the Code team pulls back the curtains on this process with an array of powerful techniques and simple instructions for performing them. Along the way, you’ll learn to create stunning lines that maintain optimal efficiency and accuracy at any speed.

Topics in MR|DSX:

• An overview of DSX mechanics
• Downstroke- and upstroke-on-downbeat organization
• High-speed scale playing
• Optimizing shapes for rapid string switching
• Position-shifting strategies
• Two-string and string-skipping arpeggios
• Creating efficient pentatonic lines
• Legato and hybrid escape techniques
• Classic metronomic patterns and why they work
• Compositional tricks for generating novel phrases

The complete MR|DSX package includes:

• 39 lessons
• 157 musical examples with tablature
• Two complete songs demonstrating all techniques
• Tracks for each song, including isolated backing and lead parts
• Detailed tablature with all picking instructions notated
• Aquanet™, Spandex™, and band flyers/staple gun not included!

Prerequisite:

MR|DSX is a 200-level Cracking the Code seminar, requiring a basic operating proficiency in DSX picking motion. A good benchmark is the ability to perform a tremolo with a DSX escape path. Once you have that, MR|DSX is the lesson that takes that mechanical foundation and makes it musical.

Is MR|DSX right for you? Watch the introductory chapter below and find out!