A Buddy Cage inspired fill lick

[Kristen King]

Anyone that has listened to Buddy Cage, particularly in his NRPS years, will be familiar with a particular chromatic lick that he does. A summary of the technique is that you pick the D# string, pick the E string, slide up a fret on the E string, and repeat as many times as you want. To descend, you pick the E string, pick the D# string, slide down a fret on the D# string, and repeat. Pretty simple in theory but takes some practice to get cleanly.

I just wanted to share a way that I use this concept to create a particular fill lick. Buddy would do long up and down things but I find that it works well for moving up or down a fourth. The idea is that you play in the A+B position. So in this tab, you start at the fifth fret to play over D and then the lick goes up to the 10th fret which would be a G chord.



The lick sets you up very nicely for the Earl Scruggs double hammer on lick so I included that in the tab. The key to doing this is that it is 15 syncopated 8th or 16th notes rather than triplets. It can be used to ascend or descend. I'll include a short bit of audio that uses this lick a three times It's in the key of F played over a 12 bar and it's something that I typically use for a solo on Folsom Prison Blues. It is in F so I is F, IV is Bb, and V is C. First I use the lick to go from F to Bb, do the Earl Scruggs lick over Bb, and then use the chromatic lick twice in a row to go from Bb to F to C.

https://vocaroo.com/19G3H10ti1SN

So it works anytime you move up or down a fourth. In this example, I use it for going from I to IV, IV to I, and I to V. You can use it to go from V to I but I don't really like that as much. But it's also very to go from a secondary dominant to a Dominant such as V/V (essentially the same chord as II) to V.

Hopefully someone can get something out of this.

[Steve Mueller]

Thanks!

[Kristen King]

You're welcome.

I should also add that if your G lever raises your second string D# to E, then you can use that for that lick. So for the first two D# string notes you let the string ring while picking the E string but engage the G lever to raise it to E when you hit the string.

Banjo players should be familiar with that lick but for the people that don't play banjo, Earl would hit the 2nd fret on the B string and then hammer on to the third fret while picking the D string. Hence the reason that the lick is often referred to as the double hammer on lick.

[Richard Alderson]

Thanks so much for posting this Kristen. Can you quote a particular song from a particular album that this is done on? I understand the lick, but having an exact example to hear is always a plus.
Be that as it may, thanks again, very important stuff here I would say. Cage was one of the fastest pickers and his blocking technique was a model of perfection. I am really glad you posted this.

[Kristen King]

Thanks so much for posting this Kristen. Can you quote a particular song from a particular album that this is done on? I understand the lick, but having an exact example to hear is always a plus.
Be that as it may, thanks again, very important stuff here I would say. Cage was one of the fastest pickers and his blocking technique was a model of perfection. I am really glad you posted this.

These are a couple of examples of how Buddy Cage uses this concept. Chromatic notes to ascend or descend or go back and forth. I've heard it referred to as the "climbing the ladder lick." In Truck Driving Man, he makes use of much longer phrases with the technique. Sometimes he does it with a syncopated 16th feel and sometimes he does triplets. I timestamped the links but also 3:45 is a second solo in Truck Driving Man that starts with a big descending lick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLTpDdCXksI&t=1m47s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBANs_7rc_4&t=1m27s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZm3IAeQIjQ&t=1m45s

I also posted a link to audio of how I use the lick (moving up of down a fourth) but I can record that over a backing track if you want to hear it in the context of a full mix rather than just the audio of pedal steel. Here's the link again in case you missed it.

https://vocaroo.com/19G3H10ti1SN

[Dirk Edwards]

Nice work! Now if we can get some of the others in the band to play some NRPS

[Kristen King]

Nice work! Now if we can get some of the others in the band to play some NRPS

Well, the concept is inspired by Buddy Cage but it can be applied into almost an up tempo tune. Any time you go from I to IV or IV down to I or I down to V or V/V up to V. Any time that you're going up or down a fourth, it works. These are chord changes that pretty much every country or bluegrass song has. Any thing that is a I-IV-I-V or I-IV-V-I or a 12 bar will have those chord changes.

Or a really good example of a place where you can use if is when you change keys up or down a fourth such as between verses in I Walk the Line since the key changes up or down a fourth and so you can use the lick to ascend between the first and second and second and third verses and then use it to descend between the third and fourth and fourth and fifth verses.

It can be used in a lot of different places.